AFP to remain non-partisan

Members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines will remain non-partisan and professional amid the heated exchanges between President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and former President Rodrigo Duterte, military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said Tuesday.

“There is not even a need for a loyalty check,” Padilla said in a press conference as she echoed the reminder issued by AFP Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. to all soldiers to remain committed to their duty.

Padilla likewise noted that the AFP has not monitored any division within its ranks amid the ongoing political bickering over the controversial push to amend the Constitution through a People’s Initiative.

‘We are doing things a little differently.’

“The AFP is non-partisan. We will continue to focus on our mission to end the local terrorist insurgency problem and transition ultimately to territorial defense,” she said.

Meanwhile, the AFP is eyeing more military exercises with the United States in the upcoming 39th iteration of the Manila-Washington Balikatan in April this year.

Padilla said more training will revolve around littoral airspace and land space military exercises.

“We are going to have more exercises in key positions all over the country. Aside from quantity we will lean heavily towards quality training. We will build upon the success of the last Balikatan,” she said.

“We are doing things a little differently. We are adding some more challenges, some more complexity towards the exercise,” Padilla told reporters.

She added that non-physical domain training such as cyberspace and information warfare drills will also be included in this year’s exercise.

The Balikatan exercise is an annual training activity between the AFP and the US Armed Forces Indo-Pacific Command geared toward enhancing bilateral interoperability, strengthening the capacity and competencies of both forces in a spectrum of military operations such as counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response.