The surprise appointment of Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, the Armed Forces deputy chief of staff as commander of the Southern Command raised some brouhaha over some quarters from AFP and media.
With the retirement of Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza from the Southcom, the largest of the Armed Forces’ five commands, Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin, commander of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, was earlier touted as Braganza’s likely successor.
According to news reports, Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, one of the generals whose name was mentioned in the Garcillano tapes, was instrumental in lobbying for Lt. Gen. Adan’s appointment which colored the whole affair as ‘controversial’.
Yet behind all the hoopla is that, according to Manila Times, ``Adan, who is set to retire in January 2006, is a member of the Philippine Military Academy’s Class of 1972.”
January 2006 is ONLY about a quarter or THREE MONTHS from now!!! In other words, Lt. Gen Adan’s post, which is being questioned by some quarters, is relatively for a THREE MONTHS stint, yet media and political personalities are making such big fuzz out of it!!!! A typical ‘mountain out of a molehill’.
Further, PGMA, being the Commander In Chief, like all incumbents before her, as part of the constitutional privilege bestowed upon the Presidency and not of PGMA, have the prerogative to make such an appointment based her own established criterion, principally, on trust and confidence to the appointee. Whether it was for a short term political accommodation or not is definitely NOT inappropriate nor illegitimate.
It is only in the eyes of those who can see no better due to the obsession on personality based politics.
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