Another soldiers’ group threatens coup vs Arroyo

A shadowy group of young military officers and enlisted personnel is threatening to launch a coup against the Arroyo administration.

In a two-page manifesto, the Patriotic Filipino Soldiers of the Filipino People (PFSAFP) blamed President Arroyo for the widespread corruption in government.

"GMA failed us," read the manifesto which is being circulated at Camp Aguinaldo, the main military headquarters, in Quezon City.

"The betrayal made by the present administration to our brothers-in-arms will never be forgotten. More than three months have elapsed since the Oakwood protest, but still reforms were not made, and the terms of agreement still blatantly violated," it said.

Signed by a certain 1Lt. Andres Maypag-asa, who claimed to be the group’s leader, the manifesto threatened that the group will "take the matter directly in solving the country’s problems" if the leaders of government will not heed its call for change.

The PFSAFP also blamed "widespread corruption in the military" for the death of 1Lt. Jeremy Gay-ya, who had exposed the deployment of "ghost" militiamen in Bicol.

Gay-ya’s death was "stage-managed" to silence him, the PFSAFP added.

However, Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero, AFP public relations chief, said Gay-ya died after he fell from a cliff during anti-insurgency operations at Mt. Isarog in Bicol last month.

Lucero said the manifesto is "plain and simple propaganda" by anti-government forces to convince other soldiers to join them.

"Well this is just a dream for them, but we believe that nobody will ever join them," he said. "This is a mere propaganda aimed at destroying the capability of the AFP."

Lucero said the circulation of the manifesto is a clear violation of military rules and regulations.

"We’ve got already the mechanism for the AFP to hear their complaints so I guess the manner by which this is done is already a violation of the mechanism," he said.

At the same time, retired military and police generals met with Sen. Panfilo Lacson at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Some members of the Association of Generals and Flag Officers in Command were around to support Lacson’s presidential bid.

Prominent among the police generals were Chief Superintendent Francisco Zubia, and Directors Victor Batac and Reynaldo Acop.