A number of Civil Military Operations (CMO) practitioners from the different units and offices of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) have attended the opening ceremony of the three (3)-day CMO Family Conference and Workshop held on Wednesday morning, September 7, 2016, at Tagaytay Haven Hotel Mendez in Tagaytay City. The conference was organized by the Office of the Air Chief of Air Staff (AC of AS) for CMO led by Colonel Araus Robert F Musico PAF (GSC), AC of AS for CMO, A-7.
During the opening ceremony, the guest of honor, Major General Rozzano D Briguez AFP, Chief of Air Staff, acknowledged the CMO’s efforts to upgrade its capabilities especially now that the change in government has brought the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to a new policy for national defense - a renewed focus on counter insurgency operations. According to him, the process of evolving and transforming, which he coined as “transvolution”, requires the PAF CMO to become more responsive through familiarization of the new concepts: Social Media and Product Development, Information Operations, and Strategic Communications. He also made mention of a specific experience when he was the Commandant of Cadets at the Philippine Military Academy where a cadet matter issue became a battle of messages and opinions on the social media.
As the PAF continues to modernize, the CMO practitioners have recognized the fact that there is a need for change in the way CMO should be conducted. The 3-day conference will include the following activities: crafting of new set of CMO activities for foreseeable future, learning basic information, operations concept, drafting of new ways to evaluate the effects of CMO activities, and integration of CMO into several different doctrines.
