CMO Command will address Strategic Shift to Emerging Warfare Domains
“Leadership is not about you… its about the people you lead and about the people you serve.”
-LtGen Arvin R Lagamon
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY-Kagay-anon Lieutenant General Arvin R Lagamon been promoted to three star rank and appointed as the first ever commander of the new Civil-Military Operations Command, Armed Forces of the Philippines, in the formal donning of rites held Thursday, 17 November 2025 at Camp Aguinaldo with AFP Chief of Staff Gen Romeo S Brawner Jr. presiding as Guest of Honor and Speaker.
In a statement, the AFP said “The activation reflects the AFP’s strategic shift to prepare for the evolving landscape of Multi-Domain Operations, particularly in the information and cognitive domains. It underscores the military’s commitment to integrating civil-military efforts with modern information operations to enhance situational awareness, influence, and decision-making across the force.”
(AFP photo)
In line with this transformation, the AFP deactivated the Civil Relations Service (CRSAFP). Its Commander, Major General Oliver C Maquiling, was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his exemplary leadership and contributions to the organization.
The AFP further revealed that the CMO Command will integrate civil-military operations with information and cognitive warfare, aligning communication, community engagement, and stakeholder coordination to enable the AFP to respond effectively to modern challenges while maintaining credibility and public trust in an increasingly complex multi-domain battle space.
LtGen Lagamon is the fourth of five sons of the late Justice and Con-Con Delegate Alfredo “Loloy” Lagamon of Patag, Cagayan de Oro City, and the late Maria Nieves Reyes, an accountant and teacher from Camiguin.
Due to his father’s profession as a judge, he and his siblings moved around when they were younger to Bukidnon, Davao and other places. His family split their time between Cagayan de Oro City and Camiguin, where the Reyes family has their ancestral home. He and his brothers played competitive tennis in their younger years.
The family settled in Cagayan de Oro City in the early 1980s and LtGen Lagamon finished his elementary and high school at Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (Xavier Ateneo).
Although his brothers all studied law and became lawyers (Alphon, Albert, Alfredo Jr aka Jong , and Archie) he chose not to burden his father further whose only income was his salary as judge (and later CA justice) with which he had to educate five sons one year apart in age (except Archie who was 5 years younger than him).
So he decided to pursue a military career and qualify as a Philippine Military Academy (PMA cadet). But since he was still under age to qualify for the PMA after graduating from high school, he first took up BS Civil Engineering at Xavier.
Finally, he was admitted as a cadet to the PMA on April 1, 1988 and became part of PMA Tanglaw Diwa class of 1992. Among his mistahs are current 4th Infantry “Diamond” Division Commander MGen Michele B. Anayron. Jr., AFP Eastern Mindanao Commander MGen Adonis Ariel Orio, and AFP Western Mindanao Commander MGen Donald Gumiran.
LtGen Lagamon was graduated with a Bachelor of Science in February 16, 1992, and after graduating from the Scout Rangers Training Center two months later, he assumed his first command as Platoon Leader of A Co, 6th Infantry Battalion, 6th Infantry Division at Maguindanao del Norte in June.
He eventually became company commander and two years later was assigned as Aide-de-Camp at the then Southern Command in Camp Basilio Navarro at Calarian, Zamboanga City, and later with then AFP Chief of Staff Gen Joselin Nazareno.
In 2003, he became chief of the PA’s Public Affairs Branch (Office of the G-7) at the National Capital Region. By 2012, he was back in the field as Assistant Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operations (OG7) of the 8th Infantry Division at Camp General Vicente Lukban in Catbalogan City, Samar.
LtGen Lagamon met his wife, former ABS-CBN reporter Charo Logarta when he was still a captain and she was covering skirmishes in Mindanao in mid-2020. They married less than a year later in February 2021, and have two kids: Alexandra Clea, currently taking Law at the University of the Philippines (Diliman) and Arvin Miguel, a BS Psychology student at Ateneo de Manila University.
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