Can military justice end adventurism?

On July 21, after battling controversies over his alleged involvement in poll irregularities during the May 2004 presidential elections, then Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. assumed his post as the 35th chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) following the retirement of Gen. Generoso Senga.

As the highest officer in the AFP, Esperon is given the task of implementing military justice on 30 Marines and Army Scout Rangers now facing various charges of violating the Articles of War over their alleged involvement in the failed Feb. 24 coup plot against President Arroyo.

This could be a daunting task for Esperon, as he will serve as the judge who had personal knowledge of the coup plot allegedly hatched by former Scout Ranger Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and former 1st Marine Brigade chief Col. Ariel Querubin.

Former Marine Commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, the highest ranking among those charged before the military tribunal, was Esperon’s "mistah" (classmate) and bunkmate at the PMA.

Questions have been raised as to whether Esperon can deliver justice fairly — as he is both the convening authority who will approve the verdict of the court martial and a possible witness for the prosecution in the same court martial.

The court martial is headed by Southern Luzon Command chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano.

Esperon has defended his position, saying military lawyers have assured him that there is no legal impediment if he stands as witness against the officers because, when the plan was revealed by Lim and Querubin he was then Army chief and not yet the chief of staff of the AFP.

He will serve as AFP chief until February 2008 and has been very firm in his belief that subjecting soldiers who try to break away from the chain of command to the fullest extent attainable in the military justice system is a way of putting an end to adventurism within the military.

This active prosecution of soldiers who try to break the chain of command will go hand-in-hand with internal initiatives to ensure that the soldiers are prepared to carry out their immense responsibilities.

The lack of housing, health care and other social services, which are being used as springboards of those who continue to sow restiveness within the military are being addressed. According to Esperon this is being done because the AFP has always been concerned with the wellbeing of all its personnel and because it wants to disprove the false claims of coup mongers.

Other contenders for the top AFP post were Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga, and Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Jose Reyes. As chiefs of the AFP’s major services, they are automatically listed in the shortlist of possible contenders for the military top brass.

Esperon’s appointment caught President Arroyo’s critics by surprise and raised some eyebrows, particularly among those who believe that the 2004 vote was rigged in favor of Mrs. Arroyo.

There were also speculations that Esperon’s appointment to the AFP helm was some form of payback for "debts of gratitude" owed Esperon his purported contribution to Mrs. Arroyo’s victory, though the allegations being leveled against Esperon have not been proven.

A special body created by the AFP and headed by Mayuga reportedly cleared Esperon of his alleged involvement in poll irregularities during the 2004 elections.

The contents of the report, however, were not disclosed to the public.

Some of his supporters claim that Esperon’s only fault was being mentioned in the alleged wiretapped recordings, which has cast doubts over the legitimacy of the Arroyo presidency.

Esperon, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1974, passed through the proverbial needle’s eye after being bypassed twice by the bicameral Commission on Appointments.

But victory was sweet for the seasoned officer, after his third and fourth star were confirmed in a single CA hearing. Again, Esperon was not spared the speculations that this was because he was backed by an influential religious group that allegedly lobbied for the CA nod.

Esperon, along with retired Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani and former Southern Command chief Lt. Gem. Roy Kyamko was mentioned in the alleged wiretapped conversations between President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

He was then AFP deputy chief of staff for operations and was the concurrent deputy chief of Task Force HOPE (Honest, Orderly and Peaceful Elections).

He was subsequently named chief of the elite Special Operations Command and then taking over the 175, 000 strong Philippine Army prior to his appointment as chief of staff.

Upon his assumption to the military’s top post, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, former commander of the Northern Luzon Command took over the helm of the Philippine Army.

Tolentino on the other hand, was replaced by Lt. Gen. Bonifacio Ramos.

During her most recent State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President was all praise for Tolentino, the "soldier-farmer" that developed a sprawling plantation of jathropa curcas or "tuba-tuba", which is being eyed by the government as an alternative source of fuel.

New Navy chief

A few weeks before the year came to a close, Vice Adm. Rogelio Calunsag, former AFP inspector general assumed his post as Navy flag officer in command, replacing Mayuga, who officially bowed out from the military service after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 on Dec. 8.

Mayuga, aside from investigating his colleagues mentioned in the "Hello Garci" recordings, has been instrumental in recovering some 200 housing units at the military quarters facility in Fort Bonifacio, which are being occupied by overstaying retired officers.

On the eve of his formal retirement, Mayuga has packed all his bags and left his quarters after the turnover of command the next day, a move which, according to him was done in order to set the example for other retired officers, for them to give way to their juniors who are still in the active service.

With this action, the feisty Mayuga hopes to accord junior officers courtesy to prevent restiveness within their ranks.

Resigned defense secretary Avelino Cruz, who himself was put in the limelight, maintains a high regard for Mayuga, who, according to him, is morally upright, efficient, effective and courageous.

With this, Calunsag must now equal, if not surpass, Mayuga’s accomplishments and continue Mayuga’s efforts to recover military quarters from overstaying retired officers.

Marching orders

When he assumed the AFP helm, Esperon was given marching orders by the President to finally put an end to the Maoist insurgency being waged by the communist New People’s Army (NPA), that spans almost 38 years.

The military believes it has the upper hand, especially with the Capability Upgrade Program of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the AFP, which involves the purchase of mission-essential equipment so ill-equipped soldiers can carry out their missions.

The call for battle was sounded immediately upon Esperon’s assumption of the top military. Esperon announced that the AFP is pulling the 3rd infantry battalion out of its former deployment to Mindanao to combat NPA rebels in Luzon.

This was followed by the release of P1 billion to be shared by the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP), after the PNP was given a more active role against insurgency in the urban areas.

They were immediately sent to Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija for retraining and deployed to coastal areas in Bulacan and Pampanga, where army commanders claim that fishpond operators and other business owners are being used as "milking cows" by the insurgents.

Soldiers were deployed to remote villages to lecture on the "deceptive" tactics employed by the rebels in capturing the hearts and minds of the people in far-flung villages where government presence is barely felt.

Special Operations Teams now conduct dialogues with residents, village officials and even those who have alleged ties with the NPA. They bring with them rebel returnees who speak harshly about their former comrades in a bid to dissuade peasants from supporting or joining the NPA. This strategy has helped the AFP achieve its goal.

In Central Luzon, one of the pilot areas of the government’s counter-insurgency efforts, thousands of former rebels and supporters have severed ties with the communist movement and renounced its "false pro-poor agenda."

Thousands of high- and low-powered firearms were either recovered in armed clashes or surrendered by residents in the region, where some villages have already been "cleared of NPA presence, control and influence."

Thanks to retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, whose hard-line stance against communism has earned him the ire of militant groups that have accused him of masterminding the extrajudicial killings of militants.

Given the nickname "the butcher," Palparan had his share of the limelight. His anti-NPA efforts in Central Luzon were followed closely by media.

Palparan’s no-nonsense campaign against insurgency was lauded by the President during her SONA.

Despite having been widely accused of human rights violations, nobody has filed a complaint against the mild-mannered Palparan. Despite being very vocal and straightforward in his campaign against the NPA, has admitted to being hurt over accuseations that he has a wanton disregard for human life.

Residents of formerly NPA-infested villages in Central Luzon rallied behind Palparan’s efforts, joined his marathon dialogues and even carried placards to signify their support when Palparan retired on Sept. 11.

New game plan

The President approved the second phase of the military’s operation plan, which is directed at crushing the NPA and al-Qaeda-linked bandits in Mindanao.

"Oplan Bantay Laya 2," is a continuation of an earlier master plan, the implementation of which ends on Dec. 31, that aimed to achieve the government’s objective of finally crushing the communist insurgency in the countryside by 2010 and neutralize the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), whose members and leaders are the subject of a massive manhunt by some 7,000 soldiers in the jungles of Sulu.

This master plan also aims to contain secessionist groups in Mindanao.

Mrs. Arroyo, as concurrent defense secretary, drafted a medium-term mission for each branch of service in the AFP. These missions involve organizing, training, equipping, deploying and sustaining forces to achieve a strategic defeat of the communist movement and other terrorist groups and containing the secessionist groups in Mindanao.

The military claimed that, from 2002 to the present, the NPA suffered a major setback by losing rebel strength from 12,000 to 7,100, while the number of NPA-infested, controlled and influenced villages has declined with 2,115 from a high of 12,510 in December 2004, during the implementation of the first Oplan Bantay Laya.

This year, an NPA regional secretary was killed while 13 other guerilla front secretaries were either killed, captured, or surrendered.

There is also criticism from human rights groups and militant organizations, who claim that Oplan Bantay Laya is part of a government policy targeting activists in a bid to quell growing dissent towards the Arroyo government.

The military has denied these accusations, saying that the whole campaign plan involves development programs for target areas to address poverty, which is seen as the root cause of insurgency.

With all the support the military is getting from the political leadership, the AFP has expressed confidence that it would be able to meet Mrs. Arroyo’s deadline, before her term ends.

Ultimatum

On August 1, following reports that Indonesian terrorists believed to be responsible for major bombings in South East Asia are training Abu Sayyaf militants in the hinterlands of Sulu province, the military launched massive manhunt operation to track them down.

"Oplan Ultimatum" aims to hunt down Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, JI bomb-making experts Dulmatin, who goes by only one name, and Umar Patek in the jungles of Patikul, Sulu.

When Oplan Ultimatum started, there were three Marine and two Army battalions operating in the target areas. When the manhunt started, six Scout Ranger companies, a Special Forces battalion, two more Marine battalions and a Force Reconnaissance Company — an elite unit under the Marines — were injected into the area, bringing the number of government forces in Sulu to 6,000.

The troop concentration in Sulu increased to almost 8,000 with the deployment of more Marines and Army soldier to the area to covering as much ground as possible.

Despite this massive troop deployment to Sulu, the terrorists have not yet been cornered due to the extremely rugged terrain.

There were also reports that Janjalani, Patek and Dulmatin already slipped into Basilan and they were later reported to have escaped to the Lanao provinces.

These reports were denied by the military, citing intelligence information that give them "strong reasons to believe" that their high-value targets are still holed up in Sulu.

In early October, Istiada bin Oemar Sovie, who admitted she is Dulmatin’s wife was captured along with her two sons in Jolo. She revealed during tactical interrogation that her husband and his cohorts are being coddled by some "rogue" members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Due to the lack of an anti-terrorism law in the country, Sovie could not be tried for her alleged links with the JI and was subsequently deported to Indonesia.

Three successive bomb attacks were staged in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat province, Makilala town in North Cotabato province, and Cotabato City in Maguindanao province that killed eight people and wounded scores of civilians in the second week of October. Authorities suspect that the attacks were a reprisal for the arrest of Sovie, as the improvised explosive devices used allegedly had the JI signature.

These attacks raised the terror alert in Mindanao to the extreme critical level, while a lower degree of terrorist alert was implemented in Metro Manila due to fears that the attacks could spill over in the country’s capital.

The Abu Sayyaf were linked to kidnap for ransom activities involving foreign tourists in the resort island of Sipadan in Malaysia and at Dos Palmas Resort in Palawan, as well as the bombing of the Superferry 14. Dulmatin and Patek were believed to have been responsible for the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200 people.

In the absence of an anti-terrorism law, the terrorists, even if they are arrested, can only be charged with common crimes despite the fact that the Philippines has been a major ally of the US-led war on terrorism.

Lawmakers have yet to decide on whether to pass the pending legislation due to opposition raised by some quarters an anti-terrorism law may be prone to abuse.

This, according to defense and military officials, renders Philippine authorities virtually toothless in prosecuting terrorists intent on mass murder.

Despite these obstacles, the military leadership has expressed confidence that the suspected terrorists would be captured in their jungle lair in the soonest time possible.