A FORMER public affairs officer of the Armed Forces has been designated as commander of the Civil Relations Service, the military’s propaganda arm against the communist and other threat groups.
Brig. Gen. Ernesto Torres is due to assume his new post on Wednesday in rites to be led by Vice Adm. Gaudencio Collado, AFP vice chief, at the AFP’s general headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Torres is currently the deputy commander of the AFP’s Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom). It was not immediately clear who would succeed Torres as the No. 2 man of the Davao City-based Eastmincom.
Torres will succeed Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo who has been serving as acting CRS chief since August when Maj. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin reached the mandatory retirement age of 56.
Arevalo will now focus on his other positions as assistant AFP deputy chief of staff for civil military operations and AFP spokesman.
Torres, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1989, was the military’s mouthpiece during the one-year stint of Gen. Alexander Yano as AFP chief from May 2008 to May 2009.
Before that, Torres served as Army spokesman also during the time of Yano as Army chief, prior to the latter’s designation as AFP chief.