Erap must take the problem of the military

Presidents are not supposed to panic whenever a group of military officers says "boo."

However, it's time the Chief Executive (and Commander-in-Chief at that) took cognizance of the fact that there is an undercurrent of unrest, particularly in the ranks of the younger officers who feel that they are being exposed to insurgent attack as well as the perilous task of patrolling and "showing the flag" in the disputed Spratlys without being given adequate weapons, military hardware and equipment, and the "morale-backing" of the Estrada government.

There may be no serious "coup threat" as yet, but when younger officers and men start to grumble that they are being regarded as mere "cannon fodder", while the politicians play "peace talk" games, and rebel sanctuaries like Camp Abubakar in Mindanao, used to mount ambushes and raids against them, are announced as "off limits" to retaliatory attack, can a resentful military reaction be far away?

The Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), formerly known as the "Reform the Armed Forces Movement" until the Young Turks in that bunch decided to put on nationalistic war-paint, has already issued a manifesto. The RAM, which has entered politics and "come in from the cold" since the days the putschists of the RAM-SFP-YOU mounted kudetas that destabilized the Cory Aquino regime, may constitute only a small minority in the Armed Forces. But where there's smoke, there's fire. There's a far bigger group that's unhappy; and unhappiness can usually be translated by agitators and cheer-leaders into action.

This underground movement in the military, composed of some Philippine Military Academy "cavaliers" from the classes of 1990 to 1999, calls itself the new Katipuneros. I don't believe it will be lost on even the administration's insensitive officials that Katipuneros has a revolutionary ring to it.

The fact that retired Commodore Domingo Calajate, the chairman of RAM's executive committee, has been emboldened to write a strong letter to Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado containing a list of complaints is an indication that the somewhat moribund RAM (which includes in its roster of "origs" Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan) may intend to jump to the crest of an incipient wave of unrest.

If you ask me, Calajate's statement is a symptom -- not yet a threat. On the other hand, it cannot be ignored. Or pooh-poohed by National Security Adviser (retired General) Alexander Aguirre.

For starters, let's consider the frustration of the armed forces with regard to the "missing" P7.8 billion which was realized from the sale of Fort Bonifacio to the consortium headed by Metro Pacific (of the First Pacific conglomerate of Hong Kong). This amount, paid by Manny Pangilinan, Ric Pascua, and their group, was supposed to underwrite the modernization of the AFP, but it seems to have vanished into the budgetary morass.

As a result, our pilots of the Philippine Air Force are plaintively asking: Where are the airplanes we need to patrol our skies and defend our country?

Last March 6, I went to Villamor Air Base (also being subdivided) to view a stirring show put on by the French Air Force Aerobatic Team, called La Patrouille de France. Hundreds of our PAF aviators and personnel were there, their wistful gaze turned up at the zooming and pirouetting French aircraft, trailing showboat streams of red and blue smoke. The "acrobatic" jets which performed so splendidly that day were only Dassault-Breguet/Dornier "Alpha" jet trainers, developed in the late 1960s in collaboration by France and Germany (and not even the late model Mirage 2000s and Rafaeles), but our despairing Air Force officers looked on them with a kind of hunger on their faces that, if I had a camera handy, I should have snapped -- and shoved under the nose of DND Secretary Orly Mercado.

Orly, in fact, had also witnessed the show. When I cornered him in the Base Operations Center later and asked him why he still hadn't called for "bids" to procure modern jet aircraft for the PAF and better ships for our Navy, he shrugged: "Unfortunately, we don't have the money."

All I can say is that the President and Orly had better find some money, somewhere -- and fast. Our troops are getting sick and tired of being treated like CAFGU militiamen, and being sent into the meat-grinder of combat with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Abu Sayyaf, and the resurgent New People's Army (which is, by the way, recruiting kids of 13 to 15 years old) without the proper weapons, ammo, communications equipment -- and even helicopters to transport them.

Everytime a fine young officer, fresh out of PMA, comes "home" dead on his shield, or some private or sergeant is mangled from ambuscade, there's a groan -- not just of anguish but anger in the ranks. The generals don't hear it. They're safe in their quarters, or on the playing fields (not of Eton, as the Iron Duke of Wellington said about winning the Battle of Waterloo, but of golf).

As for our Navy, those brave Navy men stranded out in the deep blue sea in the Spratlys and Kalayaan isles, having been told they can't shoot, they can't ram, they can't even "arrest" poaching Chinese fishing boats without getting scolded and reprimanded, have begun to rust in their souls. Someday there will be no fleet left to put out to sea -- not even to confront the smugglers.

This is the state of our Armed Forces of the Philippines. Neglected, spat upon, starved and shoved into a neglected corner of the budget.

I've proudly been in the army, as have my father and my grandfather (a Katipunero, original variety). I've seen our boys in combat on many battlefields. They're out there in our swamps and on our wild frontier. Out there, too, in East Timor, as they once were in Cambodia and Vietnam. And Korea.

And they're soldiers whose record speaks of gallantry and pride. Did I say pride? This exists no more. And when pride in the uniform and in a soldier's mission is eroded, that's where the deterioration of a nation's fabric and sovereignty begins.

The French philosopher Jacques Maritain said, so many years ago, that "often in history, all that stands between a civilization and the barbarians is a platoon of soldiers."

We've disarmed that platoon -- and let our soldiers down. No money? Guess who spent it.

Outgoing SEC Chairman Perfecto "Jun" Yasay's performance at the Wednesday forum yesterday of the Greenhills Walking Corporation -- covered by radio-television and the international press -- was riveting. Yasay, an experienced corporate lawyer (a former law partner in New York of now Ambassador Ernesto Maceda), was eloquent in his own defense -- and in expressing his "farewell" from government service.

He confirmed that he was definitely stepping down from the chairmanship of the Securities and Exchange Commission next March 25, and had no intention of clinging to his post kapit tuko like some other officials. This brought a smile to the face of incoming SEC Chairperson, Trade Undersecretary Lilia R. Bautista, who was also a guest speaker at the give-and-take session held in the Ristorante La Dolce Fontana in Greenhills.

Yasay and Bautista, in fact, treated each other with courtesy and mutual respect at the meeting -- the first time they had appeared together since President Estrada announced Lilia was replacing Yasay as SEC head.

The day before, Ms. Bautista had asked me whether their appearing on the same forum would be a "friendly" one, not a confrontation. I had assured her that Yasay was one of her greatest admirers and, in fact, had confided to me five weeks earlier that he hoped that Lilia would be named his successor. It's now clear that there will be a cordial transfer of authority at the SEC come March 25.

"With the support of the President," Yasay in fact stated yesterday during the question-and-answer session which lasted almost two hours, "Ambassador Bautista will do a lot more than I could when she takes over the helm of the SEC."

The room was jampacked with listeners, not only the members of the club (composed of brisk walkers, joggers, and kibitzers) but dozens of North Greenhills residents and corporate executives, intent on finding out how the SEC will operate in the future and how the Philippine Stock Exchange can be "saved." Neither Yasay nor Bautista disappointed: they were both brilliant.

The two were comfortable with each other. It turns out that they had collaborated in Geneva and during the Uruguay Round of talks when Yasay had delivered a much-applauded paper on "marketing" (with Lilia's inputs) and how to develop emerging markets in the Asian region. Both agreed that what's important is for Congress to finally approve that long-pending Securities Act of 1999 (or 2000?) which grants more independence and safeguards to the SEC. Yasay asserted that his aborted "suspension" order could not have destroyed the PSE, but what's really damaging is the erosion of "investor confidence" arising from stock manipulation and insider trading.

He disclosed -- and it was picked up by the wire agencies -- that before stepping down on March 25, he would be recommending the prosecution of 11 persons involved in the BW Resources stock scandal. The evidence he had in hand, he stressed, was "very strong," and he would urge criminal prosecution of the stock brokers involved by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

SEC Chair-designate Bautista told this writer before the meeting that her newly-installed "boss," Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, wanted to keep her in the DTI "a little longer" to help ease him into his unfamiliar responsibilities. Sorry, Mar: but Jun Yasay's announcement that he's leaving the SEC on March 25 means that Lilia will have to get over there quickly.

In any event, as a former businessman, Roxas isn't a novice in the DTI field.

Anyway, the businessmen and industrialists with whom I met in the past week commented to me that they were "much impressed" with Secretary Roxas. So, Mar, you're off to a good start. As one of the bright lights of this administration, Roxas has a big "recovery" job to tackle.

One of the words I can predict Mar Roxas will hear ad nauseam is the buzzword, "globalization." To him I commend the observation of Thomas L. Friedman in the New York Times (my alma mater), issue of September 10, 1997. Friedman remarked: "The most fundamental truth about globalization is this: No one is in charge, you moron!"

Sounds like the plaintive query directed to the Erap administration: "Who's in charge here?"