The perfect spy chief

MANILA, Philippines - He was a young Army first lieutenant in 1974 when Rodrigo Duterte was a struggling fiscal in Davao City. Several decades later, Hermogenes Esperon Jr. finds himself serving the president of the country in the person of fiscal turned Davao City mayor Duterte.

Esperon said he is honored to rejoin government service as National Security Adviser under President Duterte. Esperon has served six out of the seven presidents of recent history.

Esperon, who belongs to PMA Class 1974 Marangal, started his military career in strife-torn Mindanao, specifically in Basilan and Sulu. His battlefield experience became the hallmark of his military service.

Deployed in battlefronts across the country, Esperon rose through the ranks and earned medals for his gallantry in defense of the country. He capped his illustrious military career with a stint as chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in 2006 until he retired in 2008.

To this day, he bristles whenever his critics would refer to him as one of the so-called “Hello, Garci generals.” He was accused of involvement in alleged cheating during the 2004 elections after being mentioned in the “Hello, Garci” phone conversation recordings. A fact-finding report later cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Esperon was deployed to Mindanao right after his graduation from the PMA, battling Muslim secessionists from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and rebels from New People’s Army (NPA) when the country was still under martial law.

When the late Corazon Aquino was swept into Malacañang following the 1986 People Power revolution, Esperon was the army intelligence chief of the Northern Luzon Command based in Camp Aquino, Tarlac.

Under president Fidel Ramos, Esperon was named Task Group Commander for the 1996 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ summit. Amid the global threats of terrorism and local security concerns, Ramos lauded Esperon’s handling of the APEC security preparations.

Impressed by his APEC feat, Ramos made Esperon deputy commander of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), concurrently commander of the Presidential Escorts who are the close-in security of the president.

He was a special mission by Ramos to apprehend fugitive former Zamboanga congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was accused of statutory rape. Esperon led a small group of PSG personnel and caught Jalosjos after a chase around Metro Manila from his hideout in Quezon City. Jalosjos was later convicted and jailed.

At the end of his term, Ramos awarded Esperon the Presidential Merit Medal.

Esperon returned to the battlefront in Mindanao when former president Joseph Estrada launched an all-out war against the MILF. He was instrumental in the taking of one of the big MILF camps, Rajah Muda in Basilan.

Recalled back to AFP headquarters, Esperon was given a new assignment following the ouster of Estrada in 2001, when newly-installed president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo named him PSG Group Commander. During this tumultuous period when militants tried to attack the seat of government, Esperon fortified the Palace grounds with electrified gates and used concertina wires and empty container vans to barricade all entry points to Malacañang.

After retiring from the AFP, Esperon was appointed by Arroyo as Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and later as Cabinet Secretary, Presidential Management Staff (PMS).

One year after his exit from government service, he was appointed executive vice president in charge of security of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corp.

In 2010, Esperon ran but lost in the elections for the 6th congressional district in Asingan, Pangasinan.

Golf brought Ramos, Duterte and Esperon together. It was sometime in 2014 when Esperon and Ramos flew to Davao City to push Duterte to run for the presidency. During the campaign in the May 9 elections, Esperon worked behind the scenes in Duterte’s camp, contributing significantly to his victory.

Knowing all the tricks of the trade in and out of government to deal with internal or external threats, his new job as chief spook of the Duterte administration fits Esperon to a tee.