PRESIDENT Marcos Jr has reassigned five more generals, including AFP Inspector General Lt. Gen. William Gonzales, the Armed Forces said yesterday.
This is on top reassignments announced on Tuesday by the Presidential Communications Office, involving the leadership of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) which in charge of protecting the President and his family.
The new PSG commander is Brig. Gen. Jesus Nelson Morales who was deputy commander of the Philippine Air Force’s Air Logistics Command. He assumed his new post yesterday afternoon.
Morales replaced Brig. Gen. Ramon Zagala who will assume the post of commander of the AFP’s Civil Relations Service (CRS), the military’s psychological warfare arm.
Yesterday, the military announced Gonzales will be the new commander of the AFP Western Mindanao Command which is supervising the military’s campaign against several threat groups, including the Abu Sayyaf and other terrorist groups, in western Mindanao.
Gonzales will succeed Maj. Gen. Steve Crespillo who will swap position with the former to become the new AFP Inspector General.
Gonzales assumed the post as AFP Inspector General in January last year. Before that, he headed the Joint Task Force Sulu and 11th Infantry Division in concurrent capacity.
Maj. Gen. Gabriel Viray, AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations, will be the new commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division based in Zamboanga del Sur.
Viray will replace Maj. Gen. Antonio Nafarrete. The military did not say Nafarrete’s new assignment.
Outgoing CRS commander Brig. Gen. Arvin Lagamon, who will be replaced by Zagala, will assume the post of AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations, vice Viray.
Brig. Gen. Edmundo Peralta, commander of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade, has been designated as chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP). A replacement for Peralta at the brigade is yet to be announced.
Peralta will succeed ISAFP chief Brig. Gen. Leonel Nicolas who assumed the post just last February. It was not clear where Nicolas will be posted after his stint at ISAFP.
“The movements demonstrate the progressive military careers enjoyed by these officers and the AFP being a dynamic organization,” said AFP Public Affairs Office chief Lt. Col. Enrico Gil Ileto.
