Editing Armed Forces of the Philippines (section)

==Ranks==
{{Main|Military ranks of the Philippines}}

The officer ranks are as follows:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120701065232/http://www.army.mil.ph/About_the_army/army/history/Ranks_and_Insignias.html Shoulder Ranks (Officers)], The Philippine Army.(archived from [http://www.army.mil.ph/About_the_army/army/history/Ranks_and_Insignias.html the original] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090801062829/http://www.army.mil.ph/About_the_army/army/history/Ranks_and_Insignias.html |date=August 1, 2009 }} on July 1, 2012)</ref>

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These ranks, heavily inspired by those of the [[United States Armed Forces]], are officially used in the Philippine Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. The ranks are more frequently referred and addressed in English rather than in Spanish or Tagalog/Filipino, since English is the working language within the Armed Forces.

The ranks in the Philippine Navy are similar to the US Navy ranks, the only difference is the rank of Commodore in the Philippine Navy is equivalent to the Lower Half Rear Admiral of the US Navy.

The alternative style of address for the ranks of lieutenant junior grade Lt(jg), lieutenant (Lt), second lieutenant, and first lieutenant are simply ''lieutenant'' in English, or ''tenyente'' or ''teniente'' in Tagalog and Spanish, respectively.

[[File:PMC Martial Arts.JPG|thumb|A [[Philippine Marine Corps]] instructor teaches US Marines "[[Pekiti-Tirsia Kali]]", a Philippine martial art, during military exercises]]

The ranks of enlisted personnel in Filipino are the same as their U.S. counterparts, with some differences. Except in the Marine Corps, never used are the ranks of [[Specialist (United States)|specialist]], [[sergeant first class]], and [[first sergeant]]. [[Lance corporal]], [[gunnery sergeant]], and [[master gunnery sergeant]] are also never used by the Philippine Marine Corps, whose ranks are the same as the Army's. Additionally, [[sergeant major]]s in the AFP are only appointments for senior ranked [[non-commissioned officers]] (NCOs) rather than ranks, examples of such appointments being the Command Sergeant Major, AFP (held by a first chief master sergeant or a first master chief petty officer) and the [[Command Master Chief Petty Officer]], Philippine Navy (held by an either MCPO or CMS or a SCPO or SMS).

In the Philippine Navy, they also use enlisted ranks which come from the U.S. Navy with their specialization, e.g. "Master Chief and Boatswain's mate Juan Dela Cruz, PN" (Philippine Navy).

In effect, the AFP uses the pre-1955 US military enlisted ranks, with several changes, especially in the Navy and in the senior NCO ranks.

There are no warrant officers in between officer ranks and enlisted ranks.

The uniqueness of Philippine military ranks can be seen in the current highest ranks of [[first chief master sergeant]] (for the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force) and [[first master chief petty officer]] (for the Navy), both created in 2004, and since then have become the highest enlisted rank of precedence. Prior, first chief sergeant and master chief petty officer were the highest enlisted ranks and rates, the former being the highest rank of precedence for Army, Air Force and Marine NCOs. Today only the rank of first master chief petty officer is unused, but the rank of first chief master sergeant is now being applied.

===Five-star rank===
{{Main|Field Marshal of the Philippines}}
President [[Ferdinand Marcos]], who acted also as national defense secretary (from 1965 to 1967 and 1971 to 1972), issued an order conferring the [[Five-star rank|five-star officer]] rank to the [[President of the Philippines]], making himself as its first rank holder.{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} Since then, the rank of five-star general/admiral became an honorary rank of the commander-in-chief of the armed forces whenever a new president assumes office for a six-year term, thus making the President the most senior military official.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.op.gov.ph/museum/pres_marcos.asp |title=Ferdinand E. Marcos |access-date=September 30, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080804093918/http://www.op.gov.ph/museum/pres_marcos.asp |archive-date=August 4, 2008 }}, Malacañang Museum.</ref>

The only career military officer who reached the rank of five-star general/admiral ''[[de jure]]'' was President [[Fidel V. Ramos]] (USMA 1950) (president from 1992 to 1998) who rose from second lieutenant up to commander-in-chief of the armed forces.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.op.gov.ph/museum/pres_ramos.asp |title=Fidel V. Ramos |access-date=April 30, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080430170805/http://www.op.gov.ph/museum/pres_ramos.asp |archive-date=April 30, 2008 }}{{failed verification|date=May 2010}}, Malacañang Museum.</ref>

[[General of the Army (United States)|General of the Army]] [[Douglas MacArthur]] was also made [[Field Marshal of the Philippines|Field Marshal]] of the [[Philippine Army]] with five-star rank in 1938, the only person to hold that rank. [[Emilio Aguinaldo]], the first [[President of the Philippines]], holds an equivalent of five-star general under the title ''[[Generalissimo]]'' and [[Marshal|Minister/Field Marshal]] as the first commander-in-chief of the AFP.

The position is honorary and may be granted to any military officer, especially generals or admirals who had significant contributions and showed heroism, only in times of war and national defense concerns and emergencies. The highest peacetime rank is that of four-star general which is being held only by the AFP Chief of Staff. However, no law specifically establishes the rank of five-star general in the Armed Forces of the Philippines unlike in the United States and other countries.

===Rank insignia===
The AFP, like the military forces of Singapore and Indonesia, uses unitary rank insignia for enlisted personnel, in the form of raised chevrons increasing by seniority, same for the Philippine Air Force which uses inverted chevrons from Airman 2nd Class onward only since recently.<ref>[https://www.scribd.com/doc/531027/Philippine-Air-Force-Rank-Insignias Rank insignia of the Philippine armed forces], [https://www.scribd.com/ scribd.com].</ref> In the Philippine Navy these are supplemented by rating insignia by specialty, similar to the United States Navy. Like the British and Spanish armed services, however, senior ranked NCOs (especially in the Philippine Navy) also wear shoulder rank insignia only on the mess, semi-dress and dress uniforms, and in some cases even collar insignia. Like the US military all NCOs wear sleeve stripes to denote years of service in the enlisted ranks. Sleeve insignia for enlisted personnel in the Army and the Navy are similar but are different from those used in the US while those in the Marine Corps mirror its US counterpart but with special symbols from Master Sergeants onward (adopted in the early 2000s).

Officer ranks in the AFP are inspired by revolutionary insignia used by the Philippine Army after the 1898 declaration of independence. These are unitary rank insignia used in the every day, combat, duty and technical uniforms both on shoulders and collars (the latter in the khaki uniforms of the Navy), but in the semi-dress, dress and mess uniforms are different: The Army, Air Force and Marine Corps use unitary rank insignia on the shoulder board but the Navy uses the very same rank insignia format as in the US Navy except for the star (for Ensigns to Captains) in almost all officer uniforms and all general officer and flag officer shoulder boards in the full dress uniform are in gold colored backgrounds with the rank insignia and the AFP seal (the star arrangement is the same in the Army, Air Force and Marines but is different in the Navy). The Navy uses sleeve insignia only on its dress blue uniforms. Lieutenants and Captains wear 1 to 3 triangles (and Navy Ensigns and Lieutenants (junior and senior grades) in their working, duty and combat uniforms) while Majors, Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels wear 1, 2, and 3 suns (both triangles and suns have the ancient [[baybayin]] letter ''ka'' (K) in the center) as well as Navy superior officers (Lieutenant Commanders, Commanders and Captains) in their working, duty and combat uniforms respectively.