IN SPITE of recent events, not least among them the escape of ex-mutineers, Malacañang is shrugging off threats of a coup d’etat, saying that any attempts at destabilization will be futile. The Palace believes that the loyalty of around 117,000 soldiers in the country to the Arroyo administration belies the existence of a mounting coup.
We remember, however, like it was only yesterday, when in 2003, 300 young military officers seized control of the Oakwood Premiere Residences in Makati City, and there, demanded a change of government. We remember how the Armed Forces is one big fraternity in itself, with generals and other high officers dictating the fickle loyalties of junior officers and mistahs looking out for each other. We remember how the military’s sway of allegiance put Arroyo into the presidency. But we also remember how it’s so easy for all that to suddenly change.
Recent history has been very clear that the Armed Forces becomes the final arbiter in times when the nation is split down the middle. If there is one thing that the recent escape of the four high security prisoners from Fort Bonifacio has made clear, it is that the military may just be looking out after its own. It is that the supposed commander in chief is powerless to order a proper and strict investigation into such matters, one that should result in replacing those officials found guilty of ineptitude in preventing just this kind of breach, which greatly threatens national security, not to mention national peace and stability. Unfortunately, recent history has made clear that all the commander in chief can say is that these things are already being investigated. Ditto high military men. And unfortunately, despite these so-called investigations and measures, breaches still take place.
The Palace greatly downplays the bond and camaraderie among mistahs who have been side by side both in training and in actual combat. It greatly downplays the fact that those recent escapists were able to befuddle the strangling security at their prison. It greatly downplays the possibility that there may have been no need for befuddlement at all.
Although Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon, who escaped his security detail last December, has been recaptured according to recent reports, that doesn’t erase the images and videos of him strutting in the very military camps he was supposed to have been avoiding, and in which he claimed to be recruiting support for the bid to kick out a president who is already on thin ice after an impeachment attempt on grounds of electoral fraud and other controversies.
Of course, as acting chief of staff Mike Defensor would have it, the administration will fight fire with fire should a coup actually occur. But with what, considering the earlier premise that the military constitutes one great vote?
Sen. Ralph Recto may be more astute: “Fighting fire with fire will only burn the house down.”
But while Government should look into the matter at once, Filipinos must also reject a coup d’etat as an alternative to threshing out the national issues in the proper fora. If a coup d’etat is to arise, it would destroy the very ideal that soldiers swore to protect—our democracy. Even if the coup succeeds and the plotters establish the legitimacy of their government, the very definition of a military putsch is contradictory to the concept of democracy and democratic processes. If ever, a coup would only mean that a disgruntled few failed to dislodge the current administration with only their allegations.
We would rather have these allegations substantiated. Otherwise, no president or leader of this country will ever be safe from the frustrations of his opponents.
