Unmasking the Armed Forces
Unmasking the Armed Forces
Updated 10:54pm (Mla time) Oct 11, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A10 of the October 12, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
SOME of the former colleagues of retired Commodore Rex Robles have told him to shut up and stop talking about graft cases involving military men. It was Robles who first provided more details about graft in the military when he disclosed last week that US authorities were investigating two generals and three Cabinet-level officials for supposedly maintaining huge bank accounts in the United States.
What are Robles' former colleagues and former classmates in the Philippine Military Academy afraid of? That the inquiry will go high up and affect the highest ranks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines? That it will demoralize the military? We say, Robles should continue talking about the cases that he knows of. We say, Robles' revelations should be the starting point of a thorough cleanup of the officer corps of the military.
If the generals and colonels and other ranking officers of the Armed Forces have nothing to hide, they should welcome a wide-ranging investigation of graft cases in the military. Instead of demoralizing the military, such an inquiry should boost the morale of the rank and file. Remember that one of the major complaints of the captains and lieutenants who staged the Oakwood Mutiny last year was that enlisted men were suffering because of graft in high places in the military.
We believe that if grafters in the military could be exposed, prosecuted and punished, that would set an example that would deter other officers who would commit graft at the expense of the lowly enlisted men. The foot soldiers who bear the brunt of the fighting would no longer have to go to the battlefield wearing shoes that easily wear out; or helmets that hardly give any protection against shrapnel; or substandard, supposedly bullet-proof jackets that are easily pierced by even the lowest-caliber bullets.
Instead of telling Robles to shut up, we should encourage him and others of his kind to keep on talking, to continue giving evidence of graft in the military so that a thorough, wide-ranging inquiry could be conducted. It's high time such an investigation was undertaken.
For a long time, since the martial law days of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, the military was considered untouchable. It was as if it could do no wrong and was not subject to the same rules and laws as the rest of the people in government. President Marcos coddled the generals and colonels because he needed them to prop up his martial law regime. He gave them all sorts of perks and privileges, and they felt that they were the chosen ones in government and that they could do anything and not be called to account for their deeds.
Succeeding presidents -- from Corazon C. Aquino to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo -- have handled the military with kid gloves. They believed that they should not court the ire of the generals because they could destabilize the government and pull off coups d'état. It's time the government abandoned this thinking and started going after the grafters in the military. Throw the grafters in the corps of officers in jail and watch morale rise in the rank and file of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The Feliciano Commission, which investigated the Oakwood Mutiny, said in its report that "grievances about graft and corruption in the military...provide a fertile ground for the recruitment of officers and men for military intervention and even the overthrow of government." The Arroyo administration would be depriving military adventurists of such fertile ground and would be promoting political stability if it would conduct a thorough purge of grafters in the Armed Forces.
Updated 10:54pm (Mla time) Oct 11, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A10 of the October 12, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
SOME of the former colleagues of retired Commodore Rex Robles have told him to shut up and stop talking about graft cases involving military men. It was Robles who first provided more details about graft in the military when he disclosed last week that US authorities were investigating two generals and three Cabinet-level officials for supposedly maintaining huge bank accounts in the United States.
What are Robles' former colleagues and former classmates in the Philippine Military Academy afraid of? That the inquiry will go high up and affect the highest ranks of the Armed Forces of the Philippines? That it will demoralize the military? We say, Robles should continue talking about the cases that he knows of. We say, Robles' revelations should be the starting point of a thorough cleanup of the officer corps of the military.
If the generals and colonels and other ranking officers of the Armed Forces have nothing to hide, they should welcome a wide-ranging investigation of graft cases in the military. Instead of demoralizing the military, such an inquiry should boost the morale of the rank and file. Remember that one of the major complaints of the captains and lieutenants who staged the Oakwood Mutiny last year was that enlisted men were suffering because of graft in high places in the military.
We believe that if grafters in the military could be exposed, prosecuted and punished, that would set an example that would deter other officers who would commit graft at the expense of the lowly enlisted men. The foot soldiers who bear the brunt of the fighting would no longer have to go to the battlefield wearing shoes that easily wear out; or helmets that hardly give any protection against shrapnel; or substandard, supposedly bullet-proof jackets that are easily pierced by even the lowest-caliber bullets.
Instead of telling Robles to shut up, we should encourage him and others of his kind to keep on talking, to continue giving evidence of graft in the military so that a thorough, wide-ranging inquiry could be conducted. It's high time such an investigation was undertaken.
For a long time, since the martial law days of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, the military was considered untouchable. It was as if it could do no wrong and was not subject to the same rules and laws as the rest of the people in government. President Marcos coddled the generals and colonels because he needed them to prop up his martial law regime. He gave them all sorts of perks and privileges, and they felt that they were the chosen ones in government and that they could do anything and not be called to account for their deeds.
Succeeding presidents -- from Corazon C. Aquino to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo -- have handled the military with kid gloves. They believed that they should not court the ire of the generals because they could destabilize the government and pull off coups d'état. It's time the government abandoned this thinking and started going after the grafters in the military. Throw the grafters in the corps of officers in jail and watch morale rise in the rank and file of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The Feliciano Commission, which investigated the Oakwood Mutiny, said in its report that "grievances about graft and corruption in the military...provide a fertile ground for the recruitment of officers and men for military intervention and even the overthrow of government." The Arroyo administration would be depriving military adventurists of such fertile ground and would be promoting political stability if it would conduct a thorough purge of grafters in the Armed Forces.
posted by Dante at 11:40 AM
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