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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Arroyo urged to grant amnesty to mutineers
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO City Representative and House Majority Leader Prospero "Boy" Nograles urged President Arroyo to grant a full and complete amnesty to the Oakwood mutineers.
Nograles, along with other members of the House committee on rules, recommended last week for the adoption of House Resolution No. 445 urging for a full amnesty to the officers and enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who were involved in the Oakwood incident on July 27, 2003.
The House resolution stated that the recent controversy surrounding the case against Major General Carlos Garcia "confirmed the basis for the outcry" of the Oakwood mutineers.
The mutineers, dubbed as the Magdalo group, earlier accused top-ranking AFP officials of graft and corruption among others.
"While the said events do not and cannot justify the actions and actuations of the Magdalo soldiers during the Oakwood incident, the said events have shown that their acts had basis in truth and in fact, and have in fact confirmed the need for widespread reforms in the AFP to combat corruption and reform its faulty and defective procurement and logistic system," the House resolution stated.
In an interview, Nograles said it's high time to heal the wounds, which have torn the AFP apart.
He said the young officers and enlisted personnel should be given a second chance and this can be achieved with the granting of a full and complete amnesty.
He however clarified that the Oakwood incident is an exceptional case that should not be made a precedent for all the other coup plotters to be forgiven and given full amnesty.
"Their (Oakwood mutineers) advocacy is correct but the ways and means wrong. But peace reconciliation is much better. We will not make this Oakwood incident a precedent, this is the exception," Nograles said.
About 122 representatives supported the House resolution.
There were more than 300 soldiers who joined the Oakwood mutiny with its 32 young officers still in confinement for more than 1 year and 3 months now.
The young officers had already apologized and admitted their fault to the President and to the public.
(December 12, 2004 issue)
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