DND, AFP eye delisting of Alvarez as military reservist

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of National Defense (DND) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are looking at a possible investigation of Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez and his delisting from the roll of reservists in the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC).

The move came after Alvarez called on the AFP to withdraw support for President Marcos to force the Chief Executive to step down.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro reassured the public that “the AFP is standing steadfast in upholding the Constitution under the leadership of the commander-in-chief, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.”

“Any attempt to sway them away from this duty or to patronize them to support a partisan agenda is futile, particularly when this agenda dovetails with a foreign interest contrary to our own national interests,” he declared.

“Calls for them to ‘withdraw support’ will not amount to anything, but to a possible criminal investigation,” Teodoro said in a statement yesterday.

AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said Alvarez, a reservist with the rank of colonel, belongs to the PMC under the Philippine Navy.

“There are two categories of reservist: active and standby. We will check which category Alvarez is in,” Padilla told reporters in a press briefing.

“We defer to the Philippine Marines whether they would be recommending something at this point, but I believe, at this point, Alvarez is not an active reservist,” she explained.

Padilla said Alvarez is, of course, entitled to his own opinion, though the AFP thinks his call for a withdrawal of support “is an uncalled-for statement.”

Generally, she said if there are AFP policies, rules and regulations that would apply to what the lawmaker did as a reservist officer, it will be looked into.

AFP public affairs office chief Col. Xerxes Trinidad, for his part, noted that there are cases already in the reserve force wherein there are violations of any regulation or the law, “they are delisted in their particular membership.”

“With reservists, we have what you call a ‘delisting’ and it also happens there are already many who have been delisted from the reserve force on breach of discipline – that they have