BACKGROUND

        The 9^th Infantry (SPEAR) Division, Philippine Army stationed at Camp Elias Angeles, San Jose, Pili, Camarines Sur commanded by MGEN RUPERTO R PABUSTAN AFP traces its roots to the former 9^th Infantry (Orgullo) Brigade (Separate) which was activated pursuant  to GO Nr 456 HPA dated 02 September 2002 with BGEN SANTIAGO S PREJIDO AFP is the first Commanding General; upgraded into 9^th Infantry Division (Provisional) pursuant to GO Nr 56 HPA dated 26 January 2004 and became a regular  Infantry Division on 01 October 2004 pursuant to GO Nr 517 HPA dated 06 October 2004 during the stint of MGEN JOHN D BOLHAYON AFP as the Commanding General. MGEN RICARDO G NOBLEZA AFP was the Commanding General from 06 December 2004 to 30 June 2006. BGEN NAPOLEON B MALANA AFP was the Commanding General from 30 June 2006 to 01 December 2006. BGEN ARSENIO R ARUGAY was the Commanding General from 01 December 2006 to 17 September 2007 and MGEN JEFFREY S SODUSTA AFP 19 September 2007 to 08 April 2009.

           The activation of an Infantry Division in Bicol Region was in relations with the reorganization of Unified Commands into Area Commands based on Letter Directive dated 07 May 2002. The Commander, Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) recommended for the activation of a Brigade (Separate) in Bicol region due to the sizeable number of enemy activities   within SOLCOM AOR. These are compounded by the prevalence of different leftist-infiltrated sectoral organizations in Region IV and V.

           It was also realized that the location of 202^nd and 203^rd Infantry Brigades were considerably far from the 2^nd Infantry Division Headquarters, which makes supervision, as well as administration, logistical support, and orchestration of combat operation the Command and control of tactical units in Bicol region has become unwieldy and not easy for the Commander of 2^nd Infantry Division considering the off-centered location of the Division Headquarters.  Further, personnel of the Brigades and Battalions  in Bicol have to travel to Tanay for admin-related matters, re-supply, hospitalization, and others.

           At this point, there is a need to rationalize command and control, redeploy forces, and reconfigure the AOR of tactical units in order to minimize, if not eradicate, administrative and logistical problems, similarly, command and control of combat support and combat service support units need also to be rationalized in order to be responsive to the requirements of combat units.