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Thursday, September 21, 2006
Gov’t, military say Thai coup won’t happen in RP
MANILA -- There is no reason for the country to be concerned about becoming another Thailand, where the military staged a coup that led to the ouster of its Prime Minister, said Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
Ermita said the situation in the Philippines is different from Thailand.
The Philippine military on Wednesday vowed it will not follow Thailand’s lead and stage a coup to remove President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from office.
Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was in New York, where he was attending the UN General Assembly, when the military staged the coup.
“I don’t see any reason why we should be afraid. I don’t see what the connection is. There is no cause for alarm whatsoever,” said Ermita.
He said the Philippines is politically stable and its military and police loyal to the Constitution and the President. He said the soldiers were aware of what’s going on.
But despite claims that it is not alarmed by the ouster of Shinawatra, Ermita called up military officials to prevent any apprehension on the part of the soldiers and the people.
He said he got in touch with Armed Forces officials “just to be sure that things are handled in a manner that will not cause alarm whatsoever in the Philippines.”
He said he told them to issue statements that would allay the apprehensions of the people.
Ermita said his calls to Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon and the major service commanders do not mean he was nervous, pointing out that he faced seven coup attempts when he was military deputy chief of staff during the Aquino administration.
“In all matters that pertain to peace and order and national security, it behooves upon us to really make those calls,” he said.
He said there are no more grumblings in the military because it is “solid” under the leadership of Esperon and his service commanders. He said any image of instability that the opposition wants to project has been “corrected and neutralized.”
Ermita also said what happened in Thailand is “hardly our concern” although “we are hoping that such a problem in a foreign country like Thailand would be settled peacefully.”
Ermita said President Arroyo is monitoring developments in Bangkok and that he called her up at 11:30 a.m. when he found out about the incident.
He said neither he nor Arroyo was surprised by what happened because there were already reports that Thais were discontented with Shinawatra several months ago. He said Arroyo ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to ensure that Filipinos in Thailand are safe.
He said the Philippines is not taking any position on the matter even if it is the chair and host this year of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Thailand is a member. He said the DFA will issue the Philippine position.
He also said Malacañang is waiting if the DFA will recommend the issuance of travel advisories regarding Thailand.
Esperon noted that the 120,000-strong Philippine military is abiding by the administration of President Arroyo who, like Thaksim, is being accused by some sectors, including the political opposition, of corruption.
Esperon, through military public information office chief Bartolome Bacarro, said: “We remain to be intact, the chain of command is intact and we don’t see any similar event happening here (in the Philippines)."
Esperon presided over a command conference at general headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo on Wednesday morning, hours after the coup in Thailand but Bacarro said it had nothing to do with that incident. He said a command conference is scheduled on a weekly basis.
“The Armed Forces remains to be loyal to duly-constituted authorities, to include the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of the government, and we are taking orders from the Commander-in-Chief, which is the President,” Bacarro also quoted Esperon as saying.
He said the Philippine military was aware of the events in Thailand in view of the information being provided by Filipino defense attaches. “What we are doing at present is monitoring,” said Bacarro.
When told that disgruntled military officers in the Philippines may replicate what happened in Thailand, Bacarro said: “Well, like what we said, we don’t see it happening here. That will not happen here at present.”
Bacarro said military dynamics in Thailand and in the Philippines are totally different.
He expressed fear though that some “threat groups” may take advantage of the Thailand incident for propaganda purposes.
“They (threat groups) can start making propaganda along that tune. However, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will categorically state that it will not happen here in the country,” said Bacarro.
Army spokesman Ernesto Torres said the Army leadership will never such scenario to happen in the Philippines. “The Philippine Army, as a matter of policy, isolates itself from politics and distances itself from political groups,” he said.
The Navy also remains loyal to the chain of command, said its spokesman Giovanni Carlo Bacordo.
At the House of Representatives, opposition congressmen took advantage of the military coup in Thailand to stop the momentum gained by administration-backed moves to amend the 1987 Constitution.
Reacting to the ouster of Shinawatra by the Thai military, opposition congressmen said it doused water on the claim of pro-Charter change legislators that only Charter change would prevent any military uprising.
Representatives Gilbert Remulla of Cavite and Joel Villanueva of party-list Citizens Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) said Thailand, despite having a parliamentary form of government, still experienced political turmoil.
Charter change proponents, including House Speaker Jose de Venecia, earlier claimed that a shift from a presidential to a parliamentary form of government would deter political turmoil, and that includes a military uprising or coup.
Pro-administration congressmen have been pushing for the amendments of the 1987 Constitution claiming that it would make the government's political and economic status stable.
Ermita said despite the coup in Thailand, the government and its allies will not reconsider their bid to push for amendments in the Constitution and a change in the form of government from the current presidential to parliamentary.
He said there are more military takeovers or coups in a presidential form of government than in the parliamentary system. He said the latest coup was the 18th to happen in Thailand.
He said the changing of the guard in the parliamentary system is smoother. “We will still push through with it,” he said. (JMR/VR/DBP/Sunnex)
(September 21, 2006 issue)
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