Galvez resigns; Sarmiento next Marcos peace adviser
Tuesday as chief of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (Opapru), saying he needed to take care of his wife and spend more time with his family.
President Marcos named retired general and former Interior Secretary Mel Sarmiento, 65, as Galvez’s replacement.
Galvez, 63, said he was “stepping down from public office after forty-six years of unbroken service to our nation.”
“This decision is borne of a personal necessity to attend to the health of my wife, and to devote myself to my family—a commitment that is, perhaps, long overdue,” he said.
Before Galvez’s resignation, Eduardo Año had resigned as national security adviser on April 16. Eduardo Oban Jr., who had also headed the Armed Forces of the Philippines like Año and Galvez, was appointed Año’s successor.
Longtime local exec
Galvez welcomed Sarmiento as his replacement, saying that “as a champion of good governance and a man of peace, I am certain that under his leadership, our pursuit of a just and lasting peace will reach even greater heights.”
Before heading the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Sarmiento was vice mayor of Calbayog City in Samar province from 1992 to 1995, then mayor for three terms from 2001 to 2010.
He was then elected congressman of Samar’s 1st District, serving almost two terms from 2010 to 2015.
Sarmiento was appointed Interior Secretary in 2015 by the late President Benigno Aquino III. In that administration, he also became secretary general of the ruling Liberal Party.
Galvez was AFP chief for only seven months in 2018 until his retirement that year, after which then President Rodrigo Duterte appointed him Opapru chief.
The office oversees the implementation of peace agreements with the Cordillera People’s Liberation Army, Revolutionary Proletarian Army, Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Moro National Liberation Front.
Galvez’s tenure in Opapru also saw low-key efforts to restart peace talks with the communist rebels.
Earlier in his military career, he was among the officers who joined the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, taking part in the 1989 coup attempt against then President Corazon Aquino.
He was granted amnesty by Aquino’s successor, Fidel Ramos, in 1996.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Galvez was designated vaccine czar and chief implementer of the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
Returning as Opapru head under Mr. Marcos, he was also appointed officer-in-charge of the Department of National Defense until the permanent appointment of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. in 2023.
Galvez thanked the President his “unwavering trust,” noting that Mr. Marcos had extended his tenure to allow continuity in the peace process.
He had wanted to resign since last year but was persuaded by Mr. Marcos to stay on, the Inquirer learned.
Palace press officer Claire Castro said Galvez’s “contributions, first as a soldier and later as a peace negotiator and adviser, reflect a lifetime of service to the Republic, and the nation owes him a profound debt.”
She said the change in leadership at Opapru “marks a natural progression of the country’s peace work.”
‘Steady presence’
Nongovernmental organization Institute for Autonomy and Governance (IAG), a partner of Opapru in the peace process, also commended Galvez, as it cited his “steady presence across many of the country’s most challenging peace and transition processes.”
“His openness to dialogue, his respect for diverse stakeholders, and his consistent engagement with institutions like ours have helped create spaces where difficult conversations could take root and move forward,” IAG Executive Director Benedicto Bacani said, adding that these efforts helped strengthen the foundations of long-term peace and democratic governance in the Bangsamoro.
Bangsamoro Member of Parliament Susana Anayatin, executive director of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao-Office of Settler Communities, said Galvez served the country during critical periods, including the Mindanao peace process and the pandemic. —WITH A REPORT FROM GABRYELLE DUMALAG
