On the Oakwood Mutiny: A Deeper and Broader Look

Martin Montana
Chadli Molintas Command
New People's Army
Ilocos-Cordillera Region
August 20, 2003

The Arroyo regime is now desperately trying to cover up the exposé of the rebel soldiers by demonizing them as unruly spoiled brats that must be severely punished.

LtSG Antonio Trillanes IV and his fellow rebel soldiers should actually be lauded for their success in finally standing up and coming out to confirm the old news and common knowledge about graft and corruption within the AFP and the governemnt. Unfortunately, their success is marred by their failure to accomplish their primary objective: to bring about changes in the AFP and the government.

Such failure can be traced to their insufficient and incorrect analysis of the problems plaguing Philippine society and their concomitant failure to identify the correct solution to such problems. Wrong diagnosis, wrong solution. They did not realize that the problem in our society is not just corruption by individual generals or a President that orders the bombing of civilians and blaming it on the MILF and NPA in order to get US funding. The problem is that corruption is endemic and systemic in Philippine society wherein the entire state apparatus is controlled by a self-serving exploitative and oppressive wealthy class under the dictates of US imperialism.

Such a problem cannot be solved by merely demanding the resignation of President Arroyo and Secretary of National Defense Gen. Angelo Reyes, but by a radical change in the entire economic, political, and socio-cultural system. Trillanes and his group should have learned or remembered the real lesson of Edsa I and II: you may change the Presidency a hundred times, but if the entire system remains the same, nothing changes. As long as US domination, bureaucratic corruption, and backward agricultural economy remain. the Filipino masses wil continue to be poor. oppressed, and exploited. The Filipino nation will continue to be among the most degenerate, pathetic, and miserable non-industrializing countries in the world.

The idealist rebel soldiers also failed to properly identify the issue. The issue is not that corrupt generals are selling arms and ammunition to the MILF and NPA. The issue that Trillanes and all other honest officers and soldiers of the AFP should ask themselves is: who am I fighting for? Who is my real enemy? Who am I serving when I am ordered to carry out military operations against civilians who are suspected of being NPA or MILF supporters, when I am ordered to bomb mosques and other civilian installations?

The Chadli Molinatas Command calls on the true nationalists and pro-people officers and soldiers of the AFP and PNP to review the actual role played by the military and police in Philippine history, not from the standpoint of the present textbooks which are biased in favor of the ruling class, but from the standpoint of the Filipino masses. An honest review and deeper analysis of history will reveal that the military and police have always been puppet and mercenaries who are paid to protect the entire corrupt system ruled by bid landlords and comprador capitalists under imperialist dictates and interests, and to suppress the people who are fighting for genuine radical change, for revolution.

To identify who their real enemies and real friends are, the soldiers and officers of the AFP and PNP must cast away their biases and blind assumptions which have been inculcated in their minds by anti-Communists and anti-Muslim propaganda. They must find out the truth why the broad masses of the people are turning to the revolution, why many of our people distrust and hate the AFP and PNP. They must learn that the root causes of the decades-long civil war in our country between the government and the people's revolutionary forces are found in the historical social inequity between the rich and the poor. They will find out these historical and social circumstances are driving the people to revolution, to build their own army, and to fight the AFP which is the mercenary army of the rich. They will find out that the people are not "brainwashed" but instead have learned to analyze correctly the problems in our society, have realized that revolution is the only correct and inevitable solution, and have identified who are their real friends and enemies.

Last and most important of all, the rebel soldiers failed because of their wrong choice of allies. Instead of relying on the Filipino people, the mutineers banked on the support of a deposed and corrupt President and a rebel officer turned Senator, who are members of the same treacherous ruling class. Thus, the raw idealism of the junior officers has been tarnished, and the primary issue they raised regarding AFP corruption and government terrorism have been swept aside by the Feliciano Commission and the Senate which are nitpicking on the secondary issue of where the mutineers obtained their funding and support.

Even with noble intentions, a coup, mutiny, or military junta will never succeed without the support of the broad masses of the Filipino people. The raw idealism of Trillanes and his group can only be realized if it is tempered with the humanity to recognize that without the support and participation of the masses, any undertaking will fail. To achieve genuine social change, the officers and members of the AFP and PNP should seriously study and consider the option of the national democratic revolution, and the superior strategy and tactics of a protracted people's war.

As a start, the soldiers and officers of the AFP-PNP who have a mind of their own should not limit themselves to Gringo Honasan's National Recovery Program (NRP) which is a shallow hodgepodge of vague generalities that do not correctly identify nor address the root problems of Philippine society. Instead, they should study the LRP —Lipunan at Rebolusyong Pilipino (Philippine Society and Revolution) written by Amado Guerrero. Although the LRP was written in 1970, its pages continue to reverberate with the correct analysis and solution to the problems of our society.

The officers and gentlemen and women of the AFP-PNP who come to realize the correctness of the option are very much welcome to join the revolution. They can defect to the NPA and serve the people, or join the Lt. Crispin Tagamolila Movement (LCTM), a secret organization of enlightened officers and men of the AFP and PNP who support the national democratic revolution. This clandestine organization was established in the 1970s and named after a former officer of the Philippine Army who joined the NPA. For a number of years now, members of the LCTM have been providing the CPP-NPA with invaluable information and support.

The mutiny by the rebel soldiers was a social volcano waiting to erupt. It resulted from and reflects the chronic crisis in Philippine society. Corruption in the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government is common knowledge. The same with corruption and terrorism in the military and police which have reached epic proportions, that even officers and soldiers are now ready to repudiate and fight the government. We shall expect greater social tremors from within and without to rock the arrogant republic of Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo.

What triggered the eruption of the Oakwood mutiny was a few good men who could no longer stomach the corruption in the AFP. The Chadli Molintas Command calls on all the few good men and women not only in the military and police but also in the government to come out and expose the corruption in their own departments.

But be forewarned, the government will malign and castigate those who attempt to expose corruption. In these times, you are left with only two options: to fight alone and fail, or to fight with the broad masses of the Filipino people at your side and march forward to victory.

Martin Montana
CMC Spokesperson

Back to top