He also served as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff for Operations, N3, in 2013 to 2014, where he oversaw naval operations in the 2013 Lahad Datu standoff, as well as encounters of Chinese Ships at the Ayungin Shoal and in Scarborough Shoal, the sinking of the MV St. Thomas Aquinas, the Zamboanga Siege, the 2013 Bohol earthquake, and the Typhoon Haiyan. He also served as Director of the Center for Naval Leadership and Excellence, where he is a member of the navy commanders who devised the Strategic Sail Plan 2020, the Philippine Navy's primary transformation and organizational development strategy, and the Active Archipelagic Defense Strategy (AADS), the navy's strategic modernization program, which aims to modernize the entire Philippine Navy through the acquisition of new assets, such as frigates, submarines, corvettes, fast attack crafts, patrol boats, auxiliary vessels, shore based missile systems and air defense systems, and additional amphibious vehicles and naval aircraft.