Galvez is back as Peace Adviser

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 26 June) —  The former OIC Defense Secretary is back as Palace Peace Adviser. 

Defense Senior Undersecretary Carlito Galvez is back as Secretary of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, a post he held from December 2018 until his designation as OIC of the Department of National Defense in January 2023. 

A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1985, Galvez served as  Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) before his appointment as Peace Adviser in December 2018. He has served as Peace Adviser to two Presidents: Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. 

Secretary Carlito Galvez, Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity, briefs reporters on developments in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao on Saturday afternoon, 10 September 2022 at the Malacanang of the South in Panacan, Davao City. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO BUENO

Galvez spent a good part of his military career in Mindanao. He served as commander of the 104th Brigade in Basilan; Deputy Commander for Peace Process of the Western Mindanao Command (WestMinCom) and concurrent chair of the government side in the Joint Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH)  in the peace process with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF); Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations  from August 2015; was installed as 6^th Infantry Division commander in Maguindanao on September 12, 2016 and chief of the WestMinCom in Zamboanga City effective January 17, 2017. 

Galvez was WestMinCom chief when the Marawi Siege happened. He served as the Unified Commander of all forces during the five-month battle for the liberation of Marawi in 2017 and served as the 50^th Chief of Staff of the AFP from April to December 2018.

Galvez was President and Valedictorian of the AFP Command and Staff College, and was awarded as one of The Outstanding Philippine Soldier (TOPS) in 2007.

When the COVID-19 struck in 2020, he was designated as Chief Implementer on the National Task Force against COVID-19 and later as the Vaccine Czar. 

Galvez was the CCCH chair who worked with his MILF counterpart, the late Rashid Ladiasan, in ensuring a ceasefire to prevent an escalation of conflict following the Mamasapano tragedy in Maguindanao on January 25, 2015. The tragedy left 66 persons dead — 44 from the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police, 17 from the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, and five civilians.

Galvez is the firstborn among 12 children of Carlito Galvez Sr and Lourdes Guansing from Bustos, Bulacan.  He is married Marissa Pascua, an international flight purser of Philippine Airlines. The couple has a daughter, Mary Frances Therese.

He completed his Masters in Project Management at the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2004,  and was a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government Leadership Executive Education at Harvard University, Massachusetts.

Galvez was also a Fellow at the Asian Institute of Management Bridging Leadership program, took a course on Leadership and Values at the University of Asia and the Pacific, Negotiation and Mediation at the National Security at the National Defense College of the Philippines,  and Leadership and Laws by the Australian Defense Course Program.

He also took an Infantry Officer Advance Course in Fort Benning, Georgia; attended a Military Operation Research Symposium in Singapore, Comprehensive Crisis Management Course in Hawaii and Rules of Engagement at the Institute of International Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy.(MindaNews)

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