Challenges facing Teodoro
The Philippines has had as many civilians (12 in all) as military men among its 24 defense chiefs since it became an independent democratic republic in 1946. This 50-50 ratio is not a revealing measure at all of whether the concept of civilian supremacy over the military in Philippine democracy is working.By next month, former Rep. Gilberto Teodoro of Tarlac, takes office as defense secretary, after serving out three consecutive terms in the House of Representatives. He takes over from Hermogenes Ebdane, a dyed-in-the-wool military man, who once headed the Philippine National Police and was among those who joined then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Angelo Reyes in withdrawing military support from the government of President Joseph Estrada in January 2001. Ebdane, a core loyalist to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, has been shuffled back as secretary of public works in the first Cabinet-level revamp following the disastrous defeat of the Arroyo administration in the May 2007 Senate election.
Teodoro becomes another civilian defense chief following the resignation of Avelino Cruz Jr., a lawyer in the Villaraza law firm and erstwhile political ally of the President. His appointment follows a key recommendation of the Feliciano Commission, which held an inquiry into the causes of the 2003 Oakwood mutiny led by a cabal of young officers. The Feliciano Commission reiterated the recommendation of the Davide Commission, which conducted an inquiry into 1986-89 coups during the Aquino presidency, to appoint a civilian as secretary of national defense. It said, “Beyond the need to institutionalize the supremacy of civilian authority over the military, the appointment of persons who have not had long and deep ties to the military, and who have not held positions in the military establishment that itself needs to be reformed, is essential if a reform program is to succeed.” Although military officers acquire civilian status upon retirement, the Feliciano report said, “they are likely to bring the rigidity of hierarchy, seniority, camaraderie and other aspects of military culture into the office of the DND that would obstruct reform.”
Teodoro’s appointment has been received with approval by a broad sector not only because it sustains the principle of civilian supremacy over the military but also because of his legislative experience, his credentials as lawyer (and a bar topnotcher) and his relative youth.
There is another significant aspect in his appointment. He is known to be a protégé of his uncle, Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., founder of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), a key ally of the President and component of the Lakas-CMD-dominated majority coalition in the House. In the May 2007 election, the NPC retained its block of 27 seats in the House, against the 90 held by Lakas-CMD and 47 by the President’s Kampi party.
Teodoro’s appointment to the defense department cannot simply be seen as the resealing of the President’s alliance with Cojuangco’s NPC or as a political reward for his support during earlier attempts to impeach her. The appointment represents a departure from the pattern of Cabinet appointments of the Arroyo administration as well as that of previous administrations in the post-Edsa People Power period from 1986. During that period, most Cabinet appointments came from mainly bureaucratic and technocratic sectors, none of which represented political constituencies based on regional bailiwicks. Teodoro’s appointment marks the return of a Cabinet recruitment that draws on a political base made up of the NPC’s constituency.
This factor gives Teodoro a platform to exercise autonomy instead of acting like a rubber stamp of the President. From this perspective, his appoint should be welcomed for its potential in initiating not only reforms in the military establishment but more so in asserting civilian control over the military that has become a hotbed of coup attempts and politicized military interventionists in politics.
As a man of the law and as a political creature of representative democracy, Teodoro brings with him into the defense department the kind of political culture needed to curb the rise of military assertiveness in the execution of President Arroyo’s total war that seeks to crush the communist insurgency by the end of her term in 2010. Teodoro enters the defense department at a critical juncture when he is expected to play a critical role in implementing the Human Security Act that takes effect on July 15. The issue that faces Teodoro is whether he would use the defense department as a counterfoil to the hardliners in both the Cabinet and the military, who are eager to use this piece of legislation to crack down on Leftwing activists operating inside the legal system. Will Teodoro be their compliant tool or will he make a difference in curbing the repressive tendencies of the ultra-Right forces in the Cabinet and the military establishment?
Even before the formation of the Antiterror Council that is mandated to implement the Antiterrorist Act, two anticommunist hardliners -- Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita (a former martial law general) and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez -- have already preempted it by calling on the courts to outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, and the Abu Sayyaf. Their call came even before Teodoro could take office in August. The hardliners’ call seeks to turn back the clock to 1992, when the 1957 Anti-Subversion Act was repealed, legalizing the communist movement.
Will Teodoro make the defense department an instrument to enhance control of civil authority over wayward generals blamed for the wave of extrajudicial executions of political activists? Much is expected of him.
