• GILBERT P. BAYORAN

A Bacolodnon is set to take over command of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division on January 31, a day before the mandatory retirement age of its current commander, Maj. Gen. Marion Sison.
Slated to replace Sison as 3ID commander in acting capacity is Brig. Gen. Michael Samson, who also served as head of the Negros-based 303rd Infantry Brigade in Brgy. Minoyan, Murcia, Negros Occidental.
Sison turns 57 on February 1, which is the mandatory retirement age for members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
On Jan. 27, Samson relinquished his command of the 301st Infantry Brigade at Camp Adriano Hernandez in Dingle, Iloilo. He was replaced by Colonel Nhel Richard Patricio.
Patricio, Samson, Sison, and Brig. Gen. Ted Dumosmog, the 303rd Infantry Brigade commander, are all members of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1991.
Under the leadership of Samson, the 301st Infantry Brigade was awarded by the Armed Forces of the Philippines the AFP Campaign Streamer in December last year, for its successful dismantling of Communist New People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla fronts on Panay Island.
The Southern Panay Front (SPF) of the Komiteng Rehiyon – Panay, operating in Antique and Iloilo provinces, was officially declared dismantled on June 21, 2024.*