Quarantine for the "Coup Virus"?

A coup is not a tea party. The uprisings (of the late 1980s) killed 99 people, tallies by the Davide "Fact Finding Commission" reveal. And 669 were wounded. They also sent a recovering economy into a tailspin.

By Juan L. Mercado

Posted by Bulatlat.com

"Soldiers are like toothpaste," noted an observer, worn to a frazzle by failed coups. "Squeeze them out of the barracks, you can't shove them back in." So, are they back again today?, people ask.

Coup rumors drove the peso below the P54 psychological floor. Malacaņang issued denials but went on red alert. Camp Aguinaldo checked out 21 heavily-armed Rangers traveling on Superferry 2.

The jitters are understandable. Democracy grows from the barrel of a gun, Juan Ponce Enrile, Calajate, Abenina, Fusilero et al. assured Filipinos who'd sent the corrupt Marcos dictatorship packing.

But a coup is not a tea party. The uprisings killed 99 people, tallies by the Davide "Fact Finding Commission" reveal. And 669 were wounded. They also sent a recovering economy into a tailspin.

At Malacaņang, meanwhile, 77 officers from Philippine Military Academy Classes 1994 and 1995 met with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. They aired "legitimate grievances," Spokesman Ignacio Bunye says. They also renewed allegiance to constitutionally-mandated civilian authority.

Can you imagine such a meeting in St. Cyr? Would Sandhurst graduates gripe at 10 Downing Street? Or West Pointers troop to the White House? Onli in da Pilipins.

PMA Class '71 had no such qualms, Yale University's book - Closer Than Brothers - points out. Of 77 officers involved in coups, 15 were Class '71 graduates -- by far "the highest for any single class.

Among the 85 graduates of Class'71, ( Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio Honasan, among others ) five were torturers and six were murdered.

"They were the ultimate creatures of martial law," wrote Prof. Alfred McCoy. "Mindanao bonded and brutalized these young officers.and they became the fist of the Marcos dictatorship."

Contrasts that with PMA Class '40's record. Of the 79 graduates, who survived World War II combat and Japanese internment, like Commodore Ramon Alcaraz or then Lt. Jose Mendoza, all proved professionals to the core, the Yale study notes.

They "emerged with their belief in civil supremacy over the military affirmed," Prof. McCoy wrote. "They formed values that would withstand the pressure of higher command. In the postwar decade, they actively blocked coup attempts."

It's been 16 years since the last failed uprising. And "the previous core of military officers that plotted a violent takeover of government has been marginalized," asserts the perceptive 60-page monograph: We Were Soldiers: Military Men in Politics and the Bureaucracy.

"In its place is a set of politicized officers that succeeded where mutinous officers failed," Newsbreak associate editor Glenda Gloria writes. They seized power "by getting appointed to important civilian posts and winning elections."

At least 51 military men ran for public office from 1987 to the 2001 polls : from ex-Army Sgt. Joel Brillantes, who won as mayor of Monkayo in Davao to now Cebu Customs Collector Billy Bibit, trounced in his bid for Makati congressman.

Since 1986, a "military dynasty" has expanded in key government agencies. Retired or active officers have taken an increasing number of posts in Malacaņang, Defense, Foreign Office, Transport and Communication, and Bureau of Customs.

Tables meticulously compiled by political sociologist Gloria (who co-authored The Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao ) shows military appointees by Presidents: Corazon Aquino - 15; Fidel Ramos - 101; Joseph Estrada - 28; and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo -- 51.

Yet, adherence to the constitutional ideal of civilian supremacy over military agencies always remained tenuous at best over the years.

Of 21 defense secretaries, 11 were former military men. Among civilians were : Ramon Magsaysay, Justice Sotero Cabahug and Orlando Mercado -- who run afoul of the military when he probed AFP financial scandals.

In the Foreign Office, generals are usually named ambassadors. To neutralize Generals Rafael Ileto and Manuel Yan -- who bucked martial law - Marcos appointed them ambassadors.

"The military is a product of its own environment, even a reflection of it." Gloria writes. "Appointment of officers in civilian posts is reflective of the rent-seeking character of the country's influential sectors."

President Ramos egged on the military to take a wider development role. But achievements of caudillos in mufti are mixed.

Virgilio David exposed the notorious coconut levy as Philippine Coconut Authority administrator. General Ramon Farolan was incorruptible as customs commissioner.

But board seats in government owned or controlled corporations and special economic zones are patronage plums. They offer huge allowances, e.g. P100,000 for Social Security System.

"Governments dominated by the military are least likely to respond to the needs of the impoverished," the Swedish Institute of International Affairs cautions. "The army merely ploughs the seas."

Officers themselves are bothered by the military mindset. "If it moves, shoot it." That's the extreme formulation of a value system that where everybody covers the others' flanks.

The last 16 years have seen PMA classes 94 and 95 edge forward. That period also brought on "military-friendly regimes," Gloria notes. "They accepted, and in some cases encouraged, the influence and participation of the military in running state affairs."

Whether the military today is a "mafia" or not is debatable. But there's no question about it's access to taxpayer-paid-for arms.

"This puts regimes in a most vulnerable situation and affects appointments," Gloria writes. "For as long as the military brokers political transitions, insurgencies and rebellions make the nation dependent on its armed forces, weak civilian institutions remain vulnerable," Gloria writes.

"This pattern of military appointments shall continue," she forecasts in We Were Soldiers. "Regimes will choose this path than risk an armed confrontation with their politicized soldiers".

Filipino soldiers are not soulmates of today's brutal Burmese military. But neither are they constitutional professionals, as PMA class 40 was.

The Latin American writer Jose San Martin put it very well: "How poor the country that must suffer gloriously triumphant generals." DEPTHnews (Posted by Bulatlat.com)

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