This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 5, March 5-11, 2006
News
Analysis Will
the AFP Remain Loyal to the Commander-in-Chief?
The immediate issue that
confronts many AFP men today appears to be a question of trust in the
commander-in-chief whose office has been fogged up by election fraud, jueteng
(numbers game) and other charges. Perhaps what keeps the organization intact
despite the cracks that widen by the day is the chain of command, but this is
now tarnished even more by the questionable integrity of many generals.
By
Edmundo Santuario III Embattled President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo was forced to lift Proclamation 1017 late last week not only
because of the widespread resistance against it even from her own political
allies but also because prolonging it would further solidify the unification of
anti-Arroyo opposition forces. In the first place, the proclamation was devoid
of any moral and legal grounds because it exposed itself as the president’s own
coup to keep herself in power and its enforcement was carried out principally by
military and police generals who had allegedly supported her own plot to steal
the presidency in the 2004 elections. While it placed the country
under a constitutionally-indefensible “state of emergency” allowing the
president to use martial law powers against the Left and certain military
elements on the pretext of preempting a coup conspiracy, the proclamation
unveiled what now appears to be a deeply-divided armed forces involving not only
junior officers but also the top brass. Macapagal-Arroyo and her political
minions may now realize that although in the long haul the regime’s main
security threat is the armed Left and its growing mass base it now faces the
“clear and present danger” coming from her own armed forces. The analysis given by a
retired military official in two interviews with Bulatlat paints a grim
scenario to the president as commander-in-chief. The source confirmed reports
that a group of generals and junior officers had planned to join the mass
rallies on Feb. 24 marking the 20th anniversary of the 1986 people
power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship. The move was apparently a
withdrawal of support for the president – albeit without bloodshed - that would
in turn involve, based on the Bulatlat source’s estimate, 70 percent of
the AFP. Apparently, based on claims by the presidential spokesman, the “coup
plot” was thwarted leading to the arrest of one of its alleged young core
leaders, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, a West Point-trained commanding officer of the
Army’s elite Scout Rangers Regiment. Lim, some accounts said, was to ask the AFP
chief, Gen. Generoso Senga, to lead the withdrawal of support but the latter
took Lim in his custody instead. Army chief The source said it was Army
chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, and not Senga, who was calling the shots to
abort the “coup.” Other alleged ring leaders, including the Philippine Marines
commander and a colonel, were sacked but only to result in a tense standoff at
the Marines headquarters south of Manila. Expect these events, the
source said, to be followed by a crackdown and a repositioning of leadership in
the AFP. Unfortunately, this will only further empower certain generals who are
know to be loyal to the president only because they helped her get elected in
2004, he said. This however will further fuel military unrest particularly among
many junior officers. The AFP is an institution
that continues to reek of corruption and its top brass picked often based not on
service performance or seniority but on loyalty to the president. Corruption and
patronage politics thus continue to cause frustration among many junior officers
as well as the rank and file soldiers. Widespread grievances remain unheeded
despite complaints procedures that have been established or tough reforms that
had been recommended by various investigation commissions to address corruption,
promotions system, soldiers’ salary and other problems. A matter of trust The immediate issue that
confronts many AFP men today however appears to be a question of trust in the
commander-in-chief whose office has been fogged up by election fraud, jueteng
(numbers game) and other charges. Perhaps what keeps the organization intact
despite the cracks that widen by the day is the chain of command, but this is
now tarnished even more by the questionable integrity of many generals. Given all these and the
fact that the restiveness seethes by the day, can the president still count on
the AFP to support her? As the military arm of
government, the AFP continues to perform its task to suppress popular rebellions
even if this results in human rights violations and the curtailment of civil
liberties. Since Marcos, the AFP has also served as the main power base of the
president without which the latter cannot last a day. Idealism Yet, historically also,
some of its men have embraced idealism that is expressed either in misguided
military adventurism or, in the tradition of some of its braver young officers
and soldiers who had gone underground to fight the government, in patriotism.
Some have left the service out of frustration. The typical soldier comes from a
poor family who, given the correct social consciousness, can be capable of
turning his gun against the powers-that-be. A growing number of men exposed to
people’s politics and dissatisfied with elite rule now increasingly realize the
need for genuine reform or, in the short term, in replacing the powers-that-be
with a civilian-based transition council. In the long run, any talk
about reforming the AFP should be inspired not by the need to make it into an
effective reactionary tool of repression but by the broader vision of reforming
the society. It is correct to always place the military under civilian authority
– but civilian authority should be equated not with the supremacy of a tyrant
but with the sovereign will of the people as a whole. Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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