The regime is forcibly concealing the roots of the Makati mutiny
One day after the failed coup d'�tat, the Arroyo regime imprisoned and tried to gag all of the AFP officers and personnel involved. In order to stem the further exposure of the issues brought out by the soldiers in their mutiny, the regime tried to stop congress and senate investigations on the matter.
More than a week after the failed coup d'�tat, the state of rebellion used by Arroyo as the legal basis to arrest and imprison anyone involved in the failed adventurism and to persecute her political enemies, was still in place.
On August 4, the Arroyo regime filed rebellion charges against Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who has been accused of masterminding the failed July 27 coup. Had the coup succeeded, Honasan would have been installed as the president or leader of a junta they had planned to set up. It was Honasan's shallow and pretentious National Recovery Program (NRP) that the Magdalo group brandished in its attempt to establish a new government. Aside from the Magdalo group's use of Honasan's NRP, it has come to light that Honasan held a series of consultations with the rebel soldiers, and that Honasan provided some logistical support to them. Honasan had no choice but to go into hiding.
At the same time, the regime has stepped up operations against members of the Estrada camp who have been exposed as financiers of the mutinous AFP officers and incited them to rebel. Former Assistant Executive Secretary Ramon Cardeñas, who served as a conduit of funds and who allowed his house and vehicles to be used by the Magdalo group, was arrested. The regime also implicated Estrada's sons JV Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada, and Laarni Enriquez, one of Estrada's mistresses.
In the hope of concealing the issues behind the mutiny, Arroyo intentionally highlights the fact that the Magdalo group was merely used by her political enemies. However, no matter how much the Arroyo regime attempts a coverup, the truth of the soldiers' grievances cannot be denied.
Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV, leader of the rebel soldiers, has long attempted to expose corruption within the AFP � in particular, the Philippine Navy, to which he belongs. Two documents that he has written detail the extent of the systematic corruption in the Philippine Navy. In the first document he wrote in 2001, Trillanes detailed nine cases of corruption in the PN from 1995 to 1999. It included the involvement of PN officials in smuggling in Mindanao, theft of oil and gasoline from naval ships, and various cases of malversation of public funds. The second document written in 2002 detailed how the systematic corruption in the process of procuring supplies in the PN takes place. It cited the Naval Sea Systems Command and the Naval Logistics Center as the most corrupt units of the PN. The source of his information was no other than the official records during his term as PN supply officer and papers from Philippine Navy suppliers.
Before Trillanes came forward, another Philippine Navy official had exposed the grave corruption in the PN. In December 2000, Rear Adm. Guillermo Wong exposed irregularities in the purchase of helmets for the Philippine Marines valued at P3.8 million. According to him, the price being paid for such low-quality helmets was too high.
Instead of seriously addressing the anomalies exposed by Trillanes and Wong, the regime's response has been to dish out threats, concoct schemes and offer bribes. Trillanes' life has been threatened several times since he wrote the two documents. Then AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes, on the other hand, tried to bribe Wong by offering him the AFP Northern Command in exchange for his silence. Wong opted to leave the military.
Meanwhile, anomalies involving Reyes are slowly being brought to light. It has recently been revealed that Reyes's wife and sons bagged huge supply contracts from the AFP. Sen. Sergio Osme�a III has also disclosed that he has in his possession evidence pinning down Reyes in no less than eight cases of irregularity in the use of AFP funds. Despite all this, Reyes clings like a leech to his post.
The Magdalo group also disclosed that they had in their ranks those who were ordered by the high command to carry out the bombings in Davao City in March. ISAFP chief Victor Corpus' presence in Davao on the eve of the bombings had earlier been exposed. Corpus was forced to resign as ISAFP chief because of such revelations.
The regime has reason indeed to fear the widespread discontent of junior officers and the military rank-and-file. Only a few hundred officers and soldiers were directly involved in the mutiny, but they embodied the sentiments of several hundred thousand officers and soldiers nationwide. The regime itself has admitted that aside from the over 300 officers and soldiers that mutinied in Makati, there were hundreds of other AFP elements who had abandoned their units and were possibly aligned with the Magdalo group. The actions taken by the aggrieved soldiery will definitely not end with the Makati mutiny. It is likewise certain that the rival factions of the ruling class will take advantage of the soldiers' seething sentiments to seize power from the Arroyo faction.
The Arroyo regime will use the failed coup attempt as a pretext to impose repressive measures and eventually direct them against the legal democratic and progressive forces. The people must exercise vigilance and militantly oppose these measures.
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