Command responsibility

Soldier's Pen

By BGen. Alexander Cabales (Ret.)

We were third year cadets of the Philippine Military Academy when we had these visits to the different major units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.  We call it the Major Service Orientation Tour and is normally conducted in the summer before the academic period of our junior year.  This program was designed to help us to choose as to which service component of the AFP we would like to join after graduation.

One of the most important things I learned in that tour was a lesson on military leadership.  In our sortie to Camp Capinpin (Tanay, Rizal), the home of the Jungle Fighters Division, we were wowed with the demonstration of the skills of the rangers in commando type missions usually in small unit formations.  Before the end of the demonstration, they presented a static display of the basic scout ranger organization.

A standard Scout Ranger Team was aligned before us and each member of the seven man formation told us of his designation, his required expertise, his basic firearm and equipment and his responsibility.  What caught my special attention was the third man in the formation who was the team leader (usually a junior officer or a senior non-commissioned officer).  Among the things that he said was "I am the team leader.  I am responsible for what my team does or fail to do!"  Simply said, it was the essence of military leadership.

I joined the Philippine Army after graduation and the first specialized training that I took was the Scout Ranger Course.  Upon finishing the course, I opted to join the rangers where I stayed during the most part of younger days as an officer.  For 10 years I commanded a ranger team, a platoon and later a company, and my first lesson on military leadership served me well.  The habit of accepting the responsibility for what my men does or fails to do have become a part of me.  Later, when I was assigned in other units, I also learned that this doctrine on leadership is not the monopoly of the rangers but is also a guide for successful commanders of other military units both combat and non-combat.  At a higher level, we call it command responsibility.    

As the Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division almost at the end of my military career, I was designated as the army representative to the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) and the Regional Development Council (RDC), both of Region 8 or the Samar-Leyte areas. 

In my almost three years of exposure in the workings of these two important bodies, I found out that other than climatic and geographical factors, graft and corruption and the intellectual poverty of some local executives, the main retardate to peace and development in the Eastern Visayas Region (and probably in other regions as well) was the failure of most of the governors and mayors to assume a position of responsibility in everything that happens or fails to happen in their respective jurisdictions.                                  They failed to take 'command' of all the agencies that are required to provide the basic services to their constituents.  They failed to harness for good all the facilities and infrastructures that are at their disposal for the benefit of their people.  They have not optimized the use of the powers inherent to local executives to make things happen.

Allow me to give a few illustrations for a better understanding of the point that I am presenting.  In 2008 and 2009, Maqueda Bay, the richest fishing ground in Western Samar, was severely affected by the red tide phenomenon thus affecting the livelihood of fishermen and the small businesses that depend on marine resources. 

Everybody knew the culprit.  The company that won the contract to pave the road from the southern end of the province starting from the San Juanico Bridge to the Capital City of Catbalogan had been heavily dumping their excess and waste asphalt into the river systems that eventually end up in Maqueda Bay. 

The governor and mayors simply shrugged their shoulders off saying that these were the lookouts of the DPWH and the DENR and that they couldn't do anything about it.  In this case they refused to take responsibility despite its grave ill effects on their constituents.  They refused to act or find a solution.  They refused to take command.  

Another case in point was the massive and frequent brown outs in the area thus jeopardizing businesses and affecting the daily routine and the way of life of the populace.  They knew what the problem was - mis-management and corruption in the Samar Electric Cooperative.  Yet they didn't do anything about it for whatever reasons.

In the military, the leader has two important responsibilities:  to accomplish the mission and to look after the welfare of his men.  The mission is paramount but these are executed in such a manner that the welfare of the people is not sacrificed. 

I believe that in the civil government, the role of the leader is the same except that his mission is not just anything but looking after the welfare of his constituents.  It is for this reason that we choose our leaders whom we believe can represent our aspirations and who will take care of us.  He is somebody who will care about our quality of life, even worry about the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.