‘Mutiny best argument to amend charter’

House Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzalez said yesterday the uprising of junior military officers is the "best argument" to amend the Constitution.

Gonzalez said the provision stating that "the Armed Forces is the protector of the people" should be deleted as it has become a justification for military adventurism.

‘This (provision) is being used as a smokescreen for their adventurism," he said. "In all coups, it is the one being used (to justify coups)."

Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution has emboldened some members of the military to consider themselves as "a monolithic force" that everybody must follow, he added.

Gonzalez said he was filing a resolution calling for an investigation into the curriculum and doctrines being taught at the Philippine Military Academy at Fort del Pilar in Baguio City.

"What kind of doctrine are they teaching that the (graduates) think they are indispensable to society?" he asked.

Gonzalez said he had earlier raised a howl over a slogan of the Armed Forces a few years ago, stating "Your freedom... our responsibility." — Paolo Romero