Metro cops still on alert

The 17,000-strong National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) has once again been placed on alert amid threats by renegade soldiers to carry out another mutiny similar to the Oakwood incident in Makati City last July 27.

However, Metro police chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco said no coup attempt will ever succeed without the massive support of the people."

‘Without the backing of civilians, any effort of an uprising will fail," he said.

Velasco issued the alert order to the five police district directors in Metro Manila amid claims by Lt. SG. Antonio Trillianes that remnants of their group could stage another destabilization attempt because President Arroyo failed to carry out their agreement during negotiations for their return to barracks.

"They failed to account us all," warned Trillianes, in a radio interview, after he and 295 other mutineers were transferred to the headquarters of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) in Camp Aguinaldo last Tuesday.

Velasco was a major at the Special Action Force (SAF) when the PC-INP under General Fidel Ramos staged the EDSA People Power revolution in 1986. He described it as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience where true ideals and principles were involved in account of the internal and external factors affecting the country then."

"The Feb. 1986 coup led by General Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile succeeded because the people wanted to be free from the 26-year Marcos dictatorship backed by civilian support who were also pressing for legitimate causes coming shortly after the snap presidential elections," Velasco said.

As one of the founding members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), Velasco emphasized that in succeeding seven coup attempts, he refused to join Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan, his mistah in the Philippine Military Academy Class 71, because he believed in the legitimacy of President Corazon Aquino’s government and in preserving democracy.

"As defenders of the Constitution and democracy, members of the uniformed service must not get involved in adventurism that threatens to destroy the country’s stability and democratic institutions," the NCRPO chief said.

Velasco also commended the NCRPO rank-and-file for their role in ensuring peace during the mutiny and President Arroyo’s State of the Nation (SONA) address.

He said the police corps never faltered in its support of the government forces even when mutineers took siege of the Makati City business district last July 27 and were again in their toes to secure peace in last Monday’s SONA.

"Our loyalty remains with the people, the country and the flag and we will repulse any attempts by any group to destroy the stability of the nation," Velasco said. – Non Alquitran