Not just rumors

It wasn’t a mere rumor after all, about forthcoming resignations in the Department of National Defense. On Monday, the DND officer-in-charge himself, Jose Faustino Jr., quit.

Malacañang announced, in a terse statement, that the resignation had been accepted, and peace adviser Carlito Galvez had been named as replacement.

Yesterday, the DND said seven to nine of Faustino’s subordinates co-terminus with him were also expected to submit “courtesy resignations.” It’s unclear if the resignations were truly “courtesy” or irrevocable like Faustino’s, or if they were voluntarily given or demanded by higher-ups.

It is also unclear if Galvez, who served as vaccine czar in the Duterte administration, would be serving as OIC or would have a permanent appointment to the DND – a post that is reportedly reserved for a BBM supporter.

It was rumored that the resignations in the DND were in protest over the surprise replacement of Lt. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro as Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff with Gen. Andres Centino, who was himself sacked as AFP chief by President Marcos – also for unspecified reasons – in August last year.

At the time, Centino already had four stars so the three-star Bacarro could not get his fourth star. We had the strange phenomenon of an incumbent AFP chief having a lower rank than an officer who was effectively on floating status.

Bacarro was also supposed to be the first beneficiary of Republic Act 11709, which gave the AFP chief and the seven other key military posts a fixed three-year term, and the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) superintendent four years.

Centino, who was supposed to retire this Feb. 4 when he turns 56, now gets three additional years. Unless the President and commander-in-chief again applies the qualifier in RA 11709, as he did in the case of Bacarro: “unless sooner terminated by the President.” In the case of the PMA superintendent, the fixed term’s qualifier is, “unless sooner terminated by higher authority.”

Considering the record of military unrest in our country, I can understand why a president would want a free hand in appointing and replacing the AFP chief at any time, and why he would want someone who has his utmost confidence.

But with the president having that option anyway, why was RA 11709 enacted at all? It was supposed to put an end to the revolving door policy and promote professionalism, stability and continuity in the AFP. The revolving door is also costing taxpayers hefty amounts in pensions even when an officer serves as AFP chief for only two months.

*      *      *

The surprise developments in the AFP and DND, combined with the call for the submission of courtesy resignations by over 900 generals and full colonels in the Philippine National Police, have led to something we haven’t seen in many years: rumors of destabilization.

The AFP and PNP had the three-day celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene to explain heightened troop alert and mobilization in Metro Manila, and to repeatedly deny the destabilization rumors.

Faustino’s resignation, however, inevitably reinforced the rumors. Also, police memos – fake, the PNP insists – are popping up all over the place, clearly putting the PNP on alert over a destabilization threat in the AFP.

The Super Ate ng Pangulo said that while she did not believe the rumors, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” and it would be prudent to address the purported causes of unrest. But will her kid brother listen? The SAP seems to have been sidelined from the corridors of power.

*      *      *

In a statement released yesterday, Faustino confirmed that he indeed quit over Centino’s return as AFP chief.

Faustino said he learned of Centino’s reinstatement only from news reports.

He wasn’t alone; the national security adviser was also kept out of the loop. NSA Clarita Carlos told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News last Monday that she was still trying to make sense of the sudden leadership changes in the DND and AFP.

Carlos herself has been the subject of speculative reports that she is on the way out. Considering how she was kept in the dark about key changes in the security sector, there could also be fire behind this smoke.

The NSA shrugged off the reports, which have been accompanied by criticism of some of her views on national security.

Carlos stressed that she never applied for her position, and that she was in fact surprised to have been plucked from academe by a President she didn’t even personally know.

She was asked to be NSA, Carlos told us, and she could be “un-asked” any time.

Carlos at least was not kept out of the loop on the call for courtesy resignations in the PNP.

As early as November, when she urged PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin to clean up the police, Carlos said he had informed her of the plan to call for the resignations.

*      *      *

Favoritism and the whimsical system of appointments and promotions have long been sources of disgruntlement in the AFP and PNP.

During the first Marcos presidency, such disgruntlement was among the factors that led to the creation of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement. The RAM enjoyed the support of then defense chief Juan Ponce Enrile, whose power was being eroded by Marcos’ ever-loyal AFP chief, Fabian Ver.

Also sidelined by Ver was Marcos’ cousin, Fidel Ramos, who would later join the coup staged by RAM and Enrile, which people power would turn into a success.

That dramatic success infected the AFP and PNP with a coup virus that kept re-emerging, like the flu, throughout the first Aquino presidency.

The virus gained strength with the second people power revolt, much easier than the original, but also leading to the ouster of another president, Joseph Estrada.

These days the rumored destabilization has not yet progressed into rumors of a coup plot. But there are already speculative reports of forces rallying behind the automatic successor, Sara Duterte, who failed to get her desired position of defense chief.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who as vice president automatically succeeded Estrada following his ouster during EDSA Dos, was blessed with a VP, Noli de Castro, who did not aspire to succeed her.

Today we have a VP who garnered even more votes than the President, and whose father enjoyed immense support in the AFP and PNP.

It would take several years – and failed destabilization moves against Arroyo – before the AFP was cured of the coup virus.

Or at least we thought the virus had been eliminated.