Año quits; Marcos names ex-AFP chief Oban as new national security adviser

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After 3 years, Eduardo Año leaves the post

MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. named retired general Eduardo Oban Jr., a former armed forces chief of staff who rooted for Leni Robredo in the 2022 presidential elections, as the new national security adviser replacing Eduardo Año.

Malacañang made the announcement in a press briefing on Tuesday, April 15.

“We thank Secretary Año for his dedicated and distinguished service to the Filpino people: As National Security Adviser, he played a key role in strengthening our national security framework, advancing our
counterterrorism and internal security efforts, and ensuring close coordination across the security sector during a period of evolving regional and global challenges,” said Undersecretary Claire Castro.

Talk of his exit has persisted in the last two years for health reasons. In 2021, as interior chief of then-president Rodrigo Duterte, Año took a month-long medical leave to undergo heart surgery twice.

Año had offered to resign more than once, sources close to him told Rappler. Last year, when Marcos asked for the courtesy resignations of all his Cabinet secretaries, Año filed an “irrevocable” one. But he was prevailed upon by the President to stay a little bit longer, the same sources added.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed the former military chief as his NSA in January 2023, and Año later played a key role in the government’s “transparency initiative” — or the Philippines’ push to show, through images and videos from government agencies and independent media organizations, the harassment that Philippine vessels faced at the hands of Chinese maritime units in the West Philippine Sea.

Replacing him is Oban, also a former military chief under the late President Noynoy Aquino III.

A retired Air Force general, Oban served as armed forces chief of staff in 2011 at a transformative time for the Philippine military. The corrupt “pabaon” system had just been exposed, which allowed — for decades — retiring officers to receive millions in cash from the institution as a going away gift. A whistle-blower had also exposed the comptroller mafia in the armed forces, which controlled the military budget and the way it was released and spent to benefit the favored few.

Then-president Aquino tasked Oban correct the processes that allowed corruption to thrive. 

When he retired as armed forces chief, Oban said: “Mga kasama, gusto kong ipagmalaki natin na hindi ako nagbago sa posisyon ng chief of staff. Pumasok ako na Oban at lalabas pa rin na Oban, walang baon.” (My friends, I am proud to state that in my position as chief of staff, I did not change. I entered as Oban, I leave as Oban, without pocket money.)

Oban was later named head of the state-owned Clark Development Corporation and then as executive director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), a body that monitors compliance with the country’s VFA with the US.

Año’s stint

When Año was NSA, the Philippines began publicizing different instances of the China Coast Guard, its so-called Chinese Maritime Militia, and even the People’s Liberation Army Navy harassing both Philippine vessels on maritime missions and even smaller, wooden ships of Filipino fisherfolk.

Media would be allowed to embed in Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ships during rotation and resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, where the BRP Sierra Madre stands as a makeshift Philippine outpost. For over a year, journalists were given rare and unprecedented access to these missions. Government agencies — the PCG and the AFP — would also release videos of these confrontations for the world to see.

The initiative had been hailed for its efficacy in exposing China’s actions in waters it wrongfully claims, and helped bring together the Philippines’ traditional and emerging defense and security partners together.

Manila continues to implement a scaled-down version of that same transparency push in some West Philippine Sea missions — except in Ayungin Shoal, where a “provisional arrangement” now exists between Beijing and Manila after a June 12, 2024 incident between the China Coast Guard and Philippine military that turned violent.

Aside from serving as AFP chief and then interior secretary, Año was also chief of the Philippine Army. The veteran intelligence officer was also once chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP. – Rappler.com