EDITORIAL - The Class of 2015

The Sinag Lahi Class of 2015 graduated from the Philippine Military Academy yesterday in the shadow of the clash that led to the neutralization of a top terrorist but also the deaths of 44 Special Action Force commandos in Mamasapano, Maguindanao.

While the SAF is under the Philippine National Police, the key personalities in the operation are PMA graduates who opted to join the PNP. The slaughter of the so-called SAF 44 by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front is also being partly blamed on the failure of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to send reinforcements.

The AFP and PNP have different tasks and undergo different types of training, although they may complement each other in certain missions such as disaster relief operations. There should be no wavering on the phase-out of PMA graduates from the PNP, a civilian organization with its own academy for training its officer corps.

Developments in recent years have shown that the AFP faces enough challenges in promoting professionalism and achieving minimum credible defense capability. The Sinag-Lahi class should be able to concentrate on facing these challenges.

After the ruinous coup attempts in the past two decades, military adventurism seems to have been curbed, with soldiers leaving the service and entering politics rather than staging a coup when they want direct involvement in policy-making and governance.

Corruption, however, remains a problem in the AFP, as indicated in the scandal involving the acquisition of Air Force helicopters worth about P1.2 billion. Military procurement procedures have been simplified to cut red tape and reduce opportunities for graft, and reforms have been instituted in AFP budget proposals and fund utilization. But backsliding is always a possibility. President Aquino, addressing the PMA yesterday, urged the graduates to sustain reforms.

Accusations of human rights violations also continue to hound the AFP. While the violations are not systematic and this is a problem that is reported in other countries particularly in counterterrorism operations, more can be done to dissuade the military from considering torture and other forms of rights violations as indispensable tools of national security.

Reform tends to come easier for younger generations. Expectations are high that with the Sinag Lahi class and younger batches of the PMA, the AFP is on its way to becoming a highly professional force.