MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Appointment (CA) on Wednesday confirmed the nomination of House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and seven other lawmakers from both houses of Congress to the rank of colonel in the reserve force of the various services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Alvarez was confirmed as Colonel of the Philippine Navy-Marines.
Also confirmed were the nominations of Senators Loren Legarda and Manny Pacquiao as Colonels of the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Army (PA), respectively.
The CA also confirmed the nominations of four lawmakers from the House to the rank of Colonels: Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas (Judge Advocate General Service), Deputy Speakers Gwendolyn Garcia (PA) and Bai Sandra Sema (PA), as well as Rep. Roy Loyola (PA).
Meanwhile, the ad interim appointment of Pangasinan Rep. Marlyn P. Agabas as Colonel of the Philippine Army (Reserve) was also confirmed.
In addition, the CA gave its nod to the ad interim appointment of Major Gen. Rene Glen Paje.
The CA committee on national defense, headed by Senator Gregorio Honasan, unanimously recommended to the CA plenary the confirmation of the nominations/ad interim appointments of Alvarez and the eight other senior officials of the AFP.
“After a thorough deliberation, your committee unanimously voted to favorably recommend for the Commission’s confirmation and its consent to the ad interim appointments and nominations,” he said in his sponsorship speech.
With their outstanding qualifications and wealth of experience in their fields of expertise, Honasan said the batch of nominees is symbolically “a representative of the cross-section of the best citizen army in the world”.
