Ex-Rangers head faces court martial

The former head of the Army’s elite First Scout Ranger Regiment who is accused of plotting a coup against President Arroyo faced a military prosecutor yesterday at the start of court-martial proceedings.

Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim did not formally answer the charges of mutiny, disrespect to the President, disobedience to superior officers, and conduct unbecoming and prejudicial to discipline as he faced the panel led by Col. Al Perreras, deputy chief of the Judge Advocate General’s Office (JAGO), for the first time yesterday.

Perreras gave Lim until Aug. 3 to refute the charges against him and set the next hearing for Aug. 10.

"With or without (Lim’s) counter-affidavit, the case will be deemed submitted for resolution," Perreras said.

Lim was remanded back to Camp Capinpin, where he has been detained since July 11.

A convoy of military vehicles, filled with heavily armed soldiers, escorted Lim to the hearing. Lim, 51, had been sacked for allegedly preparing a videotape of himself declaring his "withdrawal of support" from Mrs. Arroyo, his commander-in-chief, and for allegedly plotting to lead his men in the streets to join an opposition rally calling for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.

He has previously denied the charges.

Several other officers implicated in the plot are expected to appear before the military prosecutors next week.

The military previously said 175 soldiers and officers could face criminal charges for their alleged involvement in the plot.

At the hearing, investigators presented as evidence transcripts of a video of Lim declaring he was withdrawing support for Mrs. Arroyo.

The video, taken apparently before the failed Feb. 24 coup attempt, showed the West Point-trained Lim declaring he was withdrawing support for Mrs. Arroyo, allegedly as part of a wider plot to topple her.

The video was apparently intended to be shown on television during the coup attempt but was shelved after the plot was foiled. Earlier this month, the video re-surfaced and was aired on local news shows.

Perreras also furnished Lim with copies of affidavits, executed by military officers, that are part of the body of evidence against him.

Some of the military officers who executed affidavits against Lim are former Army and now Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Jose Reyes, Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga and AFP chief of intelligence Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang.

Also included were affidavits of two other primary accused over the botched Feb. 24 uprising, including ex-Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin.

Other officers implicated in the alleged coup also executed their affidavits. These are Col. Orlando de Leon and Lt. Cols. Achilles Segumalian and Jonathan Martir from the Marines and Lt. Col. Nestor Flordeliza and Maj. Jason Aquino of the First Scout Ranger Regiment.

Lim and Querubin, with Miranda’s knowledge, allegedly planned to lead a mass withdrawal of support from Mrs. Arroyo last Feb. 24.

A day before the planned withdrawal of support, Lim and Querubin, through Maclang, arranged a meeting with then AFP chief Gen. Generoso Senga to convince him to join them. Senga stopped the two but only after lengthy discussions with his major service commanders that lasted until the wee hours of Feb. 24.

Lim refused to talk to the media after appearing before the JAGO.

Incidentally, Perreras was a member of the prosecution panel that tried Lim and several others over the Dec. 1, 1989 coup, the bloodiest attempt to overthrow the Aquino administration, military records showed. Perreras and Lim were both captains then.

The trial for the 1989 coup dragged on until Lim, Querubin and their co-accused were granted amnesty by former President Fidel Ramos in the early 1990s.

Villain or hero?

To the AFP, Lim is a consistent coup plotter who must be taught a lesson.

But Lim’s lawyer, Vicente Verdadero, said his client should be hailed as a hero for playing a very important role in stopping the Feb. 24 coup d’etat.

Esperon had ordered Lim’s transfer from his quarters at Fort Bonifacio where he was under house arrest to a well-secured Army detention facility at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.

"This is to teach him (and the rest) a lesson," one senior military officer close to Esperon said. "If I were AFP chief, I would confine them all to quarters so they would learn their lesson. These coup attempts are repeated because only the lowest-ranked soldiers are punished."

The Lopez committee report, short of declaring him a recidivist, said Lim was among those court-martialled for his direct involvement in the bloody December 1989 coup.

In its findings, the Lopez ad hoc investigation committee found Lim — along with 40 other officers from the Scout Rangers and Philippine Marines — to have plotted to overthrow the Arroyo administration.

Lim and his group reportedly planned to lead his troops in withdrawing support from the Arroyo administration following a soldiers’ march towards the EDSA Shrine in Mandaluyong City on Feb. 24, according to the committee report.

But on Feb. 23, Lim — along with Querubin, later joined by Miranda and now retired Philippine National Police-Special Action Force commander Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco — tried to convince Senga to join them in their planned withdrawal of support from the government.

For his supposed role in the failed plot to topple the government, the Lopez committee recommended Lim be tried before a military court.

But Verdadero remains convinced his client is innocent of the coup charges.

"We will prove that he didn’t do such act. There’s no mutiny... not even an attempt," Verdadero said.

He said Lim should be hailed as a hero for preventing a coup from being launched by restive military junior officers.

"He (Lim) was here (Feb. 23 at Camp Aguinaldo) to inform the chief of staff of the report of the planned actions of the military. He came in civilian clothes. He was the only Scout Ranger here. If he had planned a coup, he could have brought his troops," Verdadero said of Lim’s visit to Senga on the night of Feb. 23.

After informing Senga about the planned coup, Lim was sent home after being asked to put an end to it, Verdadero claimed.

He also pointed out that Lim was in fact instrumental in the peaceful resolution of the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003.

He also said Lim recorded his controversial videotape as a trade-off to defuse the coup, but did not explain with whom or which group his client arranged the trade-off.

Verdadero also scored the airing of the videotape by a television network, saying it did not have the clearance of his client.

"So why should he be held liable for that? It should not have been aired. Was there a soldier who was encouraged by the video?" Verdadero said. — Jaime Laude, AFP