Are the generals up in arms?

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

An innocuous news report last week says that over a dozen generals and colonels had issued a statement reiterating the position of retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio on the Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea. The national media apparently allied to Malacanang immediately dubbed the allegations as a lie and that it was instigated by former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.  The group called themselves “Advocates for the National Interest”.

Without going into the merits of the statement, the Malacanang apologist hurled insults and questioned the integrity of the signatories. He suggested that the generals should “do what retired generals of integrity anywhere in the world do – shut their mouths on issues that they either know nothing about or are too lazy to study.”

Two issues here. First, do people who disagree automatically lose their integrity? Second, if a general is retired, does he become a moron or no longer abreast of national affairs?

There is a third insult from this apologist. He called them “septuagenarian” as if septuagenarians have no more right to speak their mind on matters that affect the nation.

On the other hand, the Malacanang mouthpiece asked whether their intention is to “spread rumors that there is a coup d’etat in the works.”

In that case, the generals are really out of their minds – signaling they are going to stage a power grab.

The critics of the generals must have been upset for the daring of these generals and colonels for questioning the position of President Duterte in the intrusion of the Chinese into Philippine waters. He claims, they wittingly or unwittingly portray President Duterte as a “puppet of China among the uniformed men.” In short, they are undermining the President before the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

I think the AFP is behind the President. There has never been a report of dissatisfaction in the ranks, unless the men in uniform are very skilled in keeping their plans and the retired generals have become their means of expressing their sentiments.

If indeed that is their aim, then the President has a big problem and disparaging the retired generals and colonels would not help, in fact, will only worsen the situation for the President. We must realize that even in retirement general and field grade officers still have influence within the AFP.

According to the defender of the President, “the cabal behind this ‘association,’ however, has been so amateurish a few weeks before its statement was released on May 17 that it spread rumors “retired and active generals” were withdrawing their support for President Duterte for his allegedly weak stance against China. That Viber group even claimed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana are with them.

The presidential defender proceeded to say, the statement of this “cabal” is a “long exposition for the justification for military’s alleged withdrawal of support from the President.” That makes them “dangerous”.

Indeed any group with a military background that expresses publicly their dissatisfaction or dissonance with the ruling power is dangerous. That, of course, depends on where one stands on the issue. As is often said, one’s man’s hero is another man’s terrorist.

The issue of the West Philippine Sea has been there for years and it took a lot of effort to get international courts of arbitration to decide that the area is ours. China on the other hand had laid claimed on these islands and in fact, due to its military power and international clout, China constructed military infrastructures there. The Chinese drove our fishermen whose ancestors had been fishing there.

The President is right – we cannot fight China not because we have no right to resist but because China is a world power and its military might can pulverize this country with a push of a button.

China had avoided intruding in these waters while the Philippines had the US fleet and air bases here. But the leftists of the Corazon Aquino government had an antediluvian sense of independence and forced the Americans away. America needed no more land bases – their modern naval fleet and air force can be launched from elsewhere.

Continued tomorrow.