PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said the Armed Forces now has a bigger responsibility apart from ensuring the safety and security of the country as the public expects and demands continuing, better public service.
“The challenge of nation-building and national security is a continuing and fluid one. The hard work will not and must not cease. Our nation and the citizenry shall exact and expect from you a heavier responsibility and a more demanding kind of public service: that of exemplary leadership and a clear vision for our Armed Forces,” the President said after administering the oath of 40 newly-promoted generals and flag officers of the AFP in Malacañang.
Marcos said the members of the AFP, apart from its main tasks of protecting the Filipino people and the State, are expected, among others, to efficiently manage the organization and its assets, and maintain its effectiveness and resilience.
“You are to lead and mobilize the nation’s new generation of guardians and future leaders, and instill in them the virtues of discipline, valor, and patriotic public service that have brought you to this day today,” he said.
The President said a “high-level of security intelligence and analysis will be expected to fully apprise the Commander-in-Chief and strategically guide our planning and all of our decision-making.
“This is a new era for the AFP–one that now looks outward, while also building on the gains that we have made internally. With the ever-changing dynamics of geopolitics and the global security environment, more challenges will undoubtedly lie ahead. But cognizant of these circumstances, the AFP must always emerge effective, formidable, and responsive as you have always done, in order that our country’s integrity and interests are defended and preserved. Henceforth, your strategic leadership will be the fulcrum and the compass, so that the AFP will move in the right direction, guided by the Constitution and the democratic principles that we have all sworn to uphold,” he added.
Marcos said in return, his administration will sustain efforts to strengthen the organization and ensure the well-being of its personnel and “stand resolutely behind and with the Armed Forces of the Philippines.”
Among those who took their oath before the President were 10 Major Generals/Rear Admirals, 14 Brigadier Generals/Commodores of the Philippine Army; one Lieutenant General, three Major Generals/Rear Admirals and four Brigadier Generals/Commodores of the Philippine Navy; one Lieutenant General, two Major Generals/Rear Admirals and three Brigadier Generals/Commodores of the Philippine Air Force; and, two Brigadier Generals/Commodores of the Technical and Administrative Service.
