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================= Details of the Military Report of the Feb. 24 Plot ================= ================= The February "Coup d'Etat" and the Left's Alliance with the Militay ================= Miriam Grace A, Go, Aries Rufo, Carmela Fonbuena, Newsbreak ================= Chronicle of the July and February Days in Manila ================= Coup de Main, Coup d'Etat or Coup de Theatre ================= ================= Intrigues, Kindness, Rock Music Wear Down Madalo Detainees ================= ================= ================= ================= ================= Coup VirusThrived in Flawed Democacy =================
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They Are Not Criminals Ramon Farolan, Inquirer, July 16, 2006
For a while, I thought it was a usual coverage of arrested suspects being presented by police officials who are eager to show they are on the ball, to the President or some Cabinet functionary. (Sometimes, those who are presented are suspected “jueteng” illegal numbers game operators or gambling lords; at other times, they are captured bank robbers, car thieves or even rapists.) Then I realized that the men in yellow T-shirts were junior officers belonging to the Magdalo group who had been arrested in an early morning raid in Quezon City. The news report on their capture noted that assorted firearms, hand grenades and explosive equipment were found inside the safe house where the officers were staying. A blueprint of the Batasan complex of the House of Representatives was also found among the documents recovered from the group. By coincidence, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is scheduled to deliver her State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Batasan on July 24. Let me make a few observations on this event. The junior officers arrested that day are not criminals. They do not deserve to be treated as such; and I was appalled that the AFP chief of staff, the PNP chief and the Army commander allowed themselves to be used in a photo opportunity that degraded and destroyed the dignity of these young officers. (Save this type of photo-ops for bank robbers, gambling lords or rapists!) Whatever they have done, these officers are your younger brothers. With all the power in your hands, you can discipline and mete out punishment if the charges against them are proven. But there is no need to humiliate and diminish them as human beings and fellow officers. Their actions that began with the Oakwood mutiny do not stem from a desire for personal gain or power. They stem mainly from having seen the injustice and corruption in our society, which has led to a strong desire for meaningful change. If the idea of subjecting these officers to shame and ridicule is to discourage others from taking a similar path, let me suggest that such action could have the opposite effect; it could instead engender resentment, bitterness and hostility among others in the organization. As to the firearms, explosives and a Batasan blueprint found in the possession of these officers, it would be wise for us to maintain a healthy skepticism in the face of extensive psywar activities aimed at conditioning the minds of our people. As the old refrain goes -- planting rice is never fun, planting evidence is much more fun. I am not suggesting that those pieces of evidence were planted, but these days one can never be sure of anything. We must also be wary of the sudden changes of heart among captured officers, like the one of Army Lt. Lawrence San Juan. Somehow, I am reminded of Alberto Mora who recently won the Kennedy Foundation’s “Profiles in Courage” award. Mora said “Cruelty disfigures our national character. It is incompatible with our Constitutional order, with our laws, and with our most prized values. Cruelty can be as effective as torture in destroying human dignity and there is no moral distinction between one and the other.” Respected journalists, members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines and the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association must be allowed regular visits and access to these detainees. =====================================
No Way to Treat An Officer Ninez Cacho-Olivarez, Tribune, July 19, 2006
As it turned out, during Lim’s habeas corpus hearing yesterday at the Court of Appeals, that jailhouse Esperon put him in had no water, no electricity and god-knows what else was missing in basic needs. But evidently, Esperon must have known of the conditions, yet he insisted on transferring Lim to that hell hole. But Esperon does not seem to care, as Army 1st Lt. Lawrence San Juan was placed under solitary confinement for four months, obviously to break his spirit, which apparently happened, as he surfaced finally from solitary confinement to pledge allegiance to the Arroyo government and even, so it was claimed by his superiors, ratted on his comrades. He too, will be part of the evidence- manufacturing machine. But isn’t it strange that whenever these renegade officers surface to pledge allegiance to Gloria, the first thing they do is to fire their lawyers, and get themselves a lawyer of their superiors’ choice? Is it because the military superiors know that if their original lawyers are retained, a lot of their violations of human and civil rights will be exposed? Apart from their perjured affidavits being prepared by their superiors, they are even told to point the finger at anything and anyone they want to link to a coup that never was. The same has been done to the five Magdalo officers who were caught in a rented home in Filinvest Village in Batasan Hills. Lt. Patricio Bumidang obviously had better treatment, as a few days after the capture, he was with the team, coming up with manufactured evidence. But not the rest, who are still in solitary confinement and denied access to their lawyers. What Esperon is squeezing out of the officers is a confession that was coerced through torture tactics, which an independent court of law should find inadmissible as evidence. Lim’s lawyer questioned the fact that his client was being detained without any charges. And what was the solicitor general office’s response? Why, it is already preparing the formal charges, as though the preparation of formal charges is enough basis to detain Lim. See how often this government violates the law and still has the gall to claim that it upholds the rule of law? Funny, but when it is the brass that are being accused of a crime, the first thing they do is to cover up the crime committed and even get the findings of an investigation sanitized after which the criminals are given absolution. Yet the crime was committed and the evidence points to their having committed the crime, not just against the Articles of War, the law and the Constitution but also against the Filipino people. They never get charged, detained but are even rewarded, as in the case of the infamous “Hello Garci” tapped conversations. Isn’t Esperon now chief of staff? Even in the case of the illegal raid, abduction, detention and torture of five Estrada supporters, the brass covered up again for their people who engaged in illegal acts, claiming that to identify the officers and men who stood accused, would unnecessarily destroy their reputations and even place them in danger. The same thing was said by Vice Adm. Mateo Mayuga in explaining why he could not make the report public on the Hello Garci controversy involving the military officers in vote-rigging in favor of their patroness, Gloria. Their affidavits cannot be made public, as this would place these witnesses in danger, the brass claimed. But it has been noted that in the case of those whom they want to punish, such as Lim, Ariel Querubin and a host of others, they quickly brand them as enemies of the state, accuse them of conspiracy, of staging a coup d’etat and even leak to the media the military report on the alleged February coup. Obviously, the brass think nothing of destroying their reputations and even accuse them of any and all crimes that they cannot even prove. Esperon is to be the next chief of staff, but he will find that no matter his hard stance, and all the propaganda, he will not be able to professionalize the military. For how can he expect to do this, when he himself has been found to be highly unprofessional and a violator of the rights of people, whether a military man or a private citizen? =====================================
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WHEN
we returned home from an extended visit abroad, the first newspaper I picked
up carried the photos of several men, dressed in yellow T-shirts, being
presented to the media by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of
Staff Gen. Generoso Senga. He was flanked by the Philippine National Police
(PNP) chief, Police Director General Oscar Calderon, and Philippine Army
commander Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon. A quick glance at my TV set showed
the same scene: men in yellow T-shirts being paraded before the media.
It
was incoming Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon who insisted that, as he
had custodial rights over Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, he would promptly order the
transfer of Lim from his quarters to the detention cell in Camp Capinpin,
Tanay, Rizal, where he said the facilities were escape-proof.