'Mariano not referring to P-Noy admin in video message'

MANILA, Philippines - The lawyer of retired Marine Col. Generoso Mariano has claimed his client was not referring to the Aquino administration in his video message, but to a “hypothetical government.”

Raffy Cedro, counsel of Mariano, insisted that Mariano never intended to incite sedition with his statements.

“If you would go through the video… it does not state this present government, it was just the government. So he speaks of a hypothetical government, not necessarily this specific one,” Cedro said in an interview.

“What he speaks of in general is the situation of the Philippines from way back until today,” he added.

Mariano’s camp issued the statement last Wednesday after a hearing conducted by a Navy panel probing the retired colonel’s video which called for the ouster of the government.

Cedro said the video that was publicized is just a portion of Mariano’s speech that lasted for about 15 to 20 minutes.

“That (video) was just a very short (excerpt) and highlighted in such a way that it was so blown out of proportion and was taken out of context,” Cedro said.

He said it is necessary to hear Mariano’s whole speech before one could determine if it is seditious or not.

He also claimed that Mariano never knew that his video would spread as discs containing his video message were distributed to major camps and reporters last week. 

In the video dated July 3, Mariano said the government cannot find ways to address the hunger and poverty being experienced by Filipinos.

“If the incumbent government has no intention or has failed to save the lives of the majority, it is the duty, it is the right of every Filipino, including soldiers to replace the government,” Mariano said in the video.  

Mariano, who served as deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command, said the public should not believe statistics showing that the country is achieving progress.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Alexander Pama has restricted Mariano to his quarters and ordered an investigation on the spread of the video message.

Pama said the probe would determine if Mariano has supporters or sympathizers.

Mariano was jailed during the 1989 coups against then President Corazon Aquino, mother of President Aquino. Military officials are at a loss as to why Mariano issued the statement a few days before his retirement.

In a letter to the military’s Judge Advocate General’s Office last Tuesday, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Mariano could be held liable for inciting to sedition.

“Col. Mariano’s speech constitutes an overt act which definitely tends to create sedition,” De Lima said in an eight-page opinion.

“It is a contemptuous condemnation and wholesale attack of the present government, calling as it does for its replacement of the government impliedly through illegal means, and therefore patently seditious,” she added.

De Lima said Mariano violated Articles of War 63 (disrespect toward the President), 67 (mutiny or sedition), 91 (provoking speeches or gestures) and 96 (conduct unbecoming of an officer).