AWARDS, PROMOTIONS, TRIBUTES
Beta Sigman Officers Promoted in AFP
(sent by Jojo Alejar)
Kwentong Tabets No. 35
-Bong Arreza’82 DLSU-AUF
Breaking News
BROD MAJOR GENERAL JOEMAR CUERPO IS NEW EASTMINCOM HEAD
TWO OUT OF SIX AFP AREA COMMANDS NOW HEADED BY BETA SIGMANS
PROMOTION OF 3 BETA SIGMAN OFFICERS GET COMMISSION ON APPOINTMENTS NOD
[Photo from Antonio Sarrosa]
Brod Major General Jose Maria “JoeMar” Cuerpo
II, MSU-IIT ’85, has been named chief of Eastern Mindanao
Command (Eastmincon) of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
His appointment brings to two , out of six, the AFP unified area commands under
the leadership of Beta Sigmans.
Brod JoeMar’s new jurisdiction spans three regions – Caraga, Davao, and Soccskargen.
Prior to his promotion, Brod JoeMar headed the the Cagayan de Oro-based 4th
Infantry Division, one of the Army’s oldest fighting units.
According to one media report, he will remain 4ID commander in concurrent
capacity, until his replacement has been named.
Brod JoeMar will officially assume his post today (May 31) , in a change of
command ceremony in Davao City that will also serve as retirement honors for
outgoing Eastmincom head Lt General Greg Almerol.
Brod JoeMar is a member of the PMA “Bigkis-Lahi” Class of 1991 and is a
bemedaled combat veteran whose career is dominated by field and frontline
assignments, the quintessential boot on the ground.
Also called as Poker, he has been a generous and consistent supporter of Beta
Sigma activities, playing host to fraternity gatherings wherever he was
assigned.
His appointment came in the wake of the Commission on Appointments’ confirmation
last week of the promotions of three Beta Sigman officers, the first to be
presided by newly elected Senate President Chiz Escudero.
Getting the nod of the powerful bicameral body are
UP Baguio'84 Brod Lt General Facundo "Dong" Palafox,
UP Los Baños'95 Brod Colonel Nathaniel
“Taning” Mendez, MD, of the AFP Medical Corps and
UP Diliman'95 Brod Cesar Pangan
as Captain (equivalent to Colonel in the land and air services) of the
Philippine Navy.
Brod Dong Palafox commanded the Army’s Armor Division before he was plucked to
head Solcom early this year, a post once held by another Beta Sigman, Brod
Voltaire Gazmin, who served as Benigno Aquino’s only defense secretary. He
currently heads the Lucena-headquartered Southern Luzon Command (Solcom), which
covers the Southern Tagalog, Bicol and MiMaRoPa regions, except Palawan.
The Bani, Pangasinan native father of three is a member of the PMA Class of 1990
, one class ahead of Brod JoeMar’s.
Brod Dong was a Physics major at UP Baguio when he entered PMA as a plebe in
1986, the first incoming class after the EDSA Revolution.
His younger brother, Brod Ying , also joined the UP Baguio chapter in 1987.
Brod Ying, a lawyer, attributed Brod General Dong’s survival at PMA to the being
a lone member of his batch. “ Beta Sigma gave him his first and hardest stress
test."
[Photos from AFP post]
Brod Taning Mendez is current
Chief of Orthopedics and Traumatology of V Luna Medical Center, and has taken
under his wings some Beta Sigma doctors as mentees.
After getting his BS Zoology degree from UPLB in 1998, the 48-year-old Palawan
native took up medical studies in a Beta Sigma bastion school, the Our Lady of
Fatima University, graduating there in 2003.
If not mending bones, you can find him downing bottles of beer with Quezon City
brods in one of their favorite watering holes in the Diliman area.
Brod Cesar Pangan,
affectionately called “Casuy” by friends and relatives, and “Pang’ee” by
military comrades , graduated 11th in his PMA Class of 2000.
He was taking up BS Electronics Engineering in Diliman when Beta Sigma first
beckoned and later The Long Grey Line up in Baguio.
The 48-year-old father of one – a son who recently graduated from the University
of Toronto in Canada – is a Kintanar, a Cebuano clan, on his mother side.
He is currently based in Zamboanga City, with the Naval Forces Western Mindanao.
The Commission on Appointments briefing paper on the four officers highlighted their Beta Sigma membership. Cheers!
[No photos provided for Brod Taning Mendez and Brod Cesar Pangan]