He had to go

What’s left to be said of the abrupt resignation of Secretary Angelo T. Reyes from the portfolio of Secretary of National Defense? It was long overdue. Contrary to what he breezily and defiantly told the Senate during its inquiry into the causes of the Oakwood Mutiny. Reyes was the problem, not the "solution".

One of the urgently-needed solutions was Reyes’s quitting his Defense post. It wasn’t just his bluster which alienated so many military officers and men, not only those young combat –disheartened kids at Oakwood – no matter whether or not they were egged on and bankrolled by elder plotters – but his record as both Armed Forces chief of staff and DND Cabinet minister.

We Filipinos love to prefix our words in such matters (before we deliver the anticipated and enthusiastically delivered kick) with the phrase, "I hate to kick a man when he is down". But the truth is, Angie Reyes is not down. It’s already being spread around by the Palace that the President may be contemplating giving him another Cabinet portfolio (public works? military "adviser"? Malacañang has a zillion cling-ons swaggering around with hyperbolic titles and honorifics).

I hope not. But, alas, this sounds like vintage GMA. There’s never reform, or purge – only a game of musical chairs. Nobody really seems to get fired, only reassigned to some plum position.

Maybe the Presient ought to recall what James Hamilton-Paterson, a British author of 16 books and winner of the Whitbread Award, wrote in his sarcastic often savage book on Ferdinand E. Marcos, but which he cunningly named Ameican Boy: A Century of Colonialism in the Philippines." (Henry Holt, New York, 1998).

On page 401, the author sneers: "If Cory Aquino’s Washington-backed democracy now appears less than a holy revolution, it is hardly a surprise. In keeping with Philippine political tradition it was more musical chairs, with the same elite families and datus merely switching around... Nothing else explains the way in which none of the notorious thieves and monsters of the Marcos era – all of whom are perfectly known to most Filipinos – have ever been brought to justice."

Marcos a villain? Sus, Macoy’s and Imeldific’s charming daughter, now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, will be running for Senator in 2004. Bonget is Ilocos Norte governor, and the Romualdezes are back in power in Leyte, with one notable exception. It’s not even describable as déjà vu, but must be called, "again and again".

* * *

Look at Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, another of the targets of the barbs of the Oakwood putschists: He noisily "resigned" a few days after the failed mutiny from his post of chief of military intelligence (ISAFP), but the truth is Corpus was instead promoted to Malacañang, where he’s now in charge of the "war room", and is one of GMA’s closest advisers on intelligence and military matters. (In the meantime, Victor’s former outfit, the Communist New People’s Army, has been staging punishing raids on outposts and encampments, killing our troops and militiamen, and carting off weapons and ammunition). How can you say General Corpus has been successful?

Secretary Reyes courteously rang me up Friday night, shortly after his resignation, to bid me adieu. I asked him what his plans were. He replied that he would like to spend some time with his family and rest. The President must let him go to his rest and retirement then. Not "retool" him (an old Sukarao-era term in Indonesia) into another job in the Palace where his critics and foes in our armed forces (and the coup camp) will conclude that his sudden decision to resign (after weeks of vowing he wouldn’t and GMA trumpeting she would not let him go!) was merely cosmetic. Subterfuge and conning the enemy are, after all, common military tactics on the battlefield – and off it.

What would the public say then? With apologies to Angie Reyes for the colloquial expression: It would only be the same old dog under a different collar.

Perhaps Reyes will pursue his political plans – whether he’ll run for senator, congressman, counselor or dog catcher is up to him. He can still sing, of course, as he jestingly told our Palace correspondent, "Ichu" Villanueva – his humor, through his understandable tears, can be appreciated. I saw Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina that same Friday night at the "Old Manila" in the Peninsula Hotel, but we talked about other things, not the composition of their singing group, "The Three Tenors" (better dubbed "Three Terrors"), composed of Secretaries Reyes and Lina, and Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando. I guess, resignation won’t afflict Reyes with tonsilitis.

But let us be clear. Reyes must leave the field completely with regard to the DND, and the military, and the budget.

* * *

President Macapagal-Arroyo has assumed the Defense portfolio temporarily while she presumably screens "candidates" to select a successor to Reyes. She must hold on to the DND a little while longer, and be specially careful about whom she appoints.

Already, there’s a stampede for the job. (National Security Secretary Roilo Golez (an Annapolis man) is silently – like a submarine – angling for the position.

Other hopefuls are lining up.

The Americans are putting pressure on GMA to appoint somebody of their liking. Let me declare up front that their choice is both surprising and unacceptable. I know who he is and how he has been assiduously back-channelling with them.

The Americans should stop meddling in this matter even if they obviously have fixed in their minds (some would say their shaven pointy-heads) that: "It’s our money and our equipment, so we must be the ones to choose who’ll spend it and use it!"

That’s what we get for continuing to be a mendicant nation: the alms-givers believe it their imperial prerogative to run the entire shabby neighborhood. We can’t even shout, "Yankee, go home!" Because they’ll sulk, but they won’t go home. With the Japanese pushing them out of Okinawa, gomen nasai, they need our bases... eh, I mean "access". (Spelling was never my strong point.) The campaign against Terror must go on! The policy of pre-emptive strike needs launching pads.

The trouble with "America’s Boy" Part II is that we’ll never know whether the guy they’re pushing – a former putschist and military rebel, would you believe? – is working for GMA, and all of us Pinoys and Pinays (as Little Browns), or instead for the Great White Father, the Ayatollah from Washington DC. Madam President: Don’t yield on this issue. If somebody once rebelled, no matter how "romantic" the reason, what’s to stop him from rebelling against you? The messianic complex doesn’t die easy.

And besides, when have the Americans been smart in picking their allies? Look at Baghdad. The Iraqis they anointed to lead the post-Saddam Iraq have proved complete failures: It turned out they had no following, no charisma, no guts, and no leadership. The others are just being blown up or blown away.

Certainly NO, too, to the guy whom Reyes is trying to get GMA to designate as his successor in the DND, the old Undersecretary Feliciano Gacis, Jr. Sanamagan. Never Gacis! In case you haven’t noticed, Usec Gacis – who should have been retired owing to age and service more than a year and a half ago – was the fellow who handled many of those multi-billion-peso) DND "contracts" and the implementation of military procurement deals for three, not just one, Secretaries of National Defense.

When Reyes got the DND post, replacing his patron, former DND Secretary Orlando "Orly" Mercado (who got Erap to reach down the ladder and promote General Reyes to Armed Forces Chief of Staff), Reyes inherited Gacis from Mercado – and kept him as a close, personal Usec. In fact, when Reyes went on that trip to Paris and London, where he had been feted by arms and weapons suppliers in both capitals, he made it a point to bring along Usec Gacis.

I won’t say that Gacis was Angie’s bag man, or whatever. But don’t you find his remarkable staying power, and his close relationship not only to Reyes, but to Mercado, and even previous DND Secretary (General) Renato de Villa interesting?

Gacis served as USEC for de Villa, Mercado and Reyes. What was his . . . expertise?

There are many other hopefuls, being supported by various pressure groups, and by their own ambitions. Beware, Madam Commander-in-Chief, of being hoodwinked or pressured.

* * *

A friend from Channel 9 rang me up Friday night to inquire whether it was true the late dictator, Apo Ferdie Marcos, had also made himself Secretary of Defense. (I know where that argument is leading: That GMA by assuming the DND post may be planning "martial law".)

On reflection, I recollect that when he was elected President in 1965, defeating GMA’s dad, the late Cong Dadong, Macoy indeed named himself concurrently DND Secretary. I guess he wanted to make sure the military was faithful to him, and send the message to our men at arms that he, a bemedalled (30 fake medals and decorations) hero of Bataan and the Maharlika guerrilla resistance, ersatz hero of Bessang Pass, too, was the hands-on commander-in-chief.

Marcos held that post for about a year, if faulty memory serves, before appointing the late Governor Alejo "Alex" Santos the Secretary of Defense. (That Bulakeño had been a guerrilla fighter against the Japanese, which provided him with his military credentials.)

Marcos, naturally, was the Chief Executive who completely politicized the armed forces and police. Guess what was the theme of his campaign when he ran for President to unseat the late President Diosdado Macapagal:

"The Filipino has lost his soul and his courage. Our people have come to the point of despair. Justice and security are as myths. Our government is gripped in the iron hand of venality, its treasury is barren, its resources are wasted, its civil service slothful and indifferent. Not one hero alone do I ask, but many."

Marcos’s words, not GMA’s. Is there anything new under the sun?

This time, we must make reform work. RAM had a good slogan: Reform the armed forces, RAM failed to reform itself.

Marcos’s catchphrase in 1965 was "This nation can be great again!"

It regretted again.

During martial law, his admonition was: "Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan." For the nation to progress, discipline is needed.

In truth, we have always had a government of words, not men.