MANILA, 17 August 2003 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said yesterday that military reforms had begun last year — and were not prompted by rogue soldiers who held a mutiny weeks ago.
“The government is prepared to address the grievances of the soldiers, but they should never put the law into their own hands,” Arroyo said in weekly radio message.
“It is important for our people to know that the reforms in the Armed Forces of the Philippines were not a result of and do not justify the failed mutiny,” she said.
More than 300 soldiers and officers occupied a posh apartment building and shopping complex in Manila’s Makati financial district on July 27.
They demanded that Arroyo resign, along with the defense secretary and other officials, and have accused military officials of corruption and ordering soldiers to bomb Muslim mosques. The mutineers surrendered after a 19-hour standoff.
Arroyo said she had successfully pushed passage of a law last year to raise the pay for the rank of private from 7,800 pesos ($142) to 11,300 pesos ($205) per month.
She also said she had moved to appropriate land for inexpensive troop housing and changed the military supply procurement process in a bid to prevent graft.
The mutinous officers are veterans of an anti-insurgency campaign in some of the poorest regions in the southern Philippines. They complained of inadequate medical help for wounded soldiers, a lack of equipment such as combat boots, and corruption among procurement officers.
“While we are still trying to find the truth behind these grievances, we have already moved to address them,” Arroyo said, citing the 100 million pesos ($1.82 million) she ordered released for boots and equipment.
No More Testifying
The five leaders of the mutiny have closed the door to the possibility of testifying again before the independent Feliciano Commission which, they believe, is bent on establishing their guilt in the July 27 mutiny.
However, their lawyers said yesterday, Lieutenants Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes and James Layug, and Captains Gerardo Gambala, Gary Alejano and Milo Maestrecampo were willing to testify in congressional hearings, but only on matters concerning the Oakwood incident.
The chances of another appearance before the commission were “very remote,” said the junior officers’ counsel, Homobono Adaza, “especially with the experience of Trillanes, (who) is being prosecuted like mad. There is a demolition campaign going on.”
Adaza requested that his clients be allowed to submit affidavits instead, and said the commission could summon them again if it saw the need after sifting through their statements. The commission granted the request.
The lawyer earlier charged that the commission was conducting a “fishing expedition” aimed at netting his clients, rather than ferreting out the circumstances that led to their occupation of the luxury apartment complex in Makati.
“Whatever will be presented here will be used in a court of law,” the lawyer said in an interview.
Former Supreme Court justice Florentino Feliciano, chair of the commission, maintained that the inquiry was fact-finding in nature, and was not after determining anyone’s guilt or innocence. But Adaza protested that the commission often strayed from its chief objective.
“If I were in their shoes,” he said, “I would first determine why (the soldiers) went to Oakwood. The answer is that they were hunted. Why were they hunted? Who were hunting them? Upon whose orders? What (did they think) would happen to them if they were caught?”
Layug, Gambala and Alejano refused to take the witness stand at the resumption of the commission’s inquiry on Friday in Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Adaza cited as reasons, among other things, lawyer Mario Ongkiko’s “prosecutorial” grilling of Trillanes and Maestrecampo in last Wednesday’s proceedings, and what his clients felt was a bias for President Gloria Arroyo.
Ongkiko, a seasoned trial lawyer, admitted that grilling witnesses was his method “to get the facts out.”
University of the Philippines Professor Carolina Hernandez, a member of the commission, added that the body was still “looking for a level of comfort” with its witnesses.
Adaza said the five officers, all members of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1995, would “invoke the right to remain silent” if they appeared before the Senate panel again and were grilled about their finances, as Trillanes was, last Thursday.
“Why are they doing a lifestyle check on our clients when the purpose here is to have legislation enacted to prevent another Oakwood?” the lawyer demanded. “Senators always like to grandstand. Most of them are not (even) lawyers.”
More Graft Raps
Yesterday, Director Eduardo Matillano, chief of the national police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said his team was preparing new charges against Trillanes over alleged unexplained wealth.
Trillanes admitted in Senate hearing Thursday of having several luxury vans under his name. He said the vans were actually owned by his mother, who registered the vans under his name. Asked why it was not registered under his mother’s name, Trillanes could not give a clear answer.
In the same hearing, Trillanes also admitted he acted as board treasurer for the polling firm FYI, which had been conducting opinion surveys for political aspirants.
He also confessed before senators that he did not file his statement of assets and liabilities (SAL), a requirement for all public officials and staff, for a particular year. However, it was discovered later that he failed to file his SAL for the years 2001 and 2002, including a full disclosure of assets, which is a violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for public officials.
The CIDG on Friday filed graft charges against Trillanes before the Office of the Ombudsman over the non-disclosure.
Apart from the graft charges, Trillanes also faced perjury raps for falsely declaring the ownership of seven vehicles and sedition for disseminating what government called a “spurious” document, which gave details of an alleged “Oplan Green Base” that showed government plans to bomb targets in Mindanao and blame it on the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The National Bureau of Investigation also said Trillanes had invested one million pesos in a pyramiding scheme in 2002.
Trillanes was among the rebel leaders in the failed July 27 mutiny, which condemned alleged corruption in the military establishment, among others. (Input from agencies)
