A tale from two generals
March 21, 2005 | 12:00am
Your Armed Forces is totally committed towards genuine reform as shown in the past and current efforts. We have learned a vital lesson that the institutionalization of these reforms would depend on the cooperation of our stakeholders. – Gen. Efren Abu, AFP Chief of Staff
Ironically, a reforming AFP could present a mortal danger to a Philippine State which is unable –or unwilling – to reform itself. – Gen. Jose Almonte, former National Security Adviser
As I write this piece, the morning headlines are screaming about the successful assault by government troops of Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan in order to quell an ill-starred uprising by Abu Sayyaf detainees there.
Personally, I never had the dubious pleasure of sampling the hospitality of the Bicutan facility, having been released from stints in the Camp Crame and Fort Bonifacio stockades during the early years of martial law when Bagong Diwa was still being constructed.
However, I’ve seen newspaper photos of the facility – your usual standard-issue prison building, squat, ugly – but apparently not as secure, it seems, as it may have looked from the outside. I can almost smell the tear-gas smoke from the assault, hear the automatic rifle fire and the screams of the wounded – very much like a movie scene, except that the dying and the killing are for real.
Normally I would be troubled by "resisting arrest" stories, which are so closely associated in my mind with the dark days of "salvaging" during martial law, or with equally grimy anecdotes about rogue cops and soldiers killing their criminal accomplices in order to protect themselves.
But this instance appears to be different. The prison mutineers were conventionally armed. They belonged to a terrorist organization that has arguably exempted themselves – together with their fellow jihadists abroad – from civilized treatment because of their contempt for civilized behavior. And there were hundreds of other uninvolved prisoners who could have been caught in the cross-fire.
Even local Muslim leaders described the assault as the "wrath of Allah" brought down upon the terrorists for "following the path to wickedness," Evidently, Commander Robot (with or without his crutches) and his ilk, sorry to say, have not earned their expected admission ticket to paradise.
We’re talking here about the same Gen. Abu who, so early into his new job, is already beginning to turn the AFP upside down – for starters, by abolishing the corruption-ridden Comptrollership Staff and now the Logistics Command, bringing the former function under his direct oversight and delegating the latter to the field.
Atty. Homobono Adaza questioned the general’s ability to lead the AFP because he didn’t act on the promotion of a disgruntled intelligence officer and ordered him confined to quarters. Note that this officer may have figured in a destabilization plot and also claims to hold both law and medical degrees – a claim that understandably is being questioned by the AFP.
Counsel believes that Abu’s actions showed personal bias as well as lack of leadership. In another world more grounded in common sense, his actions, of course, would be taken as evidence of prudential decisiveness. We can only hope that the honorable gentlemen in the Commission of Appointments likewise recover their common sense, quickly.
Almonte focused squarely on the problem of corruption in the Armed Forces. This is exemplified by the practice of "conversion" of programmed funds into ad hoc expenditures that too often include the personal enrichment of a privileged few officers. The biggest victims of this thievery are the soldiers in the field who are deprived of basic necessities like ammunition, clothing, and medicines.
The officers who thus put at risk not only their mission, but also the very lives of the men entrusted to them, deserve to be meted out the appropriate military punishment. And yet too often they are protected by misplaced fraternal loyalties within the officer class.
This systematic cover-up effectively converts the crimes of only a few into the sins of the complicit many. It compromises – perhaps fatally – any claims to the moral ascendancy that must be required of men who have been entrusted by their fellow citizens to bear arms for the greater good.
• Increase the AFP’s budget. What seems unreasonable at first glance becomes less so when Abu points out that defense spending accounts for only about 1.4 percent of the country’s GDP, compared to an average of 3.5 percent among our ASEAN neighbors who, moreover, don’t face the same insurgency problems.
• Reduce political interference in the AFP’s professional affairs. This crucially includes a promotion system that should be based solely on merit and seniority. In his speech, Almonte highlighted the need for a fixed and secure tenure for the chief of staff, replacing the revolving-door policy promulgated by the current commander-in-chief.
• Reorient the AFP towards the waging of war as its main business. Civic action and road-building are nice to have. But in a time of brazen jihadists and unrepentant Maoists who consider the peace process as just another form of warfare, the AFP must go back to basics and focus on defeating what Abu euphemistically calls the "threat groups in the field."
But therein also lie both the danger and the opportunity. As Almonte points out:
"If the military should reflect the corruption and incompetence in national society, then the military will aggravate this corruption and incompetence beyond the tolerance of ordinary people.
"But if, on the other hand, the military should remain professional in a state run by corrupt and incompetent politicians, then this professional military will – sooner or later – be moved by popular demand to take over such a mismanaged society."
"States cannot always be resolving their problems with people power. We must break this unsustainable political cycle before it gets out of control and causes national society to implode.
"This is why you and I must ensure the reform movement in the armed forces inspires a similar – and wider – movement in the whole of the Philippine State.
"…We must level the playing field of enterprise – so that a free national market can begin to reform our politics…We must level the playing field of our politics – so that it can begin reforming our democracy of stalemate.
"Because only a reformed, democratic politics can give direction – and civic discipline – to the market, the military, and the whole of national society."
The fourth winner, Colby, represents another trend – that of immigrant families who find their way back home through their accomplished young – in this case, the Montero brothers. The children of the diaspora are joining hands with those who never left, forming a great arc of youthful, good-looking, ambitious nationhood. Here’s looking at you, kids, and more power to all of you!
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