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.com)
