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Sunday, March 26, 2006
Arroyo warns military graduates against disloyalty
BAGUIO CITY -- Disloyalty among soldiers will no longer be tolerated, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Saturday, urging graduating military officers to stand by her efforts to modernize the economy and reform the Armed Forces.
Arroyo addressed graduates at the elite Philippine Military Academy a month after quelling an alleged coup attempt by communist rebels and military "adventurists."
The Philippine Military Academy's Mandala (Mandirigmang Dangal ng Lahi) Class of 2006 is the biggest to graduate in the history of Asia's premier military institution.
"As your commander in chief, I will not tolerate any diversion from the path we are on," she said. "We cannot keep sweeping disloyalty under the rug. We must sweep disloyalty out of the house once and for all and let the sun shine in."
She said the people "want progress (and) not a rerun of the past", so she cannot just treat disloyalty lightly " alluding to former President Corazon Aquino's punishing coup plotters with pushups.
"I expect you to be loyal to your values to your nation and to your Constitution. And in return, I will remain steadfast in my loyalty to you and to the cause we all share: the fight for a fair, just and a stable democracy," she said.
The military went on a nationwide full alert late Thursday because of an alleged plot to assassinate Arroyo while she attended the graduation ceremony in the mountain resort city of Baguio, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Manila.
Armed forces spokesman Colonel Tristan Kison said the plot included a bomb attack during the ceremony. Special forces troops were flown in to back up presidential security guards at the academy, but no incident developed.
The government said last month it had uncovered a plot, dubbed "Operation Hackle," which called for assassinating Arroyo and Cabinet members as part of a wider conspiracy by disgruntled soldiers, left-wing groups and their civilian backers.
The plot prompted Arroyo to declare a weeklong state of emergency, which she lifted on March 3.
The Philippine army said Thursday it recommended court-martial proceedings against a general and 19 other officers suspected in the failed coup.
"The nation is once again at a crossroads and there are many forces that wish to drag us back and stop our forward progress," Arroyo said Saturday, adding that she was aware of attempts to recruit several of the 324 new officers for the alleged coup plot.
In her nationally televised speech, Arroyo said the main security threats to the country still come from "communist thugs" and "terrorist extremists who have so perverted religion as to make it unrecognizable to peace-loving Muslims and Christians alike."
She said her government was investing heavily in modernizing the armed forces with better equipment and training.
"You need guns that work, shelter for your families and an undivided focus on security concerns, not political intrigue," Arroyo told the new officers. "We owe it to you to keep the temptation of politics out of your reach."
She mentioned the restoration of peace in war-torn Mindanao region. "You, our military compatriots, are a vital part in bringing peace in Mindanao. The combined political will of our government and our international neighbors will make a lasting peace in Mindanao."
"Just as peace in Mindanao would alleviate many burden for our fighting men and women, so too will the alleviation of poverty allow you to defend our nation from enemies outside our borders, rather than having to contend with enemies from within," she added.
In her speech, Arroyo said soldiers must remain focused in fighting "communist thugs who live by an outmoded godless ideology, devoid of the values you live by and die for every day."
She also said they have to prepare to fight "terrorist extremists who have so perverted religion so as to make it unrecognizable to peace-loving Muslims and Christians alike."
"Against the backdrop of the threat posed by these extremist and faithless thugs, you our military compatriots, are a vital part of bringing us to the brink of peace in Mindanao. The combined political will of our government of which you are a part and our international friends and neighbors will make a lasting peace in Mindanao that will make you proud," she said.
On the other hand, she said she is "waging war against poverty" by amending the 1987 Constitution so that the nation can join the First World within 20 years.
Arroyo was careful not to mention political amendments to the Constitution. She would only refer to political amendments as "overhauling the policies and institutions of government."
She said an essential part of building a modern nation in these trying times "is not only to have a modern Constitution, but also to have a military as strong and modern as the nation it serves. And this administration, your administration, has put money where our rhetoric is."
"We are investing heavily, unprecedentedly in new and better equipment, more training and more cooperation with our allies to professionalize our military and reform our defense capability," she added. (AP/ JMR/ Jane Cadalig of Sun.Star/Sunnex)
(March 26, 2006 issue)
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