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
Bulatlat
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
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