Loyalty check?

There is something sneaky, if not fishy, with the official statements issued at Malacañang Palace about a meeting President Rodrigo Duterte had with known leaders of the Reformed the Armed Forces of the Philippines Movement (RAM). The RAM had been instrumental in ousting former president Ferdinand Marcos during the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

The RAM leaders, most of them retired now, arrived in full force – namely mutiny leader-turned Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, Capt. Felix Turingan, resigned Capt. Glen Agudo, Navy Commodore Rex Robles, Col. Marcelino Malajacan Jr., Col. Hernando Caraig, Col. James Joven, Police Director Victor Batac, and engineer Jegie Pereda – at Malacañang on Wednesday.

The Palace gave sketchy details of the RAM meeting with President Duterte who is under renewed attacks from human rights advocates against his administration’s deadly war against drug pushers, the stalled peace talks with the Reds and corruption allegations against Customs Bureau officials who are former military officers headed by ex-mutineers.

The meeting also came a few days after Honasan posted bail for a case related to his alleged misuse of pork barrel funds during the previous administration of president Benigno “Noy” Aquino III.

During his weekly briefing on the Marawi siege last Thursday, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella revealed about the RAM leaders’ meeting with President Duterte a day after it took place at the Palace. As he officially gathered from the meeting, Abella disclosed President Duterte is looking at the possible grant of absolute amnesty for the RAM officers and soldiers.

The RAM along with Magdalo mutineers were implicated but later pardoned by PNoy for the failed coups they launched against ex-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Because President Duterte is now the incumbent Commander-in-chief of the AFP, naturally, the grant of such absolute amnesty will have to come from him. If approved by Congress, at least hundreds of RAM officers and soldiers will benefit from the absolute amnesty grant which would allow them to get their back pay and benefits that were withheld by the AFP following their conviction for mutiny.

Apparently reading from the body language of President Duterte and perhaps the most recent public statements of the Commander-in-chief, Abella noted with certainty: “I believe he (President Duterte) viewed it with – positively. I don’t know the exact action that he will take but the fact that he met with them shows that he is quite open to their requests.”

In his speech during the launch of the Philippine Red Cross’s first humanitarian ship, President Duterte shared his personal vignettes with Honasan when the latter went into hiding again after being implicated in yet another rebellion case. “During the days of crisis or the days of living dangerously, I and Gringo – I call him Gringo then and I’d like to call him Gringo now – he was wanted by the government but he was in Davao with me,” President Duterte revealed.

“We were having a great time rambling down the streets of Davao, eating durian on the sidewalk. And my God, nobody recognized Senator Honasan. And I said, that is how our Armed Forces is,” he added, drawing laughter from the crowd.

The original RAM members, along with their comrades from the Soldiers of the Filipino People and Young Officers Union (SFP-YOU) were granted absolute pardon during the term of former president Fidel Ramos. The Congress-approved amnesty was granted to them for the failed coup attempts they launched against the late president Corazon Aquino.

So I presume the new amnesty grant that these RAM leaders supposedly were asking President Duterte had something to do with the Magdalo take over of Oakwood Hotel in Makati City on July 27, 2003. Already a Senator then, Honasan figured into the Magdalo coup plot as he allegedly helped orchestrate it to oust ex-president Arroyo. Honasan was tagged as the “Kuya,” or the codename given to him by the “Magdalo” officers.

Another RAM leader who joined the Magdalo mutiny was Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim. He figured with ex-Navy Lt. Grade and now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in the Makati Peninsula Hotel siege after they walked out of the Makati courtroom in November 2007. President Duterte recently appointed Lim as Metro Manila Development Authority chairman.

Honasan and 31 Magdalo officers led by Trillanes were charged in court for rebellion cases. Honasan, however, was able to evade arrest as he went into hiding again. Trillanes and others in Magdalo were already detained at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

Fast forward. The Magdalo mutineers have since then re-invented themselves and are now holding various government positions.

While in detention, Trillanes run and won as one of the 12 senatorial candidates of the opposition during the May 2007 elections. He won his re-election bid in 2013 and is now on his second and last term as Senator ending in 2019 yet.

The Magdalo’s were able to win two seats as party-list representatives in the 16th Congress, with Ashley Acedillo and Gary Alejano. But in last year’s election, Magdalo won only one seat now being served by Alejano.

Aside from Trillanes, the other Magdalo’s in government include ex-Marine Captain and now Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon who recruited fellow Magdalo officers Milo Maestrecampo and Gerardo Gambala to join him at the Bureau of Customs. They are currently embroiled in the controversial shabu shipment that allegedly slipped through them at Customs. While sparing the two from public berating at the on-going Senate hearing on shabu smuggling, Trillanes drove Faeldon into tears last week.

Both Trillanes and Honasan ran but lost in last year’s vice presidential election. But it was Trillanes who crossed swords with then Davao City Mayor who later won the presidential race.

During the same meeting at Malacanang, Abella said the RAM leaders also “expressed support and offered help to the President. A little birdie chirped that it was actually President Duterte who “invited” the RAM leaders for some kind of loyalty check amid reports reaching him about their activities. Are the old dogs into new tricks?