Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Ricardo Visaya received his fourth star on Friday. A four-star rank is the highest military position and is exclusive to the AFP chief. PHOTO FROM AFP Public Affairs
(UPDATED, this was first published at 12:13 p.m. of September 21) The powerful Commission on Appointments has unanimously confirmed the appointments of Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ricardo Visaya and 24 other military officials.
No CA member objected when a motion to confirm the appointments of the military officials was made at the plenary on Wednesday.
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Aside from Visaya, the 24 other military officers confirmed by the CA were the following:
- Alexander L. Macario to the grade of Brigadier General
- Jonathan Manuel to the Colonel, Medical Corps.
- Dante Hidalgo to the grade of Brigadier General
- Salvador Melchor Mison Jr to the grade of Lieutenant General
- Ramon Ochoco to the grade of Commodore
- Virme Torralba to the grade of Rear Admiral
- Raul del Rosario to the grade of Lieutenant General
- Ernesto Enriquez to the grade of Rear Admiral
- Leandro Layao III to the grade of Brigadier General
- Antonio Ramon Lim to the grade of Brigadier General
- Rommel Jude Ong to the grade of Commodore
- Allan Ferdinand Cusi to the grade of Commodore
- Arnel M. Duco to the grade of Brigadier General
- Felimon Santos Jr. to the grade of Brigadier General
- Jose Ariel Niembra to the grade of Colonel, Philippine Army
- Narciso Vingson Jr. to the grade of Rear Admiral
- Rozzano Briguez to the grade of Major General
- Jose Mirandilla Jr. to the grade of Major General
- Rolando Acop to the grade of Brigadier General
- Cesar Idio to the grade of Brigadier General
- Allen Paredes to the grade of Brigadier General
- Harold Cabreros to the grade of Major General
- Ronald Villanueva to the grade of Brigadier General
- Arthur Blanca to the grade of Brigadier General
Even at the CA’s committee on national defense, no opposition was filed against the nominees.
READ: AFP chief Gen. Visaya is now a four-star general
Despite this, San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora reminded the officials that there were issues, including their statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs), that they need to address later on.
“Even though there’s no opposition, don’t think that the Commission on Appointments does not do any investigation, does not submit any reports about your careers, about your years of service. No, we have done that,” Zamora said.
“In fact, if I will show you these are color coded— the orange tabs showed that there are some issues being raised about your nominations. These are not formal oppositions, these are issues,” he added,
Zamora though admitted that these issues against the officials were not enough to block their confirmations but said these should be looked into.
The issues, he said, include the officials’ SALNs, noting that some of them made mistakes in the filing, did not file them correctly, or did not include all transactions that should have been included.
Zamora, nevertheless, moved to recommend the confirmation of the nominees, which was later adopted at the CA plenary. IDL