MANILA » Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to punish generals and other officers involved in a high-profile corruption scandal.

Aquino on Sunday named his next military chief of staff and ordered him to press on with reforms partly aimed at halting large-scale military graft.

Aquino also used his speech in a graduation ceremony at the prestigious Philippine Military Academy to admonish 196 graduating cadets to resist graft.

Corruption, long entrenched in Philippine society, is an explosive issue in the ill-equipped and poorly paid 126,000-strong military, one of Asia’s weakest.