What is happening to the Armed Forces?
uring the last years of the Martial Law period, former Vice President Emmanuel Pelaez was ambushed by unknown gunmen on a dark evening in Quezon City. As he was being rushed to the hospital, Quezon City police chief Brig. Gen. Tomas Karingal attended to him. As Pelaez lay in a hospital bed, seriously wounded, he whispered to Karingal, “General, what is happening to our country?”Today, many of our countrymen, among them retired military officers, are asking Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon: “General, what is happening to the AFP?”
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It has been a terrible month for our Armed Forces. Never in its history have so many soldiers lost their lives in so short a period of time against an enemy with whom we are supposed to be holding “peace talks” under “ceasefire conditions.” The most shameful aspect of these incidents is that our soldiers were ambushed—bushwhacked is another term used in similar situations. One would think that after the Basilan massacre, our fighting units would be more alert and combat-savvy.
How did we get to this sad and sordid state of affairs in the Armed Forces?
Let me advance a few thoughts that may help us see beyond the mistakes and shortcomings of small unit commanders who unfortunately bear the brunt of the disastrous incompetence and negligence of their military superiors.
First, we have a highly politicized Armed Forces.
The AFP is not the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It is the Armed Forces of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (AFGMA). Every officer who makes it to star rank and who aspires for high position in the military organization must, first and foremost, indicate a sense of personal loyalty to her over and above loyalty to country and people. As Sunday’s Inquirer editorial put it: “The AFP is her praetorian guard and like the imperial bodyguards of ancient Rome, what matters most is personal loyalty to her more than efficiency, honesty or even honor. And like the Neros and Caligulas of the past, she has maintained that loyalty by studiously ignoring all criticism, by being lukewarm to genuine reform; instead, she lavishes her generals with praise, showers them with promotions within the service, and heaps them with civilian appointments upon retirement.”
During the Marcos era, we had the controversial indefinite tenure of general officers. Today, we still have the revolving door policy which has seen the appointment of eight AFP chiefs of staff in the six years of the Arroyo administration. She failed—for some reason not known to the public—to sign into law a bill passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives in November last year, providing for a fixed term of office for the AFP chief of staff. That bill also provided for a two-year term for the major service commanders—Army, Air Force and Navy. It was one of the reforms advocated by former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz. Unfortunately, he left just as his innovations were moving into high gear.
After Cruz left, we had President Arroyo serving as defense secretary. She was followed briefly by ex-Philippine National Police chief Hermogenes Ebdane who was moved from the Department of Public Works and Highways to Defense. Norberto Gonzales, of “Venable” fame, took over for a few weeks and now Gilbert Teodoro, a bright young technocrat, has just been installed in the Defense Department.
The rigodon in this critical Cabinet office reminds me of a most embarrassing episode at Southern Command two years ago. At that time, Maj. Gen. Samuel Bagasin was supposed to take over as Southcom chief. At the very last minute, Lt. Gen. Edilberto Adan, the AFP deputy chief of staff, who was retiring from the service in four months, was named officer in charge (OIC) of the most important unified command of the AFP. Adan was later replaced by Maj. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, who had less than a year before retirement.
Were all these frequent changes necessary for the good of the organization or in the best interests of the nation? Or were they more to advance the personal agenda of the commander in chief?
When military personnel are raised in an environment that provides a premium for kowtowing to politicians, when officers are being moved around in a game of “musical chairs” which takes into account mainly the interests of politicians, the armed services are bound to suffer from a decline in their level of professionalism. This translates to a less effective fighting force and is reflected in the casualties suffered on the field of battle.
Second, Esperon was appointed chief of staff in July 2006. Even without the investigation report on the “Hello Garci” scandal in which he and three other generals were implicated, he was designated Army commander. When the Mayuga Report on the “Hello Garci” controversy was completed, its summary—not the whole report—was released under the most unusual circumstances. No copies of the summary were made available to the media and today it remains one of the most closely guarded documents in AFP history.
When Esperon was appointed chief of staff, the Inquirer editorial noted: “It [Esperon’s appointment] will not enhance the prestige of the Armed Forces, nor inspire confidence in the senior officer corps.”
A few weeks after his installation as AFP chief of staff, NPA rebels in Valencia City, Bukidnon carted away some 40 high-powered firearms from a military camp without much resistance from security forces in the area. At that time, Esperon dismissed the event as a “minor incident.” A former Army commanding general expressed astonishment over Esperon’s cavalier treatment of the matter. The Army commander viewed it as a dereliction of duty on the part of the unit commanders and called for court martial proceedings.
Nothing happened. With his remarks, Esperon sent out the wrong signal to the officers and men in the field. Now we are reaping the bitter fruits of complacency and negligent leadership.
Third, when President Arroyo ordered the Army commander, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, to move his headquarters to Zamboanga City and closely supervise operations there, she was administering a slap to both Esperon and Tolentino.
Esperon’s resignation should now be on the President’s table. If he resigns, he would be remembered as a man of honor and decency, an officer worthy of emulation by the officer corps and by the graduates of the Philippine Military Academy in particular. It is the chance of a lifetime to show that a sense of delicadeza is still very much alive in his person.
