Edilberto Adan

Retired Lieutenant General Edilberto Pardo Adan was a member of the Zenarosa Commission and was the Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement. His last assignment while in the active service was Commander of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Command (SouthCom).

Adan obtained his bachelor's degree from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA)in 1972. He finished his MBA in 1979 from the Asian Institute of Management and took strategic level studies as an International Fellow of the US Army War College (Class of 1996) in Pennsylvania. He attended courses in Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, The George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies in Germany, and the Near East South Asia Center at the National Defense University in Washington D.C. He also studied conflict Resolution at the U.S State Department, Political Warfare, and military operations in Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Corporate Directors (ICD) since 2006.

Adan served key field and staff positions until his last assignment as the Commander of the Southern Command. Among the positions he held include: Deputy Chief of Staff, AFP from 2004 to 2005; Superintendent, Philippine Military Academy from 2002 to 2004; Chief of the Civil Relations Service and AFP Spokesman from 2001 to 2002. His field assignments include brigade, battalion, and company command in Mindanao.

After Adan’s retirement from the active service, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association Inc., (AFPSLAI). In 2007 he was appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be the Executive Director of the VFA Commission with the rank of Undersecretary, a post he served until 2014. As such, he was responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States and developing policy and legislative recommendations. He pushed for the Senate ratification of the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement(SOVFA) between the Philippines and Australia.

On February 2010, he was given a concurrent appointment as a member of the Independent Commission Against Private Armies (ICAPA) also known as the Zeñarosa Commission, after its Chairman, retired Justice Monina Arevalo Zeñarosa. The ICAPA was established on Dec. 8, 2009 in response to the Nov. 23, 2009 Maguindanao massacre.

He became an independent director of a rural bank and a lending company. He joined the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations (PCFR) and is a member of the Philippine Constitution Association (PHILCONSA). He was elected as Chairman and President of the Association of General and Flag Officers Inc. (AGFO) in 2013. Mighty Corporation, a tobacco manufacturing company, appointed him as President in 2014.