Biazon asks AFP to explain remarks of its spokesman

Senator Rodolfo Biazon yesterday urged leaders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to explain the remarks of its spokesperson, Col. Tristan Kison, who reportedly said the legitimate opposition is an enemy of the state.

Biazon, who was in Cebu City yesterday as keynote speaker of the Second National Conference on Population, Health and Environment, has advised the military "not to be intoxicated with a sense of power."

Kison reportedly said that, "The legitimate political opposition is now regarded as an enemy of the state by the military under the Arroyo Regime. Any dialogue they had with officers and men in uniform without the express consent of the military top brass will be met with necessary action. The military can make or break the government."

"I hope the direct quote about the political situation in the country attributed to AFP Spokesman Col. Tristan Kison is not reflective of the AFP leadership's frame of mind but it is only a personal opinion of this Colonel. And if this is so, the AFP leadership has the obligation to reign in this AFP spokesman," Biazon said.

The senator, who is also the chairman of the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security, said that Kison's statement seem to indicate that the AFP is setting aside all of the democratic institutions and institutional processes in the country which includes the legitimate political opposition and has assumed sole proprietary authority and responsibility over the government and the people.

"To declare that the legitimate political opposition is now considered by the military as the enemy of the state is sending a chill along the spine of freedom loving people," he warned.

Biazon said that Martial Law has not yet been declared and yet the military arrogated upon itself the power to intervene in the political and institutional processes of this democracy.

"The military has no business prescribing restraints upon political institutions including the legitimate political opposition," Biazon asserted.

He cautioned that Kison's remarks has reduced the office of the Presidency to a mere stamp pad of the AFP's biddings and all the other democratic institutions and institutional processes put in adversarial position which is a "no-contest" situation considering that the AFP has the brute force of arms.

"These restraints now prescribed by Col. Kison cannot tie up the hands of the representatives of all the Filipino people and that is Congress. And soldiers are also constituents of these duly elected representatives," he said. - Gregg M. Rubio