EDITORIAL - Eradicating a virus

The Armed Forces of the Philippines took another step yesterday in eradicating the coup virus that has long bedeviled the military. The AFP leadership approved the court-martial of 30 officers, led by a former Marine commandant and the former head of the Army’s elite Scout Ranger Regiment, on charges that they plotted to topple the government in February this year.

Some of the officers are familiar to the nation: Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim of the Scout Rangers gained notoriety way back in December l989, when he led Army troops in taking over Makati’s financial district in the bloodiest attempt to kick out Corazon Aquino from the presidency. Others became known only in February, during a tense standoff at the Marine headquarters at Fort Bonifacio where an attempt to summon people power was a dismal failure.

Lim should have been punished a long time ago. Instead, like other coup participants of the past, he got a mere slap on the wrist and years later was even given command of the Scout Rangers. This time he could finally face punishment for violations of the Articles of War. No matter how exemplary his record in the service may be, that punishment is necessary if AFP members are to understand the soldier’s role in a democracy.

In prosecuting the 30 officers, the AFP should avoid the snail’s pace that has eroded public confidence in the civilian justice system. A court-martial is supposed to mete out swift justice if discipline is to be enforced down the ranks. This case cannot be allowed to drag on like the trial of the junior officers who participated in the Oakwood mutiny.

That mutiny led to the creation of a commission whose recommendations for reforms in the military have been implemented despite great odds over the past two years. Those reforms, including efforts to stop corruption and insulate the AFP from politics, are meant to cure the military of the coup virus for good.

Apart from reforms and appropriate punishment for coup plotters, there is one indispensable ingredient in the cure: good government. Rebels without a cause never succeed and eventually fade away from irrelevance.