MANILA: When Col. Ramon Zagala took on his new duties in late June, he knew that every day might require of him the sacrifice of life — like of the other 1,000 elite security men protecting the most powerful person in the Philippines. Col. Zegala became Presidential Security Group commander and senior military assistant on June 30, chosen by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who on the same day took over from Rodrigo Duterte to rule the country until 2028.
Marcos remembered Zagala, a special forces member and former military spokesman, from the time he served as aide-de-camp of President Joseph Estrada — the actor-turned-politician who was ousted in 2001, just three years after taking office. “He told me that he got me because he saw how I defended President Estrada. That I never left President Estrada. That I did all I can to protect President Estrada,” Zagala told Arab News in a recent interview.
“He said he saw (how) when everybody abandoned President Estrada, I did not…He said that he saw that. And he knows that he that I will protect him also, that I will not abandon him.”
But the appointment two decades later came as a surprise. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Zagala said. “It is a privilege to return to continue a mission that I left behind 21 years ago…With so many lessons learned, so many experiences in the past 21 years, I’m ready to take on this mission again.”
Zagala is the son of retired Maj. Gen. Rafael Zagala, army chief from 1972 to 1975 during the time of Marcos’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who ruled the country for three decades until he was removed in a popular uprising in 1986. The joint service unit that Zagala is now heading is the primary agency concerned with providing close-in security to the president and the first family, everywhere they go — at home and abroad. Its formation dates back to 1897 when a unite was established to protect the first Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo, from attempts on his life. “We’re more or less 1,000 personnel,” he said. “This is a unique unit. This is the only unit of the Armed Forces of Philippines that has control of other agencies outside of the AFP.”
Together with attached personnel from other forces, which also include the Philippine National Police and Coast Guard, the PSG comprises over 1,800 members of security forces.
They are the best of the best.
“The PSG is an elite unit, primarily because the nature of the mission is to protect the president. So, we choose the best, always,” Zagala said.
