'Oplan August Moon' came from PR man, says source

MANILA, Philippines – The intelligence community has traced the source of “Oplan August Moon” to a public relations (PR) man whose clients include several opposition politicians.

“Oplan August Moon” is a supposed plot to prolong the term of President Arroyo beyond 2010, with the active support of military and police officers of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) batch of 1978, the class that has adopted her.

A counter-intelligence military officer, however, is withholding the identity of the PR man but said that he will be named in due time.

The officer said that the PR man, who had a foreign-sounding name, is linked to at least two opposition lawmakers and is using his media connections to sow intrigues and distrust within the military and police organizations.

“He is the source of that rumor because he wants to create animosity between upper and lower PMA classmen currently occupying key military and police posts,” the source said.

The four key targets of the disinformation campaign, the source said, are Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Victor Ibrado, Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, Army chief Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit and PNP-National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) chief, Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales.

Oplan August Moon suggested that Ibrado would be retired early before the conduct of next year’s elections and Bangit will be tapped to replace him.

Once Bangit assumes command of the AFP, Verzosa would then be forcibly retired with Rosales taking the PNP helm.

Verzosa and Ibrado belong to PMA Class of ’76 while Bangit and Rosales are members of PMA Class ’78.

Upon their assumption to the AFP and the PNP command, respectively, Bangit and Rosales, as Oplan August Moon claimed, would throw their support behind President Arroyo in order to prolong her stay in power through legal or extra-constitutional means.

Lull before the storm?

But amid all these fresh rumors of destabilization against the Arroyo administration, the AFP remains calm, as evidenced by the normal alert level it is implementing.

The National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM), which normally keeps a blue alert status that requires 50 percent of its personnel to be inside the camp, is on white alert status.

Under this status, a commander could grant as many requests for informal leaves as he wishes, because the current security situation allows such.

The army, which has the largest manpower size in the military, is also under white alert status.

But Maj. Carlo Ferrer, NCRCOM spokesman, said that while they are not seeing any serious threat to Metro Manila’s security, they are maintaining their vigilance and preparedness for any eventuality, especially in the wake of several bombing attempts on several government offices.

“There is nothing to worry about. We are calm but watchful for any eventuality,” said Ferrer.

He said they would gather their troops today to check their preparedness in responding to any untoward incident, most particularly when President Arroyo delivers her State of the Nation Address (SONA) in two weeks.

“Our preparations for SONA are normal procedures, and the mustering of troops is done periodically to check the troops and their equipment, if they would be able to immediately respond to any incident,” Ferrer said.

He said they would place “enough” troops from the Air Force’s 750th Combat Group, the Division Reconnaissance Companies from the 7th, 5th and 2nd Infantry Divisions, K-9, armor and civil disturbance management units on standby.

“They would be ready to assist and augment the PNP in maintaining peace and order during the SONA. It is always the PNP that takes the lead role. We only support them if necessary,” he said.

AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner, on the other hand, said the other day that the military already has suspects in the string of bombings in Metro Manila, who are neither retired nor active military personnel.

Earlier, the AFP officially identified two civilian groups with political inclination as behind moves to destabilize the government.

These two civilian groups, the military claimed, were behind the bomb explosions at the Office of the Ombudsman and the planting of bombs at the Department of Agriculture and at a high-end condominium all in Quezon City. – With James Mananghaya