Palace: Duterte to appoint retiring AFP chief Galvez to OPAPP

President Rodrigo Duterte is set to appoint retiring Armed Forces chief General Carlito Galvez Jr. to the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP), Malacañang said Wednesday.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte "announced his intention" to name Galvez to the OPAPP during the 32nd Cabinet meeting held at the presidential palace on Tuesday.

Panelo, in a text message, said Galvez will succeed former presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza, who resigned last week in the wake of corruption issues hounding the OPAPP.

Dureza's resignation came as Duterte fired Ronald Flores, undersecretary for Support Services and national program manager of the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (PAMANA), and Yeshter Donn Baccay, assistant secretary for Support Services and PAMANA Concerns for corruption.

Before Dureza left the OPAPP, Galvez said he asked the former Cabinet official if he can serve as consultant in a bid to sustain the gains of the peace agreement inked between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.

That deal led to the passage early this year of the Bangsamoro Organic Law which aims to end decades of conflict in Mindanao by creating a political entity that would enjoy greater autonomy than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Galvez is set to reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 on December 12.

Exiled communist leader Jose Maria Sison earlier said Duterte might militarize the OPAPP following Dureza's resignation and Galvez's pronouncement that he wanted to become a peace consultant. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News