MANILA: Malacaņang fired back at former defense secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., saying fears of government capitalizing on the Mindanao fighting to impose emergency rule were all in his head. At the same time, Press Secretary and acting Executive Secretary Jesus Dureza said Cruz’s association with a “presidential aspirant,” whom he refused to name, put into question his credibility. “Nonong Cruz had his own time. His fears are his alone and have no resonance in present day realities,” Dureza said in a statement to reporters yesterday. In an interview on the television news channel ANC Thursday night, Cruz had called on Filipinos to be “vigilant and fight any attempt” of Arroyo to impose emergency rule if hostilities in the Mindanao region escalate and ignite terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. “There is always temptation... We should be vigilant, we should fight against any attempt to impose any kind of emergency rule because that’s the last thing we need... It will exacerbate the situation,” Cruz said. But Dureza rejected Cruz’s contention. “The Mindanao situation is very well within control and the normal mechanisms of law enforcement are adequately addressing the challenges,” Dureza maintained. Cerge Remonde, chief of the Presidential Management Staff, told the state-run Radyo ng Bayan the same thing. “There is no basis for such fears. The president is committed to democratic processes,” he said of Cruz’s allegation that emergency rule will be declared. Remonde said the administration has been rocked several times by crises, “but the president has never resorted to such policy in dealing with these problems.” Dureza said Cruz’s “negative” take on the fighting in the south was expected, given his “acrimonious departure” from the Arroyo Cabinet in November 2006. Remonde called on former administration officials who have since allied themselves with the opposition to help the government achieve “stability for our country.” On Cruz’s suggestion that amending the Constitution should be done after 2010, Remonde said that “it’s clear that if it (Charter change) could be done now, it can be effective after 2010. It should not benefit the incumbent.” Cruz quit as defense secretary, after over two years in the Cabinet, after he opposed Palace-backed efforts to amend the Constitution through a people’s initiative, calling it a “hare-brained idea.” Cruz former law partner, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, penned the high tribunal’s decision that shot down the people’s initiative. Troops are running after Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in Central Mindanao over attacks on civilian communities that have left at least 71 civilian and combatants killed. During his term as defense secretary, Cruz laid the groundwork for the Philippine Defense Reform (PDR) program, a multi-year road map that will modernize the ill-equipped Armed Forces of the Philippines. In his Thursday interview Cruz said that Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Alexander Yano would most likely not allow this (emergency) to happen. “Yano, I think, is a very professional soldier who exhibits responsibility and restraint. He knows how to (balance) these operations in order to achieve the correct objectives,” Cruz said. He added that the officers and men of the AFP would not “go along just in case somebody has the insane idea of trying to do that.” “I don’t think the AFP will go along with it,” he said.
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