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Saturday, July 22, 2006
New Armed Forces chief boasts of 'stronger, more united military'
LIEUTENANT General Hermogenes Esperon on Friday bragged to those who plot to overthrow the Arroyo administration about "a more solid military" as he formally assumed as the new chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), replacing now retired General Generoso Senga.
Esperon addressed the statement to the group of First Scout Ranger Regiment commander Danilo Lim who supposedly led a failed plan to oust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from office last February.
Senga has ordered a pretrial investigation, preparatory to the conduct of court martial proceedings, against Lim and 39 other Army and Marine officers for violation of the Articles of War.
The others facing pre-trial investigation are former Marine commandant Renato Miranda and bemedalled Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin, a recipient of the highest military award Medal for Valor.
Esperon said the military leadership will apply the full force of the law against the group of Lim, who is incarcerated in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal.
"We shall make the military justice take its due course," said Esperon who may convene a court martial that will try Lim's group once a prima facie case is established against the coup plotters in the pre-trial investigation.
"If they still attempt (to mount a coup), then they will find an AFP that will be resisting all the more, more solid as they would want to imagine," said Esperon who is said to be one of the Arroyo loyalists in the military.
Esperon was among the four military generals mentioned in the controversial "Hello Garci" wiretapping tapes who supposedly helped in the rigging of the results of the May 2004 presidential elections to ensure Arroyo's victory.
A military fact-finding board investigated Esperon and the three other generals. Last April, the board revealed its findings to the public, clearing all four officers due to lack of any witness.
On the recommendation of the fact-finding board to relieve all the 40 officers from their posts, Esperon said as far as he knows, all of them have been already ordered relieved from their assignments.
Miranda was relieved as Marine commandant last February 26, two days after the failed power grab, prompting Querubin to lead a stand-off at the Marine headquarters. Querubin was relieved as commander of the 1st Marine Brigade on February 28.
Military officials said Lim, Miranda and Querubin planned to join the anti-government protest rallies at the Edsa Shrine last February 24 and subsequently withdraw their support from President Arroyo.
The plan did not push through due to Senga's order restricting Lim to his quarters in Fort Bonifacio and the declaration of state of national emergency, which the police used as basis in dispersing demonstrations.
Among the other officers involved in the plot who are still occupying posts are Lieutenant Colonel; Achilles Segumalian, chief of the 2nd Marine Battalion Landing Team; Major Melquiades Ordiales, chief of the 9th Marine Battalion Landing Team, and Marine chief of staff Armando Banez.
When asked if the officers involved were already relieved, Marine commandant Nelson Allaga said: "We have yet to receive an official communication. Let us leave it at that." Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, for his part, said: "The report has yet to reach me, that's a GHQ (General Hwadquarters) matter. I cannot comment because honestly the report is not yet with me."
On whether Senga would be investigated on reports that he initially side with the group of Lim, Esperon said: "I don't think he should be investigated, he should be the one to continue investigating all these destabilizers."
"I can assure and I must tell you that during the critical hours of February 23, we were all solid under the command of General Senga and we owe it to him, we owe it to his leadership," he said.
When asked if Senga hesitated to quell the coup, Esperon said: "No, no. His actions were complete. Before he delivered the final blow, we were all prepared already. We were in position, they (coup plotters) have no chance."
In his assumption speech, Esperon praised Senga for making sure that the destabilizers would not succeed. "You strengthened discipline and cohesion in the ranks, which made the institution even stronger," he said.
"Your leadership neutralized enemies that threatened our national security and sought to hamper economic development," added Esperon of Senga who has denied siding with the renegade officers and men. (VR/Sunnex)
(July 22, 2006 issue)
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