The military pot is boiling: GMA ought to take heed - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

It was a surprise to hear President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo saying on radio and television, in reference to a general earlier reported to be "favored" as a frontrunner for the post of Armed Forces Chief of Staff that the post of chairman of the MECO (which is the extra-diplomatic shorthand for "Ambassador to Taiwan") was "his for the taking."

MECO, of course, means the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taiwan, which has for years been the way the Philippines has circumvented its own "One China Policy" that extends diplomatic recognition only to Beijing and the People’s Republic of China. Rather than snub Taipei yet unable to call our outpost in the Taiwanese capital a full-fledged Embassy or diplomatic establishment, the euphemistic word-spinners at the Department of Foreign Affairs coined the term MECO. By the same token, the Taiwanese call their "embassy" in Manila the TECO, or Taipei Economic and Cultural Office. Why this dodge? Taiwan provides millions of dollars in investment here, while employing over 120,000 overseas Filipino workers in its companies and factories, mostly computer-manufacturing and computer-related firms.

But to say that Marine Lt. Gen. Edgardo Espinosa can have the ambassadorship to Taiwan for the taking, or even "for the asking" is much too crude and flippant a remark for the President of a Republic. What does this imply? That an "ambassadorship" is a sort of plum or consolation prize rather than a serious appointment? If "Espine", as the scrappy general is called by his familiars, isn’t qualified to be AFP Chief of Staff, does this qualify him to become an "ambassador"? What is our Foreign Service then? A dumping ground for the unwanted – or the disappointed?

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Let’s face it. Espinosa was one of the Marine commandants mentioned in less than flattering terms in the controversial speech delivered by Philippine Navy Flag Officer in Command (FOIC), Rear Admiral Guillermo G. Wong, last February 15 – which got Wong suddenly and surprisingly "demoted" and ousted from his position as Navy Chief a few days later. For speaking out on questionable procurements and, as some bellicose Marine officers angrily grumbled, "maligning the honor, idealism and values of the Marine Officers", the outspoken Admiral Wong was punished without a hearing or a proper "court martial." He was the one who complained about the Marine rank and file and non-coms having gotten a raw deal, yet he was the one denounced instead.
Then, after poor Wong was downgraded, disgraced, and even his appeal to retire rejected, it comes out that President Arroyo, the Commander-in-Chief, had ordered an investigation! What? Investigate the Admiral’s accusations AFTER the Admiral himself was virtually cashiered for having dared ventilate before his subordinates (yes, the Marines are under the Navy flag) complaints about their having received substandard Kevlar helmets and inquired how 72 modern assault rifles earmarked for them had apparently gone astray, he was curtly downgraded from top Navy chief, without a by your leave, to a skeleton unit laughingly called the "Northern Luzon Command", by AFP Chief of Staff Angelo T. Reyes?

Why did Reyes side with the Marine "officers" and condemn Wong? Is he playing politics – in the hope (or the expectation) that when he is retired on March 17, a compulsory retirement owing to his having reached age 56, he will be appointed by President GMA the Secretary of National Defense? What we hear is that, unless plans miscarry, acting Defense Secretary (retired General) Eduardo Ermita could be returned to his original assignment as chief peace negotiator, while Reyes might assume the DND portfolio. We’re informed that Reyes has been "discreetly" shopping around for staff members just in case he gets the DND post, but thus far there are no takers. Again, still more questions are provoked by the disdain of those in the military establishment for such "possible" promotions. Does their reluctance indicate that Reyes is regarded as a wimp, or that they don’t wish to serve under him?

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My word of caution to President Arroyo – remember she’s the Commander-in-Chief – is to be careful not to misread the seething cauldron which is the military. The resentful Marine officers who threatened a "coup" claiming that Admiral Wong’s accusations had insulted Marine "pride" and "outraged" Marine culture (what nonsense) may have panicked Reyes into ousting Wong instead, but what do the major service Commanders of the other armed forces units, more powerful than the Marines, think? What about the possible backlash in the Army, Navy and the Air Force? Have a care, Madam President. Some of those whispering in your ear may have obfuscated the situation. Even your "pet" generals may be either blind or overconfident.

I’ve read the entire transcript of the hard-bitten, literally impromptu remarks made by Admiral Wong, delivered in front of Brown Hall of the Philippine Marine Corps in the morning of February 15. They are strong words, indeed – mostly in Filipino (Tagalog). You can feel the indignation vibrating in each sentence over the plight of the Marines, decrying that the chain of command and the "Code of Honor" practiced by the privates, corporals, and sergeants didn’t seem to include the Marine "officers." True enough, his harsh words "pricked the Marine pride", as the furious Marine officers shot back, but it was the pride of the officers. What bullshit it is to snarl through gritted teeth that only Marines are entitled to scold Marines, not "outsiders" like the Navy Chief. Salamabit! That’s not pride, that’s insolence.

Military elitism has its place, even in the order of battle, if it elicits along with its Spartan values, courage, loyalty, honor, fortitude and sacrifice. But elitism for elitism’s sake is the kind of Prussian junkerism and putschist arrogance a democratic Republic can do without. Even more urgently than that: Condemn completely.

The Armed Forces are supposed to stand guard (not dictate) over the safety and welfare of the people. Having been one of the thousands who were once prisoners of the military, and having been an officer myself, I hope I can see, even if sometimes unclearly, where the balance must be struck.

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My Alikaboks tell me that the Supreme Court may render its decision on the Estrada cases "questioning" the constitutionality of the assumption of the Presidency by GMA (which includes the one against Ombudsman Aniano Desierto) some ten days from now – or before March 10.

My own expectation, and I trust I don’t overstep the line when I venture it, is that they’ll uphold GMA, but nobody can read the hearts of the justices at this moment. The thirteen members of the Court, who will affix their signatures to the decision and may even come out with separate opinions, surely realize that whichever way the decision goes there will be people who will be dissatisfied and assail the decision.

Yesterday morning, the children of three deceased Presidents scribbled a note on a piece of yellow pad paper, which carried as well the signature of former DOTC Undersecretary Josie Trinidad Lichauco, requesting Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr., for an audience. The note, apparently composed impromptu, must have been written during the rally by activist members, who style themselves the "civil society", near the Supreme Court premises yesterday.

When he got it, Chief Justice Davide read it out to the other members of the High Court during their en banc session. Afterwards, he politely denied the request. His belief was that the three Presidential children, and former Undersecretary Lichauco, might have taken up with him the two Estrada cases pending before the Court. A "chamber discussion", it must be said, by interested parties in a pending case is highly improper and never allowed, legal practitioners confirmed to me. If the Chief Justice had granted the request, similar requests by others, particularly from the petitioner’s side, would likewise have to be allowed.

Unlike officials of the executive department and members of the legislature, who have to explain to the people affected by their decisions the reasons or rationale for their actions, the Supreme Court is never obligated to announce and explain every action it takes while cases before it are still pending. The High Tribunal, it’s said, speaks through its decisions. Those dissatisfied or who object to them can assail those rulings to their hearts’ content after the decisions are promulgated.

The outcries of dismay and the raising of suspicions about the "delay" in the issuance of the Supreme Court’s ruling in the pending Estrada cases come from complainants who perhaps do not remember that due process has to be followed. It was only last Monday that the twin cases were deemed submitted for decision, because it was only on Monday that the last pleading was filed and received by the Court.

Why another ten days? Cases involving President Arroyo’s assumption of the Presidency are not run-of-the-mill ejectment cases that can be resolved in stereotyped decisions. The ruling the High Court must hand down will involve a "constitutional doctrine" not only for the protagonists in the current cases but for future generations. They will reverberate long after the members of the present Court are gone.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . The brother of a prominent former bank president, mentioned yesterday as having been appointed by Malacañang to an agency under the cash-rich Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) despite his once having offered to "fix" a request for the restructuring of an outstanding loan amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos (for a requested balato of P50 million, it’s said), comes from a very prominent Mindanao political family – which is apparently the real source of his clout. But that’s not all. Aside from the fact that he was very buddy-buddy with an Estrada "Midnight Cabinet" crony, a Metro Manila congressman who’s in the mass housing "business," he was also very, very close to the former HUDCC czarina and ex-Malacañang "Lady" (I didn’t repeat, Dragon this time) Lenny de Jesus. What a lucky guy. Great in Erap time, even greater in GMA time . . . PAGCOR Chairman/President/CEO/COO Efraim "Efren" Genuino’s explanation that there were not 18 suddenly appointed "consultants" brought in by him, but only seven consultants earning just P30,000 each, is being refuted by my A-1 sources. There were twenty-six, I was tipped off yesterday, not just eighteen. Sanamagan. Either the arithmetic of my sources, or the arithmetic of Genuino must be faulty. What can’t be denied, and wasn’t denied by Efren G. is the fact that he’s a friend and fellow Rotarian (of the Makati Central Club) of First Gent Mike Arroyo and first family’s kid brother, Diosdado Macapagal, Jr. Being friendly with the right people is, as always, the best qualification, n’est-ce pas? Some of the "new" elite came from Genuino’s Trace Computer college, others from the Rotary, and still others from an NGO named Bigkis. (Does that mean "diapers"?) . . . As for that other very, very influential guy, former Cebu Governor and ex-FVR Flagship Projects Secretary Lito Osmeña, he’s now being seen with Ricky Delgado of MIASCOR, which means there’s a new alliance being forged at the Airport. (Gee whiz, even the "control" of those NAIA baggage carts, which rent for a US buck apiece, can earn the lucky franchiser almost one million smackeroos a day. Whom will the Fountain bless?) And the Department of Transportation and Communications is run by a gentleman who’s not only close to Mike and the President, but, although he tries to deny it, also Lito Osmeña. The good thing is that there’s no Midnight Cabinet. The informal "mutual friendship" club meets during the daylight hours.