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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Arroyo urged to grant amnesty to mutineers
By Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- Davao City Representative Prospero "Boy" Nograles, House majority leader, 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 detained 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.
Earlier, 15 senators signed a resolution urging President Arroyo to grant amnesty to the leaders and members of the Magdalo Group.
Sen. Alfredo Lim introduced the resolution and was supported unanimously by the opposition bloc. From the majority bloc, Senate President Pro Tempore Juan Flavier, Sens. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Manuel "Lito" Lapid, Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., Richard Gordon and Manuel Villar also signed the resolution.
Lim said Senators Ralph Recto and Juliana Pilar "Pia" Cayetano also expressed support to the resolution and will sign it soon.
Lim said the leaders and members of the Magdalo Group, should be given amnesty at least before Christmas because they have surrendered and no lives were lost in the failed rebellion called as the Oakwood mutiny.
The Magdalo Group took over the Oakwood Premier and called for the resignation of Arroyo, police and military officials for alleged corruption and incompetence.
"They should be granted with amnesty because they were finally prevailed upon to lay down their arms, surrender to the authorities and go back to barracks," Lim said.
Some relatives of the former rebel soldiers trooped to the Senate and appealed to the legislators to approve the resolution.
"The government must exercise leniency, absolve its offenders and demonstrate magnanimity in the face of the current political strife that divides this nation," Lim said in a resolution.
A bribe
Meanwhile, a militant leader on Saturday slammed the House resolution saying the resolution was made in exchange of the retraction made by the Magdalo group from their previous statements accusing the AFP and the government of graft and corruption.
"It's a done deal in exchange of the mutineers' retraction from their previous statements about corruption in the AFP. President Arroyo's full amnesty shows that the government is still using bribe system to silence issues of corruption within the administration," Ramada said.
"It is a display of GMA's lack of political will to curb corruption in the AFP," he added.
Ramada said the investigation on alleged corruption should however not be compromised.
He urged the government to have concrete actions to address the issue on corruption not just within the AFP but on all the other government agencies.
Lt. Col. Edgardo Gonzales of the Army's 60th Infantry Battalion meanwhile said the mutineers were simply misinformed when they staged the Oakwood mutiny and ought to be given a second chance.
"These mutineers are idealistic, only they were misinformed and need more time to mature. We need their guts and idealism," Gonzales said.
(December 12, 2004 issue)
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