Three top Manila officers choose early retirement

At least three senior defence officials have opted for early retirement from the service for subsequent appointment to key government positions. The retirements came in the wake of alleged factionalism that has rocked the armed forces in the wake of the military backed non-violent uprising which ousted president Joseph Estrada last January.

Heading the list is Armed Forces vice chief Lt-Gen Jose Calimlim, whom military sources said would eventually be named by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to a government post with a rank of undersecretary. "The military now is a highly-politicised and full of intrigues. Its like everybody wants to destroy everybody," a military insider said.

The source said Arroyo is expected to announce Calimlim's new designation during her weekly press conference on Tuesday. "General Calimlim will be given a position under the supervision of the executive secretary," the source said. Just like Calimlim, Executive Secretary Renato de Villa is a product of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the country's premier educational institution for armed forces officers.

Calimlim belongs to PMA class of 1968 while de Villa is from PMA Class of 1957. Still, other sources said Calimlim is being offered an ambassadorial post. Calimlim's mandatory retirement is due in November. When reached for comment, Calimlim's only reason for retiring early was "to give junior officers the room to rise through the ladder."

Calimlim is a classmate of newly-installed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Diomedio Villanueva. Sources said Lt-Gen Gregorio Camiling, current chief of the military's powerful Southern Command based in Mindanao, will be his successor. Also retiring early is Air Force deputy chief Maj-Gen Adelberto Yap who is set to assume his new post as assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communication and head of the Air Transportation office. Yap was originally scheduled to retire in August. "Everyone makes his own individual decision with respect to his career," Yap said.

Apart from Calimlim and Yap, the other officer retiring early is controversial Marine Lt-Gen Edgardo Espinosa, currently the Joint Command and Staff College commandant, whom sources said will most likely accept the post earlier dangled by Malacanang. Espinosa, who claims to be the first general to have made contact with Arroyo's group during the Estrada presidency, is being groomed to assume the lucrative post of New (Manila Economic and Cultural Office) chief based in Taipeh.