Over 700 professionals, educators, government employees, youth leaders, and barangay officials have joined a group of military reservists led by 1-Pacman Party-list Rep. Mikee Romero.

Romero, an Air Force reservist with the rank of lieutenant colonel, said the 700 were inducted as new members of the Association of Reservists and Reservist Administrators of the Philippines (ARRAPI) in a mass oath-taking held recently in Basco, Batanes.

“Our new inductees, together with our other members, will now serve under ARRAPI in close coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Reserve Command, contributing to community defense, resilience-building, and humanitarian outreach,” the outgoing congressman and ARRAPI chairman said.

He said the recruits have already chosen the AFP service commands to which they wanted to belong - Army, Air Force, Navy, or Marine Corps.

“ARRAPI’s mission is to organize, unify and empower our reservists nationwide. Batanes has shown the country what it truly means when public servants and ordinary citizens come together in the name of service and patriotism,” Romero said.

“With its fast-growing strength of over 5,000 members, ARRAPI continues to solidify its role as a vital partner of the AFP, bridging civilian leadership and military preparedness,” he stressed. 

He said that the Basco ceremony was as one of the largest mass inductions of reservists in the country. It has set a national benchmark for grassroots mobilization and civic-military cooperation.

Romero say that ARRAPI is a national organization with the mission to recruit, organize and mobilize reservists across the Philippines for the AFP, and to support the military’s programs and activities, including national defense, disaster response, humanitarian assistance, and civil-military operations.

The Basco event was supported by senior AFP officers led by Major General Danilo Dupiag, acting deputy chief of staff for retirees and retiree affairs.