|
Scout Rangers, Marines and Special Action Forces
Officers under Investigation and Custody, in Detention, and/or Changed
=================
Brig.
Gen.
Danilo Lim
=================
Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani
=================
Maj. Gen.
Renato Miranda
=================
Col. Orlando de Leon
=================
Col. Ariel Querubin
=================
Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan
=================
Ltsg. Antonio
Trillanes IV
=================
Capt. Nicanor Faeldon
=================
Capt.
Rene Jarque
=================
Sen. & Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan
=================
Gen. Jose Almonte
=================
We Belong
=================
|
|
An Eulogy for Capt. Rene Jarque
Dennis Acop (West Point,
1983)
Julius Flores or Freddie
Mison is supposed to be standing here now delivering this eulogy for Rene
but since both are in the US, the task has become mine. The words that
follow are Julius Flores’ as they are mine.
When we heard of Rene’s
condition at a Jakarta hospital, we thought somehow he would fight his way
through. The vibrancy and boundless determination with which he tackled
everything in his life made this challenge seem surmountable. When Rene’s
loss finally sunk in, we simply couldn’t believe that someone so young, so
full of life, and with so much potential … is gone … and he is one of us.
Today, we honor Rene Jarque
and celebrate his life.
Rene was my plebe at West
Point and I was his Firstie. Curious to know who the new Filipino cadet was
in 1982, I easily found Rene since he stood out as a model cadet. The
academic year saw Rene put in “Old Corps” Company A-1 with his puny hair
divided in the middle, while I remained in I-1 --- so we were in the same
regiment, the First Regiment. Rene was an above average cadet. During the
little time off the academy that was afforded him, we would travel around
together along with Nap Taas and Julius Flores. We would travel as far south
as Virginia where then Army Attache Colonel Narcing and Susan Abaya would
welcome us. Rene was meek as a lamb then. He yet did not exhibit the fire
that was to characterize his personality in later life. But even then, his
already was the cheerful countenance and disposition, the infectious grin,
and he knew how to strut and breakdance.
Rene was a man of substance
and character --- a true warrior who fought his battles from the jungles of
the Cordilleras to the tangled maze of the politico-military bureaucracy.
Idealistic, articulate, visionary, fearless, uncompromising, even stubborn
--- Rene lived as he believed --- a life inspired by righteousness.
Manifesting a clear sense of what is right or wrong, he had little patience
for hypocrisy frequently challenging people to do the harder right than the
easier wrong. He would quote Edmund Burke who wrote that “the only thing
necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. Rene actually
fought our battles. Rene carried our aspirations. Armed with an uncanny
ability to look at the facts and digest them into an unabashed assessment of
what is real and what is right, Rene waged a crusade for righteousness that
somehow made us feel hopeful that things would eventually work out for the
better.
With clarity of purpose,
Rene epitomized Duty – Honor – Country --- those three hallowed words which
reverently dictate what we ought to be – what we can be – what we should be.
Arguing that our values and principles are non-negotiable whatever may be
the cost, he did everything within his humanly existence to advocate such
cause. He used his gift for writing whose products some of us are well aware
of. Rene put forth everything we wanted to yell in frustration. Rene brought
everything and anything to bear where injustice and wrongdoing existed. Rene
shouted out things that we were too afraid, too complacent, or too
discouraged to expose and fight for ourselves. Rene was called a ‘maverick’,
a ‘whistleblower’, a ‘renegade’. To think that the label “Renegade” contains
his name seems almost propitious. Rene rattled the system all in the hope of
making it come back leaner and stronger. He put people up to the challenge
and pulled them out of their comfort zones. And if this challenge were to
ruffle a few feathers, so be it, people could either stand down, retaliate,
or seek to meet the challenge head on.
In the mid-90s when Rene was
with J5, he and Gay (who still his girlfriend then) would occasionally drop
by my quarters in Camp Aguinaldo and dine with us. In one such visit, Rene
turned overly critical of the AFP that I admonished him reminding him that
he was still a member of the organization. That did not quiet Rene for he
shouted reforms even louder.
We can keep the memory of
Rene alive by honoring his aspirations, after all these are not solely
Rene’s but those of the institutions which molded us. Moreover, there is a
bit of Rene in each of us I think.
To Rene’s family, we know
that our feelings of loss from Rene’s sudden and untimely departure are
nothing compared to your grief at this moment. To Gay and children Ryan,
Maimai, and Hannah, Rene was truly a loving husband and a caring father. To
General and Mrs Jarque, Rene was a model son and to JingJing and Melissa, a
brother without par. To you all we are indebted for Rene’s sacrifices as we
are grateful for his leadership and example towards making this world a
better place.
We will miss Rene --- his
ceaseless energy, his dry wit, his far-reaching intellect, his challenges,
and we will miss that infectious grin and laughter.
But Rene is in a better
place now --- somewhere peaceful reserved only for him by God.
=====================================
Rene Jarque’s Fight: The Father’s View
Alexander Martin Remollino,
Bulatlat, August 28-September 3, 2005
Former Brig. Gen. Raymundo Jarque and his son Rene, a former captain – both
of the Philippine Army – share the distinction of eventually becoming
staunch critics of the high military leadership.
The
older Jarque
shocked the nation in 1995 with his
defection to the
communist New People’s Army (NPA).
His defection, he explains, was brought about by trumped-up graft charges
against him by his fellow officers.
For two years the older Jarque lived in the hills of his native Negros
Occidental, after which he surfaced to become a consultant of the National
Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in its peace negotiations with
the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). He is now back in
mainstream society, though he shows no signs of regret that he ever went
over to the other side, and is still being quoted in media interviews as
saying that the NPA is better than the AFP.
The younger Jarque witnessed military corruption early on, just shortly
after he graduated from the U.S. West Point Military Academy in 1986. He
joined the 1989 coup attempt in earnest desire for military reform, and when
that didn’t work out he turned to writing hard-hitting articles in the
various publications of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Because of these, he was subjected to various forms of harassment and was
even placed under surveillance. Disillusioned, he left the military fold in
1998, but he didn’t stop trying to push for reforms in the AFP. He continued
writing articles against military corruption, this time for the national
newspapers and magazines, and even joined anti-corruption groups like Action
against Corruption and Tyranny Now (ACT Now).
His sudden
death, from cardiac arrest,
last Aug. 19 came as a shock to many. He was just two months short of his
41st birthday.
This writer went to Rene’s wake and was able to talk to his father. What
does he think of military corruption, which his son and others fought
against in various ways? What does he think has been achieved so far in this
area, and what more does he think should be done?
Below are excerpts from the interview:
Capt. Rene Jarque was known as a staunch opponent of military corruption,
and his advocacy proceeded from incidents he himself had witnessed.
Did you also witness incidents of corruption in the military
during your time as a young officer?
There already was. During my time, there were sporadic practices of
corruption. It came to the point where the level went higher and higher,
because the higher headquarters saw that they could produce money out of
conversion.
But actually,
how come there is conversion especially in the Army?
When I was a battalion commander in Cotabato, we needed money. Example, you
have an operation today and you have a budget for one week and after that
your sardines run out, your rice runs out – so the operation is continuous
and your supplies are all used up. So if you have no cash and you are, for
example, in the Liguasan Marsh, your troops would not be eating anything the
next day, or you would loan for food. If you loan, you would have a problem
if you have no receivables, for what is your guarantee then? And normally,
if you request for additional budget, it takes time, because you have to
send the request and what will reach you is a piece of paper. But you have
to eat and your troops have no more rice.
So to accelerate the process, the commanders are allowed to convert
procurements into their cash equivalent. For example, you have on paper a
procurement worth ten pesos and you want it converted into cash. But you
also lose something there: for example you bring the paper to the store or
to the supplier, of course they should also profit from that. Out of ten
pesos, you get only eight while they take two, because that is like a ghost
purchase. But that time we were only talking in small amounts, only
thousands, needed by the troops. But there were some people who became
“wise” and the practice went to the higher levels and we were now talking in
terms of millions.
But tactically I’m in favor of that because the commanders need money
immediately for necessities of operations. But only in amounts just enough
to feed your troops. But to convert money for your personal use, that cannot
be done in our time. Say you’ll convert ten thousand pesos. Can you build a
house with ten thousand pesos? But now it has come to the level where we are
now talking in millions. It has reached Camp Aguinaldo. Senior officers saw
that they could control the release of funds.
So during your time there was
already the practice of conversion but that was only for immediate needs?
There already was, so those who are being interviewed by the media saying
there was none, they are liars. The people must understand that when you’re
in tactical operations, the lives of soldiers are at stake. But their lives
are simple, you only have to feed them. You can’t convert guns and
ammunition because they’re there. They need only rice and other food items.
But you need cash and you’re already in the field. The sari-sari stores
won’t loan out. So with the level of conversion in my time as a young
officer, you can’t get rich with it. Because we were not talking in millions
then.
To the best of your knowledge, when
did it begin to reach such high levels?
The practice started to reach high levels in the 1980s, and from there there
was no turning back. The latest development is that we have Gen. Carlos
Garcia getting into the hot seat for conversion. If he wasn’t caught by U.S.
Customs, the extent of conversion would not have been exposed. You had no
news of it. In the simplest terms, he was caught in the act. But as of now,
the practice continues. And the people are blind to the excessive wastage of
our budget, especially our military budget. It was just that General Garcia
was caught in the act. We have to put up strong measures now on how to cut
down that practice.
What do you think are the specific
measures that can be imposed to cut down on conversion and other forms of
military corruption?
One of the measures would be the abolition of the
comptrollership. The office should be scaled down. Because I remember, when
I graduated from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in 1961, I reported
to the comptroller, which was then only a section of the G4 or logistics.
But during the time of Gen. Fabian Ver as AFP chief of staff, they made the
comptroller co-level with the other staff officers. There is a saying that
“He who has the gold controls the world.” So others saw that there’s gold in
the comptrollership. Because the comptroller can just give you whatever he
wants to give you. You need 100 pesos, he can give you just five. The
comptroller became powerful.
So was former Navy Capt. Dan
Vizmanos correct when he said that military corruption became massive during
Martial Law?
Martial law? I don’t know if it was massive, but of course
during Martial Law, everything was under control. Everything. That brought
about the existence of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM). One of
its issues was corruption. Because at that time only General Ver and his
minions were controlling the Armed Forces. At that time you couldn’t tell
what was going to happen with your military career. Retireable officers’
terms were being extended for as long as 10 years, 15 years, that was what
was happening.
Rene joined the 1989 coup attempt
with the intention of pushing for reforms in the military. If you’re willing
to answer this, on which side were you when it broke out?
I was on the government side. I was a division commander. My
view then was that I would no longer join such attempts. EDSA was over and
there would be chaos again.
How did you feel that there was
this coup attempt in 1989 and you were on the government side and your son
was on the other side?
I didn’t really feel critical about it because the Visayas
where I was assigned is very far from Manila and the only action was in
Manila. It was so far from our division.If the coup plotters had won – there
is a saying, “To the victors belongs justice.” If they had won, what do I do
except to keep quiet about it? They want me relieved from the division, let
them relieve me. They want me charged, I’d ask for what offense. But I was
thinking, maybe they’d take pity on me because I didn’t fight them, I was in
the Visayas and they were in Manila. My troops didn’t move.
After 1989, Rene’s efforts to promote military reform were through writing,
and he was subjected to various forms of harassment. Yes, the senior
commanders got angry. Maybe they were included in the articles.
Every so often there are people like Rene who exert efforts to promote
reforms in the military – by whatever means, by any of the two means that he
chose to take.
What, in your
observation, have they achieved in terms of fighting corruption in the
military?
According to the news releases of the AFP, some progress has been made in
that area. I read in the newspapers that the finance people are now being
made to report directly to the chief of staff. I don’t know if there is now
a stronger audit control.
What do you think should be done so
that there could be far-reaching and long-lasting reforms in the AFP?
You have to revise old policies. There should be legislation
so that corrupt officials know that their practices are punishable by law.
One of the things I remember Rene
saying is that nothing short of revolutionary could reform the AFP. Would
you agree with him on that?
It depends on how “revolutionary” is defined. He must have
been thinking of something that is really radical, so the means could be
peaceful but the solution is radical. In one of his latest articles he was
talking of the constitutional soldier. The soldier must protect and defend
the Constitution.
=====================================
Rene Jarque:
A Filipino of Courage and
Conviction
Carol
Pagaduan-Araullo, Business World, 26-27 August 2005
Former army captain and
West Pointer Rene Jarque, eloquent and outspoken advocate of reforms in the
military establishment, is dead at age 40. In his abbreviated life, Rene had
metamorphosed from being a young, idealistic officer aiming to follow the
footsteps of his father, General Raymundo Jarque, in a distinguished
military career, to that of a crusader, seeking an end to the scandalously
corrupt, shamefully inept and intolerably abusive armed forces which he had
been a part of and gotten to know and understand well.
It is one of the ironies of life that Rene Jarque’s path and mine should
cross in a rather unique and non-adversarial context. I first met Rene in
1995 as he dutifully accompanied his father, General Jarque who, after
having defected to the New People’s Army, came down from the hills of Negros
to face the criminal charges leveled against him by feuding landowners and
then Public Prosecutor Aniano Desierto. I was part of a party of lawyers and
activists that met the General and provided him moral, legal and political
support as he faced an uncertain and risky future.
I must admit a measure of wariness when I met this army officer; my activist
instincts told me that despite his natural sympathy to his father’s plight,
it could not be assumed that he had become open, much less sympathetic, to
the Left as well. Our conversations were light but guarded; he struck me as
an intelligent, soft-spoken, respectful and non-confrontational person but I
reminded myself that I was talking to a dedicated and loyal military
officer.
I would hear about his military career suffering in the years to come; he
had been quietly placed in the freezer. Perhaps it had something to do with
his father’s spectacular defection to “The Enemy” that had indelibly marked
Rene as a non-conformist and potential troublemaker. Certainly, his critical
views about corruption, lack of professionalism and mismanagement in the AFP
that he wrote about unabashedly in military publications sealed his fate.
It came to the point that copies of
a military journal that he edited, was embargoed and set to the torch
because it contained an article exposing corruption in the military and
calling for reforms.
After Rene had prematurely been forced to retire from the military in 1998
and had started a new career as a business executive, I ran into him again
and learned that his passion for advocating wide-ranging reforms in the
military had not waned. Thereafter he would be tapped as a resource person
by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, In Peace- Mindanao and other progressive
groups especially after the so-called “Oakwood Mutiny” in July 2003 to
explain what was going on in the military.
In November 2003, Rene helped convene the
Action Against Corruption and Tyranny Now
or ACT NOW!, an alliance of personages and groups that was
appalled at the corruption during the incumbency of President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and vowed to animate a citizens’ movement against
government misrule, abuse and corruption.
Upon the initiative of Rene, the newly-formed anti-corruption network wrote
an open letter to the officers and men of the AFP calling on them to put a
stop to the practice of
“conversion”, literally converting public funds into private
monies by a series of criminal acts that involved the collusion of military
officials and private supply contractors and appropriating said funds to
enrich themselves. This was long before the scandal over the billions of
money allegedly siphoned off by General Carlos Garcia and his cohorts using
the strategic office of the military comptroller. Rene had hoped it would
send even a small ripple of appeal to the remaining decent elements in the
military establishment.
He also brought up a proposal to hold small forums inviting enlisted
servicemen and not just officers “to serve as an outlet for soldier's
grievances besides the PMAAA and the AGFO” and to provide a venue for the
men in uniform to meet with leaders of cause-oriented groups and exchange
views. He had hoped such efforts would help lift the veil of misconception
and prejudice that beclouded the mindset of each side.
I learned that Rene had resigned from his executive position in a
Manila-based firm and had accepted instead a job that required him to be
based for the most part in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. In the time
that he was back home, we had an opportunity to speak at the same forum on
corruption in the military in the wake of the case of
Gen. Carlos Garcia and
other implicated officers. We also attended the first hearing of the
military tribunal trying Gen. Garcia’s case. I could feel the questioning
looks of military men as they saw me enter the courtroom with the famous or
notorious Captain Rene Jarque, depending on one’s point of view.
In February of this year, ACT NOW! invited Rene to deliver a paper on
corruption in the military at a National Study Conference on Corruption held
at the University of the Philippines. He graciously agreed and since he was
abroad at the time, he was hooked up via long distance to answer questions
raised during the open forum.
Bishop Julio Labayen was at the conference and asked Rene
how he explained the phenomenon of reform-minded officers in the AFP as
dramatically revealed in the recent “Oakwood Mutiny”. Rene’s insights
impressed the good bishop who remarked that he was hopeful for change in the
AFP with advocates such as Rene persisting in his awareness raising efforts.
Captain Rene Jarque certainly belongs to a distinguished breed of Filipinos
because he had the courage of his
convictions, a moral courage displayed in the risky but principled choices
that he made that affected adversely “success” in his chosen career and even
his personal fortunes. Moreover, he persisted in his crusade while he could
have quietly faded away from the controversial limelight when he was
effectively forced to resign from the institution he loved and served to the
best of his ability and with his integrity intact. He was able to maintain
his links and command the respect of his peers and other active and retired
military officers precisely because, even when they disagreed with his
views,
they could not doubt his moral integrity,
intellectual honesty and willingness to make the necessary sacrifice to
advance his convictions.
Rene was a rare kind of intellectual: he was a critical thinker who could
not be satisfied with what has been ingrained in him but was open to the
truths that he learned as he matured, from his experiences as a young
officer fighting a counter-insurgency war in the hinterlands of Isabela
province to his stint as a staff officer with a promising career in the AFP
headquarters to his “downfall” as a maverick soldier railing against an
institution that had gone terribly awry.
Rene was broadminded enough to respect the views of those in the
revolutionary movement whose ideology and politics were diametrically
opposed to what he had been molded to believe but whose basic values and
concrete practice he had grown to admire.
Captain Rene Jarque remained a soldier at heart which is why he never gave
up writing and talking about what he felt was wrong in the military. He also
never gave up on the decent people he knew remained in the AFP.
In the last essay that he wrote, “What’s with the Armed Forces?” dated 25
July, he came up with some very radical proposals:
“There is indeed a dilemma. Military intervention can restore order but… if
the intervention is by the generals, no real change in politics and society
will happen. In fact, it could be worse if a military or military-controlled
government takes over… If the young officers intervene without the blessing
of the chain of command, it will be a bloody confrontation with the
“pro-government” forces. I think the
best combination for a military
intervention, if ever it happens or when it becomes “final solution” or
“fait accompli”, would be the younger generation of the Officer Corps
supported by broad popular support, including the progressive elements of
the left. Perhaps then, we can expect real change in
government.”
Rene Jarque’s legacy to the struggle to bring about an armed forces that
will truly serve the interests of the people and the country is surely
enshrined in the hearts and minds of the patriotic men and women in uniform.
Indeed, he has served his people and his country well and we are all very
proud of him.
=====================================
|
