AFP junior officers and rank-and-file restive
Discrimination against junior officers and ordinary soldiers, low salaries, corruption and other unsavory practices of the AFP leadership are behind the recent unrest within the military organization. The contents of a manifesto released this June by the newly formed Concerned Army Officers of Sulu, representing �thousands of ordinary soldiers in the battlefront,� reflect such restiveness.
Their demands are nearly identical with those aired by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) and the Young Officers� Union (YOU) in the early 1980s. This proves that there has been no change since then with regards to corruption and the unscrupulous practices of high military officials. They have in fact worsened.
Such restiveness has reached a point where disgruntled officers and soldiers were rumored to be planning a coup d�etat. Instead of addressing their demands, however, the DND has challenged the junior officers and soldiers to reveal their identities, warning them against launching a coup against the Arroyo government.
 ...DND and AFP leaders enjoyed large salaries, luxuries and special privileges, and amass great wealth from skimming off funds meant for the rank-and-file and for disaster relief, receiving kickbacks from contracts and earnings from criminal syndicates... |
The Communist Party of the Philippines has expressed sympathy for the AFP junior officers and rank-and-file. In a statement, CPP spokesperson Gregorio �Ka Roger� Rosal said that DND and AFP leaders enjoyed large salaries, luxuries and special privileges, and amass great wealth from skimming off funds meant for the rank-and-file and for disaster relief, receiving kickbacks from contracts and earnings from criminal syndicates such as those involved in drugs, kidnapping for ransom, bank robberies and other criminal activities. On the other hand, junior officers and ordinary soldiers are merely used as cannon fodder.
Worse, according to Ka Roger, they are being ruthlessly used to destroy homes, steal farm animals, ruin crops, kill and maim the innocent and trample on the human rights of ordinary folk.
Ka Roger challenged them to uphold the patriotic and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people, turn their backs completely on the reactionary, rotten and losing course of the AFP, and join and support the revolutionary movement. In particular, Ka Roger called on them to follow the example of Lt. Crispin Tagamolila, a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy who joined the New People�s Army.
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