The 48 year old entrepreneur Roberto Almario was attending to business in his comfortable Metro Manila office in May when he received a letter from the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
It was a summon for the businessman to report for active service as a lieutenant colonel in the Army reserve.
“I did not hesitate and accepted the 60-day call to active duty,” Almario said.
The telco industry executive is not alone in this urban war zone; two other reservists have been assigned here after being called to active duty.
“There are three of us reservists from Manila who are now on active duty here. One is a senior vice president of a bank, while the other is an IT expert,” Almario said.
Though their tasks here have to do with communications, Almario said he and the two other reservists have also been on the front line.
The father of two teenagers — aged 16 and 19 — said his life here was very different from that in Metro Manila.
“Last month, I was a businessman. Now, I’m a soldier,” said Almario, a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas.
He has become used to a soldier’s daily grind, including the rather alien reality of taking orders from superiors. “In Manila, I run a business; here, I just follow orders,” he said.
He has also gotten “used to eating sardines and to the smell of antimosquito coils at night,” he added.