‘I’m not in hiding, only inaccessible’

Sen. Gregorio Honasan denied he has gone underground and said he was determined as ever to push through his bid for the presidency next year despite the coup d’etat charges filed against him by the government.

In a teleconference, Honasan explained that he left Manila to visit various areas of the country and seek support for his proposed National Recovery Program.

"I have not gone underground," he said. "I continue to coordinate with Senate President Franklin Drilon and Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III."

"I’m just inaccessible and I will continue to be inaccessible until the state of rebellion declared by President Arroyo... is lifted," Honasan said.

Honasan said he believed the Arroyo administration was bent on harassing the opposition, particularly those who have declared their intention to run for president in 2004.

"I’m outside Metro Manila, but I am performing my duty as a senator by consulting all possible sectors to get more support for my proposed national recovery program," the former Army colonel who led several coup attempts against then President Corazon Aquino in the 1980s said.

It is this national recovery program that has prompted the government, led by Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr., to suspect Honasan may have been involved in the July 27 mutiny.

Copies of pamphlets detailing Honasan’s national recovery program were found at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center in Makati City, along with weapons and military gear left behind by some 300 mutinous soldiers of the Magdalo group.

Honasan said he has not yet hired a lawyer, but is not worried about his lack of legal counsel. "There will always be lawyers who, at the proper time, will defend me. I have no lawyer yet, right now," he said.

He also said the accusation against him is more than just a direct attack on the opposition, but against the Senate as an institution.

"This is between the Senate and Malacañang and, as co-equal bodies, Malacanang cannot run roughshod (over) the Senate," he said.

"The filing of charges based on fabricated evidence and false testimonies is another demonstration of President Arroyo’s grand plan to remove all roadblocks to advance her naked ambition to extend her term beyond 2004. One by one, all the presidential contenders are being neutralized using the instruments of the state," Honasan said.

Honasan cited the cases of former education secretary Raul Roco, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and businessman Eduardo Cojuangco, "all of whom have been the targets of recent attacks by the administration."

"All of them are now facing various charges filed by the agents of the state," Honasan said.

"Under the prevailing reign of terror from this so-called state of rebellion, which is nothing but martial law in disguise, I cannot expect justice from this administration and its agents. This is the state unleashing all its powers, not merely to harass, but to persecute the legitimate opposition in the pursuit of President Arroyo’s reelection bid for 2004," he said.

Under Article I, Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code, "Any person who has been declared by competent authority insane or incompetent, or has been sentenced by final judgment for subversion, insurrection, rebellion or for any offense for which he has been sentenced to a penalty of more than eighteen months or for a crime involving moral turpitude, shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any office, unless he has been given plenary pardon or granted amnesty."

Honasan asked Malacañang to "sober" up and stop its witch hunt against the opposition.

The senator added that he cannot say whether or not there will be more coups to come against the Arroyo administration. "How can I say if there will be more coups, when what happened in Makati is an independent act of the junior military officers of the AFP?"

"There is no blood compact" between Honasan and the July 27 mutineers known as the Magdalo group, the senator said. The blood compact reportedly took place at a June 12 meeting between Honasan and the disgruntled junior officers.

"I cannot guarantee that (a mutiny) will not happen again because I am not in control of them," he added. "I was not ... engaged in a situation like (the July 27 mutiny)... Evidence (is) either destroyed or fabricated. All these allegations are merely based on intelligence reports."

"I will have to run (for president)," Honasan said. "There is now a greater demand for the platform of the national recovery program. We have to recover from all this."

"I will be running for president as an independent," he added.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc. (PGBI) issued a statement calling for sobriety and denying rumors that it is mobilizing its 600,000 members to further destabilize the government.

PGBI spokesman Ernesto Macahiya said PGBI has "no plans of leading our now restless brothers, both in the AFP and PNP (Philippine National Police), as well as civilian comrades, to a situation which runs counter to what our constitution and by-laws ask us to be and do."

"We are not like the corrupt officials of the military and PNP establishments who have wantonly fattened their pockets at the expense of their foot soldiers and subordinates," he added.

The rumors that PGBI is mobilizing its members as part of a destabilization plot, he said, are coming from the Intelligence Service of the AFP and the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

"Newly appointed ISAFP chief Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay and (PNP-CIDG head) Chief Superintendent Eduardo Matillano had to rationalize the huge budgets of their respective agencies," Macahiya said.

"The pernicious graft and corrupt practices of generals, commodores and chief superintendents, (and) their wives and children, (of) cornering police (or) military suppl(ies) and service procurements are already known to all — (it is) the major source, in fact, of their lavish lifestyles," he added.

"I then call for our troops to be calm, but... remain unafraid and undeterred," Macahiya said. "We must continue our struggle for meaningful social reforms."

These will be done to "peacefully intensify consultations and discussion on the national recovery program — our blueprint and vision for a new Philippines," Macahiya said.