Former AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Andres Centino. Photo courtesy of the Philippine Army 4th Infantry Division/File
MANILA — Former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Andres Centino is slated for a new post under the Marcos administration, he said Monday.
Centino relinquished his post to his Philippine Military Academy (PMA) classmate, Lt. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, in a change of command ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City during the day.
“I was just told to assume another position and I’m still not sure about it. Yes, it is a government position,” Centino told reporters in a chance interview at the main AFP camp.
“Mayroong sinasabi na tatrabahuhin daw. But I still have to wait for the president [Marcos Jr.] to confirm that,” he added.
“You will know when it comes.”
Centino, who will reach 56 - the mandatory retirement age in the military - only in February next year, stepped down from the top post after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed Bacarro as the new AFP chief.
“All along, I was really believing it’s up to the president. We are soldiers, we follow orders,” he said.
Centino went on, “If there is an appointment, that would mean I am deemed retired… I am very much fulfilled. Sa tingin ko nga, sobra-sobra ang nagawa kaya maybe it’s time for others also to take the lead.”
Both Centino and Bacarro are members of the PMA Maringal Class of 1988.
Bacarro, a recipient of the Medal of Valor, is the first top military official who will be covered by Republic Act No. 11709 that gives him a fixed term of three years.