Will Gen. Senga wait, and dump the hot potato of the alleged coup plotters in his successor’s lap?

La Presidenta GMA is expected to formally announce the promotion of Oscar "Oca" Calderon to PNP Director General and Police Chief, but everybody knows that already. In fact, retiring PNP Chief, Director General Arturo C. Lomibao wrote his valedictory ("hail and farewell") speech almost a week ago.

Of course, DILG (Interior and Local Governments) Secretary Ronnie Puno is jumping with joy over Calderon’s takeover of the top PNP post. He is Puno’s protégé, and was also actively pushed, it’s said, as well by a certain Arroyo. See? As I said in this corner a few days ago, all that cow manure about a "dark horse" candidate was simply absurd. GMA had decided on Calderon three weeks ago.

Remember, though, Oca was Number Two man (three stars) in the Police setup in charge of Administration. But PACER and anti-kidnapping were under his command, too. During this period, KFR (Kidnapping for Ransom) cases shot up to 28 kidnappings from November 2005 to May 2006. Before he assumed command of anti-kidnapping operations, there were just 19 KFR incidents from April 2005 to October 2005.

I’ve no intention of sounding critical of Oca, but I hope, now that he’s top honcho and will get his fourth star, his batting average in the battle to crush the arrogant kidnapping syndicates will improve.

His challenge is to fight crime relentlessly – and this includes the "criminals" inside the police force. Believe me, it’s disheartening that too many cops are in the rackets.

Where are the good guys? You’re never sure.

* * *

The next question is whether Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff, General Generoso P. Senga retires on July 21. (He was born July 21, 1950, in Calumpang, Marikina.) Is Senga retiring? You bet. What post will the Commander-in-Chief GMA give him after that? You guess.

The Palace is making noises that it wants a speedy resolution of the cases of 38 military officers, including a Major General and a Brigadier General for their alleged involvement in the February 24 coup plot.

For instance, if that sequence shown the other night on ABS-CBN which had Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim declaring that he and his unit – the 1st Scout Ranger Regiment – were "withdrawing" their support from the President and declaring her a "bogus" President is genuine – and it looked so to me (but what the heck, nowadays wonders are done with computers and electronics), then Danny’s goose is cooked.

Gen. Lim, in the aftermath of the failed coup (spearheaded, we heard, by members of two PMA classes now young captains, etc.) had earlier said he wasn’t in the plot and was being "set up." What now, Danny?

If he was a coupster, what a pity. Lim, a West Pointer and former president of the Young Officers’ Union, had indeed been one of the leaders of the RAM-SFP-YOU rebels, Scout Rangers (again) specifically, the elite group which had seized the Makati Financial District and held it and 5-star hotels for an entire week in December 1989. They were then under the over-all command of Col. Baby Galvez. After that incident, Danny Lim was arrested, but later restored to the service. In truth, he was one of the group when we negotiated the peaceful surrender of the Magdalo mutineers in Oakwood on July 27, 2003.

Now a Putschist once more? By golly, Danny! What can I say?

As for another one of the suspects, Marine Col. Ariel Querubin, he was a Medal of Valor awardee. To be sure, Querubin was already under surveillance weeks before the February "coup" fizzled.

Whether the accused, as disclosed the other day, were innocent or guilty will have to be decided by court martial. Do you think Senga will rush, as Malacañang is now "proposing," the investigations and initiate court martial proceedings against any or all of the suspects? Betcha he’ll coast along to his retirement day, then cheerfully hand over that hot potato to his successor. Do I hear on the breeze the name of Lt. General Hermogenes C. Esperon Jr., Commanding General of the Philippine Army?

If Hermo Esperon is the anointed one, then, it will be interesting to know his background, which includes plenty of combat anyway. (The Commission on Appointments – if the general is appointed will give him a hard time on the "Hello Garci" insinuations, but nothing’s easy in this world. What matters, after the bullets stop flying and the gunsmoke gets wafted away, you’re the Last Man Standing).

Esperon (PMA ’74) comes from Asingan, Pangasinan (the official hometown of former President Fidel V. Ramos – but wasn’t FVR really born in Lingayen?). Is he close to FVR then? Aside from his Bachelor of Science from the PMA, he finished his Infantry Officer Basic and Advance Courses in the Philippine Army training center in 1974 and 1986. He also took up the Intelligence Officer Basic Course and the Military Intelligence Collection Course at Special Intelligence Training School of the Intelligence Service of the AFP. (Studying at ISAFP, I might add, is of course no guarantee that you’re a good spook.)

Esperon graduated from the Battalion Commanders Course with a Category "A" and was an Honor Student in the Joint Services Command and Staff Course. He even completed the Integrated Service Attache Course from the Foreign Service Institute and earned a Master’s in Management from the Philippine Christian University in 1995.

So much for academics.

What gives guys like Esperon merit is that from the word "go" they went into battle, which is what soldiering is all about. He served as a platoon leader of Bravo Coy 231B in Lamitan, Basilan in 1974, and subsequently commanded the Bravo Coy of 361B (1975-76) operating as a strike force of the Southwestern command in Sulu-Basilan-Zamboanga. Later, he commanded the 30th Infantry Battalion in Tungao, Agusan del Norte in 1992, where he battered New People’s Army fronts – gee whiz, our boys are still slugging it out with the NPA in those parts, as well as fighting the NPA this week in Catanduanes, Isabela, and Compostela Valley.

The National Democratic Front (NDF) is currently urging the government to return to peace talks – as spokesmen, naturally, of the NPA. It’s a good thing such siren calls are being ignored at last. The strategy of jaw-jaw while the NPA kept on ambushing, raiding, and killing has definitely got us nothing at all: The Armed Forces and PNP must fight, fight, fight and finish ’em once and for all.

Oh well. Esperon’s combat experience can’t be faulted. He headed the 602nd Infantry Brigade in Carmen, Cotabato during Erap’s full offensive against the Muslim secessionists from 2000 to 2001, leading government forces in capturing several Moro Islamic Liberation Front camps including Camp Rajamuddah in the Liguasan Marsh complex. In the wake of the Abu Sayyaf’s Dos Palmas resort kidnappings, he was transferred to the 103rd Infantry and tasked to rescue the hostages.

In 2002, assuming office, La Gloria handpicked Esperon to be her commanding general of the Presidential Security Group, giving him his first star. He got his second star when he was named Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, J3 of the Armed Forces in February 2003. Assuming command of the 7th Infantry Division in July 2004 in Fort Magsaysay, he also took over the SOCOM, the Special Operations Command, the so-called "First Echelon National Maneuver Force" based in Fort Magsaysay. Under him, as SOCOM, were the ("rebellious"?) and the Special Forces Regiment, classified as "Airborne", a group equal to the Scout Rangers in every way, as well as the Light Reaction Battalion (counterterrorist). When Hermo was promoted to 47th Commanding General of the Philippine Army, he was given his third star.

Like Soviet generals of old, Esperon can wear his own chest salad of medals. In 1998, he received the Presidential Medal of Merit, and also holds two Philippine Legion of Honor medals, nine Distinguished Service Stars, four Gold Crosses, six Bronze Crosses, numerous Military Merit medals and Commendation medals. He received his alma mater’s Cavalier Award as outstanding alumnus, and so forth.

The President has still to pronounce her choice of next Chief of Staff – I hasten to say. Until she does, nothing is engraved on stone. But do you doubt who it will be?

* * *

A week before this writer fell seriously ill, I had a conference with General Esperon.

I was gratified to see that he had brought along with him to our meeting some of our finest men in uniform with sterling combat and leadership records, including my friend Col. Arturo Ortiz, commander of the Special Forces Regiment. An outstanding Medal of Valor awardee, for a prodigious "strike" against a more powerful NPA force in Negros Occidental, Col. Ortiz is so admired in the AFP that his nickname is "Valor," not just Art. (In the February 24th crisis, the Special Forces stayed out of it. Ortiz had quietly told his men: "We’re soldiers, not politicians!" And to a man they stayed disciplined and in line.) Also with Esperon at our session was Major Dennis Eclarin, whom we’ve known since his West Point cadet days. Eclarin, who’s now with the Infantry up north dealing with the NPAs, fought in the Mindanao campaign, proudly as a Scout Ranger, taking part in the fight that swept away the MILF camps, culminating in the capture of their holy-of-holies, Camp Abubakar. The truth of it was that Eclarin has been sent into Oakwood surreptitiously to "talk" sense into the Magdalo mutineers before we got there. The young officers had been his students or junior officers under him.

Also in Esperon’s group were Col. Danny Lucero, Lt. Col. Bob Bacarro, Major Cristobal "Tiny" Perez, Captain Ronaldo Mateo, and 1st Lt. Roy Soriano.

You’ll hear more about these "warriors" in the months to come.

Esperon spelled out his basic ideas, but neither space – nor discretion – permit me to retail them here. As for combat operations, he believes in the nine-man squad. And his basic tenet, as it is in the US Marines (no connection with the celebrated "rape" trial) is "every man a rifleman."

There was an entire folder dedicated to "Talking Points," but you’ll hear more about these – later.

* * *

I spoke with Foreign Affairs Secretary Bert Romulo yesterday. He said he was happy with everything that had transpired during the Presidential trip.

His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI spent half an hour privately conversing with the President in the Vatican, then came out to speak to the rest of the delegation to bless them – and their Rosaries. Secretary Romulo was in awe, he said, of the warm charisma of the Holy Father.

The visit to Madrid, to the Zarzuela Palace, then to Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who met with GMA in his official residence, was a success, too, Bert emphasized.

He described the audience with His Majesty King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia as a visit by La Gloria with old friends. The King gifted GMA with a DVD (not "pirated") of her late father, President Diosdado Macapagal’s state visit to Spain in 1967 – Cong Dadong was of course accompanied by the First Lady, Eva Macaraig Macapagal, who most influenced GMA’s character, I might observe.

Secretary Romulo will be in Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN ministerial meeting there (July 24-28). On July 28, he is scheduled to formally accept the Chairmanship for the Philippines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Chair will be handed over to Romulo by the incumbent Chairman, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar. There will be 10 foreign ministers in attendance, including of course Bert himself and Minister Albar. A proud and significant moment for our nation.

ASEAN, at least, for all its woes, and occasional friction within the group, remains a happy Talking Club!