Reyes denies military intel agents monitoring Espinosa

Armed Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes denied yesterday that military intelligence agents have been tailing Lt. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa on suspicion of being a critic of the Estrada administration.

"We don’t do that to our generals so I’d like to disabuse the minds of the people. There is no truth to that. I will discuss that, of course, with Gen. Espinosa," Reyes told reporters in a chance interview at Camp Aguinaldo.

"Gen. Espinosa is a very capable, very respected officer in the Armed Forces so he knows exactly how to handle these things. He has been doing his role and there’s no need for that (monitoring)," he said.

Earlier, military sources had said that Espinosa was among military officials being subjected to background checks due to perceptions that they were against Mr. Estrada, who is undergoing impeachment trial in the Senate.

Espinosa himself confirmed that agents of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) have been monitoring his movements.

Espinosa, former chief of the Southern Command (Southcom) and currently the commandant of the Joint Command and Staff College (JCSC), belongs to Philippine Military Academy’s Class 1967.

Among his classmates was former Philippine National Police Deputy Director General Roberto Lastimoso, one of the witnesses against the President.

Last February, Espinosa was unceremoniously booted out as Southcom chief under mysterious circumstances. Defense sources, however, said "they have the goods" on Espinosa should he eventually come out in the open to criticize the administration.

But Reyes maintained that nobody in the military is being subjected to any surveillance.

Tension within the military ranks began when former Ambassador Fortunato Abat openly called upon those in the active service to withdraw support for President Estrada amid the current political turmoil.

Abat’s Federation of Retired Commissioned Officers and Enlisted Soldiers (Forces) has been seeking Mr. Estrada’s resignation.