By Alejandro Lichauco
The Daily Tribune
12/18/2008

The fate of the GMA regime — whether it will meet the fate of Marcos and Erap or survive calls for its ouster — won’t be determined by the political opposition or even by the parliament of the streets. That fate will be determined by the outcome of the struggle between two ideologically opposed views raging within the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

What are those views?

One is represented by AFP Chief Alexander Yano. And the other is represented by Gen. Danny Lim of the prestigious Scout Rangers and currently under arrest for his alleged complicity in a plot to politically pre-terminate the term of this government.

At the height of the Dec. 12 rally against Constituent Assembly (Con-ass), there was wide expectation that the AFP, through General Yano, will formally announce that the AFP was withdrawing its support for the regime. In brief, that Yano will do an Angelo Reyes when the latter, as then chief of staff under the Erap government, turned against the nation’s Commander-in-Chief at the height of a militant protest demanding Erap’s resignation.

The declaration of withdrawal just didn’t come about. Instead, General Yano issued a statement reiterating the AFP’s allegiance to the regime on grounds that the Constitution as well as the democratic process requires that the AFP’s allegiance to the incumbent regime be maintained.

The Yano statement, which was reported in the Star was an explicit repudiation of the view that the regime is illegitimate and corrupt and, being illegitimate and corrupt, doesn’t deserve the support of the AFP which is mandated by the Constitution to protect the people and the State.

In arguing his position, Yano implied that Edsa ll was a mistake. It was a pointed reference to Edsa ll, when an incumbent president was forced out of office by the AFP withdrawal of support. Yano claimed that the AFP “has a already matured,” and that it “won’t allow itself to be used as shortcut or a quick-fix solution to resolve political and social issues.”

Yano, of course, can’t be blamed for taking that position in light of the growing popular realization that the forcible ouster of the Erap government was, after all really a mistake. What Yano was in brief saying was that for all the sins attributed to the current regime, the lesson of Edsa ll shouldn’t be forgotten. If it was a mistake then for the AFP to withdraw support for the sitting government of Erap, the AFP shouldn’t commit that same mistake today by withdrawing support for an equally sitting government of GMA.

You will have to admit that the Yano position has an appeal of its own to common logic.

Yano’s position, of course, was bolstered by the fact that the Dec. 12 rally wasn’t a rally calling for GMA’s ouster. It was a rally protesting Con-ass.

Now, as to the opposite position. That position was stated by Gen. Danny Lim in a manifesto read for him by Bishops Tobias at a press conference two weeks ago.
Lim’s position was that GMA’s regime is illegitimate and that because of its corruption, the regime has “become the greatest continuing threat to the security, cooperative spirit, well being and sense of nationhood of the Filipino people.”
“A true leader,” Lim emphasized, — is a symbol of unity and a rallying figure especially in difficult times. A bogus leader is divisive and stays in power to the detriment of the good and the national interest.

Lim then proceeded to define the kind of leadership which he believes can save the nation. He called for a nationalist leadership that would challenge colonial masters and their local surrogates, abandon debt payments, push industrialization and sustainable agrarian reform.

‘There isn’t any question that is the Yano and Lim statements, respectively, issues have been joined. There isn’t any turning back and it remains to be seen which of the two opposed views and mindset will eventually command the support of the rank and file of the AFP, or at least those in positions of strategic command within the AFP.

There isn’t any question either that the opposing views of Yano and Lim represent a fundamental conflict between the traditional, conventional mindset of the military, on one hand, and the mindset of an emerging faction within the military resolved to bring about the fulfillment of Bonifacio’s unfinished revolution. It is a mindset reflected in the very name which that emerging faction has chosen to give itself: The Bagong Katipunan.

The fate of this regime will largely depend on the outcome of the ongoing struggle between the mindset represented by Yano and the mindset represented by Lim and the Bagong Katipunan. And the civilian sector will eventually have to make up its mind which faction and mindset to support.

In a sense, it can be said that the civil war which many have feared could eventually come about has actually started within the AFP.

By Ellen Tordesillas
December 15, 2008
www.ellentordesillas.com

The military’s seniority and merit systems are again being strained to protect the illegitimate presidency of Gloria Arroyo.

One of the military officials whose promotion is awaiting confirmation by the Commission on Appointments is Brig. Gen. John Martir.

Martir is one extremely lucky guy. Despite a pending case of malversation of funds and falsification of documents before the Ombudsman, the Board of Generals recommended him for promotion to two-star rank (major general). This is the Martir’ second promotion in six months. Last June he was confirmed as brigadier general despite his having gone on AWOL (absent without leave) for more than one year ( 477) days during the period July 1998 to January 2000.

What’s Martir’s main qualification? He and former AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon were the prime movers to have the nine Marine officers led by Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, former commandant of the Marines, detained and charged with violations of the Articles of War, together with 19 Army Scout Rangers led by Brig, Gen. Danilo Lim in connection with a non-event in Februay 2006. He is one of the witnesses that the prosecution will present in the trial of the mutiny case against Miranda et al that will start on Dec. 19.

Of the nine Marine officers Esperon and Martir put in prison, two are Medal of Valor awardees – Col. Ariel Querubin and Lt. Col. Custodio Parcon.

Martir is now Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for communication, electronics and information, a position that requires two-star rank.

Aside from that, Martir needs the much- sought second star for the position of Marine commandant that Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino will be vacating when he moves up to either Western Mindanao Command or Western Command based in Palawan.

But Dolorfino cannot just yet vacate the position of Marine commandant because the most senior among the contenders for the position is the highly respected Maj. Gen. Juancho Sabban, commander of Task Force Comet, an anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency unit.

Military sources despite Sabban’s impressive combat record, Malacanang does not consider him “theirs”. In the same way that Sabban did not allow himself to be used in Malacanang’s “Hello Garci” operation to tamper the 2004 election results in Arroyo’s favor, he cannot be expected to be used if and when Arroyo decides to impose emergency rule.

A Marine commandant has authority over a corps of some 8,000 highly-trained men. Because of the Philippine Marines’ history of activism, Malacanang wants it under an Arroyo loyalist and the one that perfectly fits the bill is Martir.

It would, however, be a blatant disregard of the military’s seniority and merit system if Sabban would be bypassed by a one-star general. Thus, it is imperative that Martir gets his two-star and be in command of the Marines as the nation enters a very critical period next year.

Arroyo’s political allies in the House of Representatives, notably Camarines Sur’s Luis Villafuerte (2nd district) said their timetable is to convene a constituent assembly, without the participation of the Senate, in January to amend the Constitution. They expect anti Cha-cha advocates to bring the issue to the Supreme Court, which does not bother them a bit because the appointment of new justices would solidify Arroyo’s hold on the high court.

Villafuerte is confident that an Arroyo-loyalist -packed Supreme Court will uphold a Senate-less Con-Ass legal to pave the way for a referendum not later than September 2008. With the local government officials well taken care of by Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, it should be a smooth march to a “Gloria Forever” Constitution.

This is, of course, perversion of the Constitution and trampling of democracy that our forefathers shed their blood for.

The anti Cha-Cha advocates, which now cover the whole range of religious and political spectrum, are threatening more protest actions reminding Arroyo of the 2001 ouster of Joseph Estrada (which paved the way for her takeover of Malacanang) happened in January and that of Ferdinand Marcos 22 years ago, in February.

There are talks that if Arroyo cannot push Cha-Cha, as what happened in December 2006 when a De Venecia express railroaded the passage of a resolution to convene a Con-Ass only to withdraw it a few days after when all religious groups including the Iglesia ni Cristo warned her against pushing it further, she would have to create a situation to justify emergency rule. Anything that would justify her continued stay in power beyond 2010.

Under this scenario, Arroyo’s problem would be the cooperation of the armed forces. It is doubtful if she can get the cooperation of AFP Chief Alexander Yano, who has so far conducted himself with utmost decency. Yano’s retirement is still in June 2009.

The names being mentioned whom Arroyo can depend on to execute her authoritarian scenario are Maj. Gen. Delfin Bangit, Brig. Gen. Romeo Prestoza, and Martir.

Bangit and Prestoza are certified Arroyo loyalists having secured her as chiefs of the Presidential Security Group. Bangit, who is currently the commander of the Southern Luzon Command, once headed the Intelligence Service of the AFP which Prestoza now oversees.

Bangit has been promoted to three-star rank and like Martir is awaiting CA confirmation.

By Alejandro Lichauco
The Daily Tribune
12/11/2008

On top of the rising hunger, you have political chaos. Or, if you will, on top of the political chaos, you have the rising hunger. Whatever, even the most fanatic devotee of civilian government and democracy will have to agree that the political system, elections and political pros — or what pass off as trapos — and that bull they call “democracy” — aren’t the answer to the hunger and the chaos. The longer the political system stays, the more chaos and the more hunger. And the more hunger, the more chaos.

Both the political system and the hunger must go, or the social fabric — or whatever remains of it — simply disintegrates, as in fact it is already disintegrating in slow motion fashion.

If the well-off think they can insulate themselves from it all, then they are plain crazy. We are in the grip of our own version of an ongoing French Revolution and you know how that revolution ended: In the guillotine for the nobility and the ruling class.

There’s only one answer to the hunger and the political chaos. And that’s the obliteration of the political system that has produced the types you see in Congress agitating for Constituent Assembly (Con-ass). The political insanity and insane arrogance that they represent are more than proof enough that the system must go because it is the system that has produced them and it is they who have produced the hunger. Only these people have succeeded to enrich themselves in a situation where everybody or just about everybody else is going hungry and getting impoverished.

What then is the answer?

History provides the answer. And history says that when you have the kind of demonic chaos and all-pervasive political evil that have our society in grip today, the only solution is a military nationalist solution. The kind of military nationalist solution represented by the Col. Nassers or Gen. Park Chung-hees or General Suharto or Gen. Chiang Kai-shek or even General Francos of the modern world.

The military nationalist solution explains the Asian economic miracle. South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand only 50 years ago were far worse off than the Philippines today. But look where they are now. Thanks to Gen. Park Chung-hee, Gen. Chian Kai-shek, General Suharto and to the chain of military governments that governed Thailand for 30 years beginning in the 1930s. All these nations rose from literally nothing to become NICs, or newly industrialized countries, of Asia. If they had taken to the “democratic” path of the Philippines, they would still be in the garbage heap today.

But is a military nationalist solution in the Philippines possible at all? Of course it is, and it is long overdue. Lurking at the corner and nestled in the very breast of the Armed Forces are idealistic, patriotic and nationalistic young men and women just waiting to emerge from the garbage heap of the traditional military establishment.

The Armed Forces, true enough, as an institution have degenerated along with the degeneration of the political system. But unlike the political system, the Armed Forces has a clearly defined class of redeeming elements typified by the likes of Gen. Danilo Lim, Colonels Querubin, Faeldon and Miranda, Capt. Antonio Trillanes and the late Captain Jarque. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Lims, Faeldons, Mirandas, Trillaneses and Jarques in the Armed Forces today and they don’t have any counterpart in the political system.

Along with these patriotic rebels in the Armed Forces, most of whom are junior officers, you have at the upper level the likes of Generals Yano and Luna, rare senior officers whose reputation and integrity remain unblemished. And they now occupy top, strategic positions of command.

One suspects that it is these “liberators” whom the five bishops saw when they called for a new government. And these “liberators,” as the bishops described them, are just around the corner.

In time, sooner or later, and sooner than later, these “liberator” will surface and step into the forefront to redeem the institution they represent — and to redeem the entire nation as well.

For they belong to the only institution in the world — the Armed Forces — whose members are pledged to die for country. There isn’t any other institution in the world which exacts that pledge from its devotees.

So, people of the Philippines — those in hunger and starving particularly and who constitute the overwhelming majority — don’t despair. That’s exactly what those Con-asses want you to do. Despair. It is they instead who should despair — if their sight hasn’t been completely blighted by their corruption to see a new dawn coming.
General Lim said it all in a statement calling for a new government and read for him by Bishops Tobias and Yniquez a week ago. “This country’s” he said, “needs leaders of heroic and nationalist stature who would champion genuine independence in every aspect of our national life… abandon obscene foreign debt payment, push industrialization, sustainable agrarian reform and ensuring food independence.”

It took raw courage for Lim to say that in the isolation of his prison cell. But he said it, as Ninoy did. And there are hundreds of Danny Lims just waiting to emerge with the new dawn.