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Friday, October 22, 2004
Arroyo tells generals to stick to their jobs (5:40 p.m.)
MANILA -- President Arroyo has ordered top army officials to stick to their jobs despite a military corruption crackdown, officials said Friday.
Arroyo met a group of army generals and colonels late Thursday after the military brass monitored concerns aired by certain officers over the probe of former chief finance officer major general Carlos Garcia.
Garcia is under house arrest while under investigation for allegedly amassing millions of dollars in assets on a monthly salary of about 600 US dollars.
Eight bank accounts holding nearly a million dollars under his name and those of members of his family have been frozen by the courts and military prosecutors.
Military sources who attended the meeting told reporters Arroyo invited about 40 army battalion and brigade commanders based on the main island of Luzon for talks followed by dinner at Malacaņang presidential palace.
Arroyo, the commander-in-chief, advised the generals and the colonels at the meeting "to concentrate on their jobs and assured that reforms would be instituted," said a military official who attended the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
During the dialogue, Arroyo asked the mid-level officers about "the morale of the troops in view of the Garcia brouhaha," the military source told reporters.
Arroyo's spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the field commanders "pledged to fight all attempts to divide the armed forces or to undermine the chain of command by any quarters disloyal to democracy."
Military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Daniel Lucero said the military leaders had learned "that there are negative sentiments from our soldiers as a result of this controversy" surrounding Garcia. (AFP)
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