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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. VI, No. 9 April
2 - 8, 2006 Quezon City, Philippines |
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STREETWISE
To Rebel Is Justified
Many a young officer learns soon enough
the yawning gap between the ideals that he learned in the military or
police academy – courage, integrity, loyalty and the reality of
military and police establishments that have succumbed to the rot of
corruption, dishonesty, favoritism and organized criminal activity with
the generals knowingly and firmly in command.
By Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo
BusinessWorld
Posted by Bulatlat
Now that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has declared she would deal
with the rebellious military officers and men with an iron hand, the AFP
and PNP commanders are caught in the horns of a dilemma. How to contain
if not exterminate the deadly “virus” of rebellion before it spreads
uncontrollably without having to sacrifice some of the brightest and the
best among the young and middle-level officer corps and the elite units
that appear to be involved.
How to differentiate the hard core from those who were merely duped or got
carried away? How to give vent to small, manageable, legitimate grievances
that do not undermine the system? Where to draw the line?
Is the withdrawal of support from the commander-in-chief, to the point of
breaking the chain of command, an aberration in an otherwise sterling
military record? Is this is still a case of misplaced idealism taken
advantage of by the anti-GMA opposition and the communists or plain
incorrigible recidivism encouraged by lenient treatment?
The propensity of outstanding officers to mutiny is simplistically being
attributed to unprofessionalism when it is becoming more evident that the
opposite is true.
Let us recall the Oakwood mutineers and other junior and middle level
officers recently implicated many of whom have outstanding academic and
service records and/or feats of bravery that have earned them medals and
citations.
Recall the late Capt. Rene Jarque, a brilliant army officer with a
promising career, who was forced out of military service because he could
not keep quiet about the rot in the military establishment and persisted
in calling for wide-ranging reforms.
All this leads one to conclude that those who take their military oath
seriously, if perhaps a bit naively, and do their jobs well and by the
book, eventually start to question and protest the military’s role, if not
end up in open mutiny or rebellion.
Why is this so? Many a young officer learns soon enough the yawning gap
between the ideals that he learned in the military or police academy
courage, integrity, loyalty and the reality of military and police
establishments that have succumbed to the rot of corruption, dishonesty,
favoritism and organized criminal activity with the generals knowingly and
firmly in command.
While patronage politics has always extended to the military and police
with politicians from town mayors to governors and even legislators
cultivating the loyalties of particular police and military officials, an
advantage especially handy during elections, the Marcos dictatorship gave
the generals a taste of unprecedented power and pelf during martial rule.
Unfortunately, the overthrow of the dictatorship by a popular uprising
combined with the withdrawal of military support by the chain of command
served to cover up the sins of the past. These included the sordid human
rights record of the AFP and the then Philippine Constabulary and the
involvement of military and police officialdom in the wholesale looting of
the treasury and the lucrative criminal syndicates that were operating
under their protection. No real reform took place within the AFP and PNP.
The return of the trappings of democracy failed to rein in the overweening
role of the military and the police in the life of the nation,
particularly in the survival of ruling regimes. One government after
another since Marcos has barely been able to institute political
stability, limping from one economic crisis to the next. Until the
Estrada administration that saw the exacerbation of the country’s chronic
woes that led to another people’s uprising that was again backed up the
defection of the military chain of command.
Once more the corrupt and fascist generals were given their chance to bail
out of a sinking ship and get into the bandwagon of a new regime with
their loot intact, their crimes against the people whitewashed and with
new positions of power from which to continue their nefarious ways.
So the lesson for Mrs. Arroyo and her clique is that the chain of command
must be given the right amount of incentive to maintain loyalty to her as
President. Including the right amount of rhetoric regarding
professionalism and duty to the country.
The bad precedent set by the Marcos dictatorship that loyalty to the
Republic, defense of the Constitution and protection of the people and the
State means blind loyalty, defense and protection of those in power
persists.
Today it is invoked by the Arroyo administration to justify the reduction
of the military and police to being its tools for perpetrating massive
electoral fraud, going after its political enemies and in short propping
up its tottering regime in the face of its rejection by a majority of the
people.
Mrs. Arroyo was recently quoted as telling the new graduates of the PNP
Academy that theirs is “not to question why; theirs is but to do or die.”
A bit trite but to the point.
Fortunately, the conformist ideas that have pervaded the military and the
police about their proper role in society, as the maintainers of the
unjust status quo and suppressers of legitimate dissent and the people’s
resistance to oppression, have been eroded over time.
The remaining idealistic, reform-minded , basically honest and upright
among the younger officer corps have begun to see through the thin veil of
lies, deception and cooptation with which the Arroyo regime wishes to fool
them and keep them as loyal praetorian guards.
They have learned that in the face of oppression to rebel is justified. No
amount of suppression can suffice to keep these men and women in uniform
from making the correct decision and the correct moves in due time.
Business World / Posted by Bulatlat
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