Maj. Gen. Jessie Dellosa, commander of the Army’s Second Infantry “Jungle Fighter” Division based in Tanay, Rizal, will succeed Lt. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, who will retire on July 25 as Nolcom chief.
Sources said the assumption of Dellosa to the area command will put him closer toward bagging the coveted post of Army commander or Armed Forces chief of staff, which he will slug out with Maj. Gen. Anthony Alcantara, currently the military’s No. 3 man, being the Armed Forces deputy chief of staff.
Both Dellosa and Alcantara are members of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1979, currently the ruling class in the military.
The Army commander, Lt. Gen. Arturo Ortiz, will retire in November this year, while the Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Eduardo Oban, will reach the mandatory retirement age of 56 in December.
Both Ortiz and Oban are also members of PMA Class 1979.
A source said the posts of Army commander and Armed Forces chief of staff are a race between Dellosa and Alcantara.
“If Dellosa will be appointed Army commander, then Alcantara will become the chief of staff, or vice versa. The positions are for them. The only question is who gets what?” he said.
While both are major generals, Alcantara is more senior than Dellosa, having earned his two-star rank way ahead of his mistah.
Even with their current positions and with Dellosa’s impending designation as Nolcom chief, Alcantara will still be more senior than his academy classmate in terms of position as he is the deputy chief of staff.
However, both the area command and the post of the deputy chief of staff are three-star positions.
“The equation will change if Dellosa will be promoted to lieutenant general immediately after his assumption of command at Nolcom. Remember that General Dellosa will be inheriting a readily available three-star rank. If this happens, then he will outrank General Alcantara,” the source said.
Another source explained that if the post of chief of staff is given to Dellosa, then Alcantara will become the Army chief.
“It could not be that the commander in chief will appoint General Dellosa as Army commander upon the retirement of General Ortiz in November, and less than a month later, he will appoint him as the [Armed Forces] chief of staff upon the retirement of General Oban.”
“While there is nothing that prohibits President Aquino from doing this, it may rekindle the claims of favoritism, something that were said of the earlier designations,” he said.
“The best option would be to wait until the post of chief of staff is vacated, which means, General Alcantara will become the Army commander,” the source added.
Both Dellosa’s and Alcantara’s service lineage with the Cory Aquino administration could not be discounted.
A source said Dellosa served as part of President Aquino’s security contingent during the term of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino.
Alcantara, on the other hand, provided security to the Cory Aquino administration during the days that it was challenged by numerous coups.
The source said the leadership is choosing between Maj. Gen. Romulo Bambao, chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Army vice commander, Maj. Gen. Renato David, as Dellosa’s successor.
