YOU vows: No more coups

Members of the "true" Young Officers’ Union drafted a manifesto yesterday, vowing that they are not plotting to overthrow the one-year-old Arroyo administration.

About 20 mid-level officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, a number of them battalion commanders, are coming out of the shadows and identifying themselves by putting their signatures to the manifesto that they will present to President Arroyo, in time for the first anniversary of people power II.

Among the officers are Col. Danny Lim, now the deputy commander of the Army’s elite Scout Ranger Regiment, who as a captain led the siege of Makati’s commercial district in the December 1989 coup, the bloodiest of seven attempts to topple the administration of Corazon Aquino.

"We have renounced violence and coup d’etats," part of the statement reads. "We are not plotting against the administration."

In the manifesto, the group vowed to "fight to the death" any coup attempt as it committed itself to the Constitution, the rule of law, the commander-in-chief, the chain of command and the people.

The group clarified that it had not appointed any spokesman, adding that YOU was dissolved after the group forged a peace agreement with the government together with the rightist Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM) in October 1995.

Those who claim to speak for the YOU, the manifesto says, are mere "rabble rousers."

The group, composed of officers from the Scout Rangers, Marines, Air Force, Navy and Constabulary, said it delivered the "warm bodies" in the coup attempts during the Aquino administration, starting with the one on Aug. 28, 1987.

Several members were later dropped from the rolls. After the peace agreement, some officers were reintegrated into the uniformed services. Others opted to remain as civilians.

"We are no longer the young officers of yesteryears," the draft manifesto reads. "We wish that the government give us another chance."

The group, which refers to itself as a "former organization," called for national unity "for the sake of our people."

Malacañang sources said a gathering of all the officers and men who participated in the coup attempts during the Aquino administration is being planned to coincide with the anniversary celebration of the 1986 people power revolt next month.

The YOU manifesto comes on the heels of an assurance given by retired Commodore Domingo Calajate, chairman of the RAM’s executive committee, that the group is through with launching coup attempts.

For several weeks the nation has been awash with rumors of a brewing coup. The other day, 14 major business groups issued a joint statement saying the coup rumors would delay the nation’s economic recovery amid the global slowdown.