Due to his accomplishments, Ramos was one of the candidates to the position of Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in 1981, as replacement to the retiring General Romeo Espino who was the longest serving chief of staff. Ramos lost to General Fabian Ver a graduate of the University of the Philippines, who Marcos appointed to the top military post. Instead Ramos, a cousin of Marcos was named AFP Vice-Chief of staff in 1982, and promoted to the rank of three-star general. On May 12, 1983 a new unit in the former Philippine Constabulary was organized and named as the Philippine Constabulary Special Action Force as a requirement of General Order 323 of Philippine Constabulary Headquarters. Fidel Ramos and Gen. Renato de Villa were the founders of the unit. De Villa tasked Col. Rosendo Ferrer and Gen. Sonny Razon to organize a Special Action Force. After which, a training program called the SAF Ranger Course, was used to train the 1st generation of SAF troopers, which numbered 149. Of that number, 26 were commissioned officers with the rest were enlisted personnel recruited from a wide range of PC units such as the defunct PC Brigade, the Long Range Patrol Battalion (LRP), the K-9 Support Company, PC Special Organized Group, the Light Reaction Unit (LRU) of PC METROCOM, the Constabulary Off-shore Action Command (COSAC) and other PC Units. Later on, they changed the name of the course to the SAF Commando Course.