Palace to go after Gringo’s coddlers

Malacañang vowed yesterday to run after former senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan’s protectors as well as his cohorts in moves to destabilize the government.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and other officials said a "broad conspiracy" was thwarted and the "destabilizers’ backbone was broken" with Honasan’s arrest. The country can now look forward to stability, Ermita added.

President Arroyo was elated by the news, according to her spokesman, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye.

But their optimism was guarded amid the possibility that enemies of the administration remain active.

Believing that Honasan had help, Ermita stressed that the alleged coup plotter was "no ordinary person" for managing to evade arrest for almost eight months.

"Well, that should be an assumption, otherwise he cannot move around freely," he told a press briefing. He refused to speculate who might have helped Honasan.

Several individuals including businessmen and former government officials were investigated for possible involvement in the February coup attempt to which Honasan was linked.

Honasan was also linked to a 2003 mutiny of young officers who took over a shopping complex in Makati City and ringed it with bombs over complaints of corruption within the military leadership.

Ermita called on the Arroyo administration’s political enemies who may still be out to undermine the government to give it up.

"The people are tired of these acts," he said, adding that the government was hopeful that Honasan’s arrest would discourage any further attempts to topple President Arroyo.

"We hope they would lose steam to further pursue their objective. Our country has been pitiful. We have good economic figures now because of what we have been doing for political stability."

Ermita’s confidence, however, was tempered, acknowledging that the government’s political enemies may still pursue their campaign.

"We just hope that this will signal that we are moving forward towards real political stability," he said. "So we must make sure that there are no more plotting and asking for contributions (to) be able to launch some serious ones. So you can be sure that the government will pursue the cases against these people."

Ermita doubted that Honasan will get any political considerations, pointing out that he went into hiding.

Political opposition leader Vicente Sotto III claimed that Honasan had sent emissaries and was ready to turn himself in but Ermita said he was unaware of that.

"It’s something that should be looked into if indeed that is true. But he should have just given up and presented himself peacefully. But what happened was he even attempted to escape and even got injured in the process," he said. "Somehow there should have been attempts to contact us and say go slow on him, but there was none."

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez confirmed that Honasan did send emissaries. "I was willing to give him a safe conduct pass to meet and talk but nothing happened," he told reporters.

Ermita denied that the Palace sanctioned negotiations between Honasan and the government through Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza.

"This is another milestone that brings to a close a broad conspiracy to destabilize the government and is a harbinger of growing political stability underlying steady economic growth," Bunye said in a separate statement.

"No one can make a mockery of the law by playing hide and seek with our law enforcement agencies, and get away with it."

Mrs. Arroyo commended the police and the military for their "hard work that led to the arrest."

Palace officials called on Honasan’s cohorts who remained in hiding such retired army colonel Marcelino "Jake" Malajacan, a close Honasan associate, to give up, assuring them of a fair trial.

"They will be accorded due process like any other Filipino and there is no need for any quarters to cry persecution," Bunye said. "Let the evidence be presented against him and let the courts decide his fate."

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, however, warned that Honasan could still have some following within the armed forces and the police.

"He will always have a following because Senator Honasan has become a kind of symbol to some, so it is not good to underestimate his influence," Gonzales told a telephone interview.

Speculation was already circulating yesterday that Honasan might make another run for the Senate in next year’s midterm elections.

Administration officials, however, doubted if Honasan had the same popularity that propelled him to the Senate in 1995.

"Definitely, public opinion does not favor coup plotters," Ermita said. "The people are tired already."

Honasan may run for public office as long as he’s not found guilty, Ermita said. "Will his stature now be enhanced or not? That is for the people to decide. Some might say that because he was jailed, he might be winnable. But only the people can answer that when election comes."

Ermita acknowledged that Honasan may still have enough clout to win another election.

"Let me put it this way, former senator Honasan — a former colonel — is no ordinary officer. He is a very good leader and he had a very nice experience and imagine what he had gone through between 1986 and 1989. And yet when he ran for the Senate he still won. So he is no ordinary person, so he knew what he is doing," Ermita said.

But the former army general remained hopeful that Honasan would still make a turnaround.

"He is intelligent enough to understand his situation. But I hope he would become a good influence to others instead of pushing for extraordinary measures against the duly-constituted authority."

No more influence?

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro dismissed concern that Honasan might stir sympathy and restiveness among the ranks.

Efforts to hunt down plotters that are still out there will continue, he said.

"This (Honasan’s arrest) is a continuing effort and, of course, these efforts have caused a big deterrence or stumbling block to those who would like to destabilize the government," he told a press briefing.

Bacarro likewise called on Honasan’s cohorts to turn themselves in. "Surrendering is an option that they can take."

In Zamboanga City, military officials were on the watch for unauthorized troop movements.

Lt. Gen. Eugenio Cedo, chief of the military’s Western Mindanao Command, spoke with some of his soldiers, asking them their opinion on Honasan’s arrest.

"They have no reaction, as if nothing happened. It appears they don’t have sympathy for Mr. Honasan," Cedo told reporters.

The Philippine Guardian Brotherhood Inc., an organization of retired military and police officers with ties to Honasan shrugged off the arrest.

Sonny Hummer Diaz, head of the group’s local chapter, said they were more concerned about being of service to the community. "We have to leave the case to be decided by the rightful authority," he said.

Even some officers who joined in the failed coups that Honasan mounted against Corazon Aquino in the late 1980s also shrugged off the development and refused to comment.

One young military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Honasan should account for the destroyed careers of those who he allegedly recruited for the 2003 failed mutiny.

"It’s high time that he faces the charges against him. He should also make himself accountable for the careers and future of these junior officers that he destroyed," he told The STAR.

However, the mutineers, who called themselves the "Magdalo," after the Filipino revolutionaries that rose against Spain in 1898, have refused to implicate Honasan.

"It would take a lot of courage on the part of the Magdalo officers to link Honasan. The last thing they would do is to admit that they were influenced. That is why they are taking the consequences of their action. It would be better to do that than to tell the public that they were influenced by other people," the officer said.

Government investigators suspect that the mutineers had backing from the administration’s political foes.

Col. Reynaldo Mapagu, commander of the army’s elite First Scout Ranger Regiment, whose previous commander was allegedly involved in last February’s coup attempt, said Honasan’s arrest meant that the government is serious in going after plotters.

"Our troops already know the deception involved in the recruitment of soldiers for destabilization plots. My men are deeply committed to their mandate," he said.

Tight watch

Mindful of Honasan’s escape from military custody following a coup attempt in the 1980s, Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon of the Department of Justice said Honasan should be kept in a detention facility where he will not be able to escape.

Camp Crame, he told The STAR, would be a good place to keep Honasan instead of the Makati City Jail, which he would not recommend.

"He should be detained in Camp Crame, at the very least, for security reasons," Fadullon, the lead prosecutor in the coup case against Honasan, explained.

The prosecution, he said, will not oppose any motion asking that he be transferred to a more secure facility.

"They should be able to provide ample security taking into consideration his background and possible supporters. Being a former senator, I don’t he should be mixed with other prisoners (at the Makati City Jail)," Fadullon said.

As for the case, he said Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati City regional trial court is expected to schedule an arraignment date as soon as Honasan is presented in court.

Though his case has already been consolidated with that of the Magdalo mutineers, Fadullon said a separate trial for the former senator is likely.

"We are preparing. Now that he’s been arrested, we expect his lawyers to file motions like a petition for bail," he said.

Makati Mayor and opposition leader Jejomar Binay vowed to extend legal assistance to Honasan.

"He is one of us. He is with the opposition. We will not abandon him," he said. "We are hopeful that Senator Honasan will be accorded his rights not only as a former senator but as a citizen guaranteed the constitutional presumption of innocence."

"We in the opposition are hoping that he will be given a fair shake," said senator and former national police Panfilo Lacson, who graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1971 with Honasan.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who was defense minister during the Marcos dictatorship and to whom Honasan served as an aide, tried to hide his emotions over Honasan’s arrest.

"I will try to visit him. He has been my man before and he is quite close to me. It’s just a matter of giving him my personal, moral support because we worked together in the past and there’s a deep relationship between the two of us. We went through the crucibles," he told reporters.

Honasan was by Enrile’s side when the latter, along with then vice military chief of staff Fidel Ramos, broke away from dictator Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 and holed up in Camp Aguinaldo with dozens of mutineers.

Their mutiny eventually led to a popular uprising that toppled the dictatorship.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, a lawyer by profession, said the government must "immediately present clear and convincing evidence that Senator Honasan has been involved in illegal acts."

"If it fails to do so, its actions will receive little public support and it loses out on the propaganda war. Failure to present a strong case will bolster public perception that the administration is engaged in political harassment that will be difficult to overcome," he warned.

Pro-administration lawmakers praised Honasan’s arrest.

"The arrest shows our military capability to capture fugitives from justice and that information and intelligence funds can be put to good use," House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles said.

"It also gives our good friend Senator Honasan the chance to defend himself in a court of law and prove his innocence instead of being fugitive," he added.

His colleagues urged authorities to unmask Honasan’s protectors, while at the same time, affording him due process and treatment befitting a former legislator.

Reps. Gerry Salapuddin of Basilan and Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur commended the police and military men who served the warrant, but called on them to "ensure that he does not escape again by putting him under a tight 24-hour security."

The government, according to them, should "now focus on unmasking Honasan’s protectors who coddled him while in hiding and ensure there is enough evidence to support the charges that will be filed against him and other individuals."

House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Salapuddin said there should be "no deal regarding the former lawmaker’s case to prove to the people that no one, even a former senator, is above the law."

"A compromise or amnesty is something which may be unpalatable to our people, considering the amount of damage caused by alleged acts. He has to face the law," the administration lawmaker said in a joint statement with Cagas.

Salapuddin praised security forces for the arrest. "Their failure to recapture him in the past did not discourage them from pursuing his arrest. In the end, their cooperative undertaking paid off. They now have to identify Honasan’s coddlers who made his hiding possible in so many months."

"Those who helped him evade justice should be charged with obstruction of justice for harboring a fugitive. There are even reports that his protectors include some big politicians in Davao City who provided refuge to him for quite a time," said Cagas. — With Jose Rodel Clapano, Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, James Mananghaya, Michael Punongbayan, Christina Mendez, Delon Porcalla, Roberto Dejon