MANILA, Philippines — Two Army generals, including the first female Army general, stepped down from service to run for public office.
Major General Raoul Reyes, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (J1), retired from service September 26 to run for Mayor in Murcia, Negros Occidental.
“Actually it was a very hard decision that I made kasi nga meron pa akong six more months to go, pero I think if I will not resign I leave the chance already of running for the office kasi dito sa town namin wala talagang progresso dito yung town namin e, kawawa itong bayan na to,” he told reporters in a phone interview Tuesday.
Reyes, who claimed he would run as independent, will go against Andrew Montelabano, the incumbent town mayor and Sonny Coscoluela, a former mayor of the town.
The general who served the military for 36 years and would have had six months to go in service, said it was time to give back to his hometown.
“Hindi naman siguro masasabi mo na hindi ko mahal yung serbisyo, it’s just like, it’s just that you know if you want to retire you have to do something good also for the sake of your birthplace diba, so I think if I will miss the chance… mahihirapan na akong later on magbago pa ito kasi by that time masyadong entrenched na sila rito sa Murcia, masyadong powerful na sila that they could do anything what they want, so… I just looking (forward) for this chance,” he added
Meanwhile, former Brigadier General Ramona Go, the first female Army general, also retired from service two days ago to give way for her aspirations to run as mayor in San Enrique, Iloilo.
She was the assistant Deputy Chief for Personnel before she bowed out of military service. She was supposed to retire on March 2013.
Go said she believed she could do something for her town.
“It is not really my dream to [join] politics but the situation calls that I have to join, our town was once a part of a town, Passi and my great great grandparents were the once who segregated it from Passi so mas gusto ko syang maimprove. Hindi ko sya sinasabi na walang improvement ang nagawa ng incumbent…because of my network… I could bring progress to my town,” she said.
She will run under the Liberal Party and will go against Nicko Fernandez, the sibling of the incumbent town mayor.
“I served the Armed Forces for more than 33 years, I gave my all so very fulfilled ako sa service ko and im sure the Armed Forces has felt that na todo bigay ako so wala, wala, no regrets, this is another career na itatahak ko and I will make sure that the Armed Forces will still be proud of me,” she said.