Flying has always been Roy Deveraturda’s passion — starting as an aviation cadet in 1978 until his compulsary retirement as Lieutenant General in the Philippine Air Force (PAF) on August 17, 2014.
Earning his commission in 1980, together with his Military Pilot Badge after graduating from the Aviation Cadet Program of the PAF Flying School, his flying career continued as attack pilot of the 15th Strike Wing, logging more than 50 combat missions. He held the highest aircrew qualifications as Test Pilot, Flight Commander, Instructor Pilot and Flight Examiner for AT-28D Trojan “Tora Tora” and the OV-10A Bronco.
His advance training and education included System Safety Course in the University of Southern California in 1990; Squadron Officer Course in 1991 where he finished on top of his class; Defense Resource Management Course at the US Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 1996; and Masters in Management Studies at the University of New South Wales in Australia in 1999.
His Command duties included being Commander of the Western Command; Commander, Central Command; Division Commander, 2nd Air Division; Wing Commander, 15th Strike Wing (SW); Wing Commander, 570th Composite Tactical Wing; Squadron Commander, 16th Attack Squadron and Flight Commander AT-28D and OV-10 Bronco.
His various awards and recognitions for eminently meritorious services in positions of major responsibilities, distinguished heroism and outstanding airmanship has made him one of the most decorated officers in the Philippine military. He is a recipient of six Distinguished Service Star; two Philippine Legion of Honor, Degree of Commander and Degree of Officer; two Distinguished Aviation Cross; two Gawad Sa Kaunlaran; four Bronze Cross Medals; 21 Military Merit Medals; Silver Wing Medals; and, various campaign medals and ribbons. He also received the “Top Gun” Awards for Rocketry, Dive-Bombing, and Strafe.
As commander of Central Command, he planned, led and presided over the largest Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations in the country when the Visayas was struck by 7.2 magnitude earthquake and ravaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda.
After his retirement, the decorated lieutenant general was invited by then Secretary of National Defense Voltaire Gazmin to be part of the team. He was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs from June 2015 to August 2016.
After his stint in the Department of National Defense, he requested to be out of government service for the meantime and try the private sector. That’s how he started as environment consultant for Carmen Copper Corporation.
Perhaps just like President Rodrigo Duterte, Carmen Copper also saw the strength of leadership of a former military officer for his action-based training.
“There are some areas wherein it’s advantageous having experience like that because you come to a point wherein it’s sort of replicating previous scenarios and it seems that you know what to do and you don’t have to look far to get the solutions for that particular challenge,” he told The Sunday Times Magazine.
Admitting that he was the most unlikely choice for the job, he said that he considers three things in accepting an endeavor.
“Number one is the relationship – who invited me to join the company, and of course, if I can help and I can deliver, I will be helping the people who invited me, and therefore deepen the relationship. Second is the challenge. So even if you’re new to a particular endeavor and it seems to be challenging to you, and the challenge will at least energize you to go up and perhaps you get the reason why you’re going to wake up every morning and go to the office and perform your job. And then, if you can have at least some leeway wherein your creativity and innovative ideas can play a role in the company that you are in and thereby try to help the organization progress,” he imparted.
“But essentially I always tell the people here that we are all here because of our families and communities,” he said.
While previous leaderships opted to shuttle from Manila, the Cavite-native Deveraturda chose to be hands-on, even spending weekends at times in Cebu instead of going home. He is known to be low-key, choosing to just have a room instead of getting a whole house, and eat together with employees at mealtime.
“I believe I can walk both with paupers and kings, that’s my policy in life, and to me everybody is just like me, a human being. If we look to the great sky, especially during night time, we can always say that we should be mindful of our nothingness, in the life of the vastness of the universe, and therefore to me while we are a diverse society, a diverse world or a nation, to me everybody is a human being,” he imparted.
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