BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Maj. Gen. Benedict Arevalo yesterday assumed leadership of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Visayas Command (VISCOM) in an acting capacity, following the mandatory retirement of its commander, Lt. Gen. Robert Dauz.
Arevalo, the 3rd Infantry Division commander, was installed by AFP chief of staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro who also presided over the turnover of command ceremony at Camp Lapu Lapu in Cebu City.
VISCOM supervises the Army’s 3rd and 8th Infantry Divisions, Philippine Air Force and Navy stationed in the Visayas region.
While he expects that he may occupy the position temporarily, Arevalo ordered all AFP units to increase the momentum of their operations against all threats to stability of peace and order in Visayas.
As what he had been saying during assumption of leadership in Army battalion, brigade and division units, Arevalo stressed that the “headquarters is only not to command and control, the headquarters is here to serve to serve, but not to be served”.
Prior to his designation as 3rd Infantry Division commander and acting VISCOM chief, Arevalo served as 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, where he neutralized the elusive Negros rebel priest Frank Fernandez, who was captured with his wife, Cleofe, in Laguna in 2019.
Three years after, the relentless operations of 3ID infantry units under his 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, among other major accomplishments, military records showed.
Through ELCAC, (Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict), Arevalo said “it given us an edge in our campaign,” apparently referring to campaign against the communist terrorist group.
We will maximize it in the coming period, he added.*
