Lieutenant General Jessie Dellosa, a
senior military aide to former Philippine
president Corazon Aquino, will now serve "Cory's"
son, current President Benigno Aquino III, as the
43rd chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP). Dellosa's appointment comes at a time of
rising security threats, including growing
maritime tensions with China and changing dynamics
in insurgencies in the country's southern region.
Although Aquino has denied charges that
Dellosa's promotion shows favoritism, their three
decades of camaraderie no doubt played a role in
the president's decision to elevate Dellosa to the
military's top position. Dellosa's loyalty to
Corazon Aquino at a time when she was facing
several coup attempts in the late 1980s left a
strong impression on the young Benigno, who described
Dellosa as a "warrior" when
he announced his promotion.
Dellosa has
always been quick to defend his professional
advancement from allegations of nepotism due to
his close ties with the Aquino family. In July
2011, when Dellosa was promoted to lead the armed
forces' Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), he
asserted that his "credentials would speak for the
progress of his career as a military officer".
When asked to recount his experiences with the
then presidential son Benigno Aquino, he claimed
to not "remember much because that was from 1986
to 1992".
Indeed, Dellosa does have the
resume and experience to justify his appointment
as chief of the AFP. A graduate of the Philippine
Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1979 from
Sorsogon, the southernmost province of Luzon, he
has also been commander of the Army's 2nd Infantry
Division in Tanay, Rizal; the deputy commander of
the AFP Central Command in Cebu; commandant of PMA
cadets; 302nd Infantry Brigade commander; chief of
staff of the 4th Infantry Division;
officer-in-charge of the AFP Office of Ethical
Standards and Public Accountability; and former
assistant chief of staff for operations of the 1st
Infantry Division.
Security analysts say
the issue is not whether Dellosa is qualified to
lead the AFP, but how well he can manage the
challenges that will define his tenure. In the
speech in which he accepted Aquino's offer to lead
the AFP, Dellosa vowed to focus his leadership of
the 125,000-strong AFP on four areas: territorial
defense; the AFP's internal peace and security
plan "Bayanihan"; disaster preparedness; and
organizational reforms.
More directly,
these four themes refer to the South China Sea,
which the Philippine government calls the "West
Philippine Sea", and where it has recently sparred
with China over territorial disputes; the
decades-old conflict between the government and
Muslim fighters in Mindanao; the tropical storm
"Sendong" and intensifying natural disasters that
have plagued the Philippines and other countries
in Southeast Asia; and the national fight against
corruption.
Dellosa says he will focus on
"strengthening the country's external defense for
the territorial disputes in the South China Sea".
This will require the government to upgrade
significantly the navy's and air force's equipment
and increase coordination with the Department of
National Defense to manage the South China Sea
dispute. Recent developments in the West
Philippine Sea, says Dellosa, "compel us to look
into our maritime security deeply".
The
most recent crisis in the South China Sea occurred
on October 19, 2011, when a Philippine ship became
entangled with a Chinese fishing vessel. China
claimed the collision took place in Chinese waters
even though the boats were within the Philippines'
250-mile (402 kilometers) exclusive economic zone
as stipulated under the United Nations Convention
on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Philippine
foreign affairs officials said they regretted the
incident, but they ruled out issuing any formal
apology because in their view it was the Chinese
ship that had illegally entered Philippine waters.
China, on the other hand, warned the
Philippines against "provoking" it into taking
retaliatory military action and said that the
Philippines "should prepare for the sound of
cannons" from China. This incident was the ninth
time in a seven-month period in which Philippine
and Chinese ships clashed in disputed waters, but
it may have been more significant because of the
timing.
At the time of the clash, 1,000
Filipino Marines and 2,000 United States troops
were participating in the 28th session of the
11-day long Phiblex 2011 military exercises, which
were held from October 17 to October 28, 2011.
These "war games" were originally limited to
ground warfare, but as the South China Sea dispute
has heated up, the focus of the exercises has
shifted to preparation for maritime warfare in
areas near the contested Spratly Islands in the
South China Sea.
War and
peace In his acceptance speech, Dellosa
affirmed the AFP's constitutional mandate to
uphold the country's internal and external
security and said that the "development of the
navy and air force bases and facilities to
efficiently respond to untoward incidents is
something we can no longer ignore".
It can
be expected that under Dellosa, the AFP will
strengthen bilateral alliances with the US and
security arrangements with other regional allies.
The increased military-to-military
exchanges will be consistent with the security
policies and priorities of the AFP, but will also
likely rattle China. Dellosa's test will be to
balance the interests of protecting the
Philippines' sovereign waters while managing the
inevitable diplomatic friction caused by leaning
on the US for support against China.
As
for the ongoing domestic conflict in Mindanao,
Dellosa says that the AFP will continue to support
the Aquino administration's stand for "all-out
justice, not all-out war" against rebels in
Mindanao. The difference between "justice" and
"war" is an important distinction in light of the
recent ambush of AFP troops by Abu Sayyaf and Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters on
October 18, 2011.
On that day, AFP special
forces were conducting an operation to locate four
wanted Abu Sayyaf leaders who were reportedly in a
group of 10 militants near a MILF autonomous area
in Basilan, Mindanao. When the special forces
closed in on the group, more than 100 fighters
from the MILF reinforced the group and overwhelmed
the AFP troops. At least 13 special forces troops
were killed at the site of the ambush and six
others were taken captive and later hacked to
death.
In the context of recent events,
"war" would mean an all-out assault on Abu Sayyaf
and its MILF supporters while "justice" likely
means targeting the individuals in Abu Sayyaf and
MILF who have carried out beheadings and ambushes
of AFP soldiers outside agreed armistice zones.
It is not surprising that Dellosa would
take a pragmatic view toward the Mindanao
conflict, considering his previous combat
experience in the region. He fought in Basilan and
Sulu, Mindanao for more than three years and was
critically wounded twice in battle. He said that
he "has witnessed men fighting hard and dying in
combat", but that he also saw the "destruction
brought by war". It is time, Dellosa says, "to
give peace a genuine chance."
During his
three years in Mindanao, Dellosa was the deputy
task force commander and anti-terror operation
officer in charge of the Joint Task Force Comet
team that rescued American missionary Gracia
Burnham from Abu Sayyaf captors in 2001. Later, he
was the main mind behind the "Bayanihan"
counter-insurgency strategy, which was implemented
in 2010 and led to a decrease in violent incidents
perpetrated by the MILF, Abu Sayyaf and other
insurgent groups.
Under the plan, the AFP
ceased to chase after insurgents because such
tactics often leave AFP soldiers vulnerable to
ambushes, like the one on October 18, and alienate
villagers who have to relocate as a result of the
fighting. Instead, Dellosa believes the AFP should
concentrate on improving the lives of the people
in the countryside and implement development
projects such as schools, roads, health centers
and water systems to benefit the people.
Consistent with Aquino's campaign message,
Dellosa has also vowed an "all-out war" on
corruption within the military, a perennial
problem among the armed forces. He showed
solidarity with troops in Mindanao by spending
Christmas Day in Iligan City to oversee the
massive military relief operations for the victims
of the tropical storm Sendong. The storm, which
brought heavy rains and flash floods to the
southern Philippines from December 16 to 18, has
led to approximately 1,500 deaths.
Given
the troubles Sendong has forced on the
Philippines, Dellosa has not had an easy start to
his new job. But the various regional and domestic
challenges the Philippines will face during
Dellosa's term require a leader able to manage
both the expected - clashes in the South China Sea
and skirmishes with Mindanao Muslim fighters - and
the unexpected, which came in the form of Sendong.
If Dellosa handles his new role as well as
Aquino expects he will, then Dellosa will put all
claims of nepotism to rest and his record alone
will speak for his long and varied military
career.
Jacob Zenn graduated
from Georgetown Law and has worked as an
international security consultant and lawyer in
Washington, DC. He runs a team of translators, due
diligence, and open-source research experts and
can be reached at jacobzenn@gmail.com
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