MANILA, Philippines--Many in the military agree that the new martial law administrator of Maguindanao, Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, could be a strong contender for the soon-to-be vacated post of Armed Forces chief of staff.

Except that Ferrer, who heads the Eastern Mindanao Command, has one glaring weakness.

He does not belong to President Macapagal-Arroyo?s adopted class from the Philippine Military Academy, the well-entrenched Class of 1978.

The President is reportedly grooming her adopted classmate, Army Chief Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit, to take over as AFP chief from Gen.Victor Ibrado who is set to retire next March.

Ibrado belongs to the class of 1976, Ferrer to 1977 and Bangit to 1978.

Bangit has been directly responsible for the security of Ms Arroyo, having served as head of the Presidential Security Group, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp), and chief of the 5th Army Division that deploys troops around the National Capital Region to counter terrorists, insurgents and potential coup plotters.

Virtual exile

Since 2001, Ferrer has drawn assignments to Basilan, the Zamboanga Peninsula and Central Mindanao, posts which soldiers describe as virtual ?exile? for those who are not in the good graces of the powers-that-be.

But, as one of his PMA colleagues once said of him, Ferrer is ?a boy soldier. He will follow orders.?

During the 2004 presidential election, Ferrer, who then headed the Army?s 103rd Infantry Brigade in Basilan, reportedly refused to allow his camps to be used in the alleged cheating operations of people associated with former Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

(In the ?Hello Garci? wiretapping scandal of 2005, a woman believed to be Ms Arroyo was recorded as inquiring of a man, believed to be Garcillano, if she would win by one million votes.)

After Basilan, Ferrer was promoted to head the 1st Infantry (Tabak) Division based in Zamboanga del Sur in 2006, and the 6th Infantry (Kampilan) Division in Central Mindanao in 2007. He was named commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command last January.

He was promoted from major general to lieutenant general last March.

Peace-building advocacies

It was while serving in Mindanao that Ferrer started his peace-building advocacies, working with nongovernment organizations and civil society groups. He sent soldiers to attend workshops and training sessions on conflict and crisis management, and lectures on the history and culture of Mindanao.

Ferrer?s perceived openness to peace has made him something of a favorite of civil society groups.

?He has a mind of his own, despite his regimented military background. He is really progressive,? said one of his classmates.

Even as a colonel, Ferrer showed an independent streak, unlike fellow officers who would rather suffer in silence than speak their minds.

Disgust for rebel soldiers

In the 1990s, Ferrer was vocal in his disgust over the reinstatement of members of the mutinous RAM-Young Officers Union (YOU) after they signed a peace agreement with the government. This group was responsible for a series of coup attempts against President Corazon Aquino from 1986 to 1989.

Ferrer said the reinstatement of the renegades, who were mostly PMA alumni, was tantamount to ?giving them rewards for violating the law.?

In 2001, it was rumored that Ferrer also quit the Isafp in protest against the appointment of Col. Victor Corpus as head of the service.

Ferrer reportedly could not bear to serve under Corpus, a PMA alumnus who defected to the communist New People?s Army with a cache of firearms he stole from the PMA armory in 1970.

Corpus was convicted and sentenced to die by musketry by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, but was released and reinstated following the People Power Revolution of February 1986.