AFP: Alliance between military rightists, Reds deeply rooted

Armed Forces chief Gen. Generoso Senga said yesterday the two-year-old tactical alliance between military rebels and the New People’s Army (NPA) is so deeply rooted that it could not be untangled in a single stroke despite their failed attempt to oust the government last month.

Speaking before the Philippine Constitution Association at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City on Tuesday, Senga said the Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan-Makabayang Kawal ng Pilipinas, or Magdalo and the Communist Party of the Philippines, aim to overthrow the government and install a military caretaker government or a transition council.

"Now is not the time to relax our vigilance," he said.

"This alliance has been deepening for over two years now, and will not be uprooted in a single stroke. We may have not seen the last of the attempts at power grabbing. Certainly, the enemies of democracy and our constitutional order will use the very guarantees of freedom and individual rights to subvert the very foundation of our governance," Senga said.

He said anti-government forces will always find allies in "opportunist personalities" who will not hesitate "to bankroll violence and wreck the gains we have achieved thus far."

"Let me take this opportunity to emphasize that I will resist the establishment of a military caretaker government or transition council even at the cost of my own life, if that is what circumstance demands of me," he said.

The AFP will remain the protector of the state and the people, Senga said.

Among the audience members listening to Senga was former defense secretary and Army chief retired Maj. Gen. Fortunato Abat, staunch critic of President Arroyo, who had declared a transition government at Club Filipino in San Juan some two months ago.

Last month, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the EDSA I people power revolt, ultra-military rightists and the CPP-NPA tried to wrest control of the government but failed.

Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, then First Scout Ranger Regiment commander, was placed under arrest on Senga’s orders.

Several days before Lim’s arrest, government security forces arrested fugitive Army 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan in a sting operation at a remote barangay in Padre Garcia, Batangas.

San Juan’s capture revealed a grand plot hatched by ultra-right military rebels and the CPP-NPA to oust the President and install a transition council or a military caretaker government.

Meanwhile, Senga said the habit of some in the media to portray military officers and enlisted personnel linked to the failed coup as saviors of democracy was hindering the AFP’s efforts to halt divisiveness among the ranks.

"This is further made difficult by the propensity of certain sectors of the media to romanticize erring officers and soldiers, portraying them as messianic figures that they are certainly not," he said.

Senga said some sectors in the media indirectly encourage young officers to adopt the wrong values, twisting their perspectives.

The AFP has been on the receiving end of mounting criticism over several issues, not only the involvement of soldiers in a failed coup, but also for the alleged involvement of several military officers in massive electoral fraud in the 2004 elections.