Army promoting more than 26K troopers this year

The Philippine Army appears to have more than just a few good men. More than 15,000 soldiers have been promoted for the past eight months while around 11,000 more are expected to go a rank higher within the year.

In a statement on Saturday, the Army public affairs office reported the promotion of 15,642 soldiers to the next rank as of August this year.

“We expect another 11,068 personnel to be promoted for the remaining part of 2015,” said Col. Ernesto C. Torres Jr., the Army’s assistant chief of staff for personnel.

This year, the Army expects to promote 10,211 soldiers to corporals; 8,054 to sergeants; 5,931 to staff sergeants; 1,580 to technical sergeants, and 934 to master sergeants.

“Based on our program, we expect to promote a total of [around] 26,700 soldiers this year,” Torres added, citing the promotion quota based on vacancies as of end of 2014.

The vacancy estimate takes into account the number of retiring personnel and those who were separated or discharged from the service.

The selection process for promotion “gauges a soldier’s competency and reputation in the service,” Torres said. The requirements include a minimum number of years in one’s current rank, a passing grade on a competitive promotional examination, completion of a career military occupational specialty course, physical and neurological-psychological examinations and a physical fitness test.

The promotion will come with an increase in the soldier’s take-home pay, from an additional P1,080 for new corporals; P1,552 for master sergeants.

Salaries and allowances for enlisted personnel range from P21,619 for a private to P35,861 for a master sergeant.

The Philippine Army currently has 85,500 personnel.

In a phone interview, Hao said the promotion numbers were higher this year compared to 2014, though he could not cite last year’s figures offhand.

In previous years, “soldiers had difficulty with promotion,” but that this year’s figures show “an improving system (due) to organizational changes,” he said.  Jaymee T. Gamil