Skip to content

January 24, 1970

 

Office of the President

of the Philippines

Malacañang Palace

January 24, 1970

1:00 PM

I have just directed the retirement of Gen. Raval and all the extended generals effective Feb 1st and April 1st. I will retain Gen. Yan as Chief of Staff only because there is no one who is qualified to take his place. I will put Gen. Eddie Garcia presently CG of the Tabak Division as PC chief.

I do sympathize with Gen. Raval who claims  he had nothing to do with the abuses of the Special Forces but there is discontent in the rank and file of the Armed Forces and Gen. Raval is one of the reasons. Another is the feeling of the lower ranking officers that they have no hope of advancement. And with the efforts of the Liberals to intrigue the military into a coup d’etat, it becomes necessary to remove all causes of grievance.

The truth of the matter is the retiring officers are better than those who will succeed them. I hope to place some of them in civilian positions.

I cannot choose a replacement of Sec. Mata. I am trying to get a civilian and non-military man. But I guess I will ultimately push Gen. Yan up to Secretary of National Defense while I ultimately push Ileto up to Chief of Staff.