EDITORIAL - Want Palparan? Ask the Chief!

It is rather funny how some people accuse the Armed Forces of the Philippines of coddling retired Army general Jovito Palparan yet stop conveniently just short of laying at least part of the blame on President Aquino.

In case these people have forgotten, Aquino is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and as far as the military goes, he cannot shirk from certain responsibilities involving his men. There is nothing ceremonial about the title. 

In other words, you want Palparan caught, you go to Aquino. He is very adept at catching people, including those far bigger than Palparan. All he has to do is give the order, as in ordering former president Gloria Arroyo arrested and jailed before Christmas.

When Aquino boomed “I want Arroyo behind bars before Christmas” everybody trembled at the sound of that command. And rightly so. Not only was the command carried out, it was carried out strictly to the letter.

So how come, in the case of Palparan, nobody seems to expect anything from him? If you can jail a former president and sitting congresswoman, there is no reason you cannot find and jail an already retired Army major general.

Unless, of course, the Armed Forces is just playing Aquino — giving him what he truly wants, like Arroyo, and then run rings around what he does not really need, such as Palparan who obviously does not account for much on Aquino’s plate.

Yet Aquino can actually catch diarrhea if he isn’t careful. The military does not take kindly any assault against a comrade, especially when the pressure brought to bear upon them comes from the very enemies against whom they have shed too much blood.

The enemies of the state call Palparan a butcher. But to some of his comrades he is an officer who made fighting the enemy much easier for them. It is not easy for them to rat on a comrade, and the commander-in-chief fully understands that.

It’s one thing to coddle, another to look away, an equation that works perfectly. The former is a crime, the latter is not. Enemies of the state can cry themselves hoarse, but Aquino needs his Army more than the Army needs him.