- GILBERT BAYORAN
Increase the momentum against all threats to the stability of peace and order in Visayas.
C
Arevalo, who is the commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, replaced Lt. Gen. Robert Dauz, who bowed out of the military service Nov. 14, as he has reached the mandatory age retirement of 56.
VISCOM supervises two Army infantry divisions – the 3rd and 8th IDs – as well as the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Navy deployed in the Visayas area.
AFP chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, presided over the change of VISCOM leadership at Camp Lapu Lapu in Cebu City.
“The headquarters is here not only to command and control, but to serve and not to be served,” he added.
Prior to his designation as 3rd ID commander and acting VISCOM chief, Arevalo served as 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, where he had neutralized the elusive Negros rebel priest Frank Fernandez, who, with his wife, Cleofe, were captured in Laguna in 2019.
Three years after, the relentless operations of the 3ID infantry units, under Arevalo’s leadership, also neutralized several top ranking rebel leaders in Negros Occidental, including Romeo Nanta, regional commander of the NPA in Negros Island, who were killed in separate encounters, military records show.
Arevalo also presented his plans to maximize the involvement of ELCAC or Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict in addressing the insurgency problem, noting that it has given them an edge in their campaign against the armed NPA./GB
