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AFP exec enters UP, 4 years after egg-pelting incident


In September 2006, eggs literally "rained down on the parade" of then Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff, General Hermogenes Esperon, right after a forum at the Diliman campus of the University of the Philippines (UP). Esperon, invited by UP political science students, was attending a forum called "A Way out of a Vicious Cycle," where he was a guest speaker. After the event, a group of student protesters waiting outside pelted the AFP chief with eggs as he was leaving the building. Military officers have since become reluctant in accepting invitations to any speaking engagement at the state university. But for the first time since that incident, the AFP finally agreed to send a representative to a public forum on Thursday, in the person of its spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. Again, like in 2006, Brawner on his way out was also met with student protesters who were shouting at the top of their lungs—this time to demand the release of 43 health workers arrested and detained on suspicion of being New People’s Army (NPA) rebels. This time, however, no eggs were involved. "I expected this [protest rally] to happen. Pero buti naman ngayon, hindi ako binato ng itlog (It's a good thing they didn't hurl eggs at me this time)," Brawner told GMANews.TV.

AFP spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. (left) ignores a group of students protesters (inset) that suddenly massed after a forum in UP Diliman on Thursday. Mark D. Merueñas
Despite the egg-pelting incident four years back, Brawner stressed the importance of accepting an invitation to a UP forum. "It's really important to attend this event so we can have a dialogue and so we can explain to the people the role of the AFP," he said. The UP community organized the forum amid concerns about the military’s growing role in the country’s political life, and particularly in the wake of its involvement in recent human rights violations such as its treatment of the 43 detained health workers, who claim that they were illegally arrested and subjected to various forms of torture while in detention. During Thursday's forum, Brawner reiterated the AFP’s basic function of serving as "protector of the people and the State," as mandated by the Constitution. In fact, Brawner said, the AFP has gone beyond its traditional military role to assume other functions in community development and livelihood programs. "The tradition of military actions being utilized to address problems of insurgency, separatism, and terrorism is long gone," he said. Thursday's forum, organized by the UP Third World Studies Center, was part of a series of public discussions aimed at tackling the social forces that play a role in the upcoming May elections. During the forum, another guest speaker Clarita Carlos, a UP professor and political analyst, cited several "empirical" researches on the military's effects on social change in a number of countries. "There is no significant difference between a military and civilian regime... they do not substantially differ in their overall impact on social change," she said. Carlos also noted how the Philippine military seemed to be "over-reliant" on the US. "Should the military reconfigure itself? And should we change our prisms of the military?" she asked. Former Army general Danilo Lim, detained at Camp Crame for rebellion charges, was supposed to attend the forum after being granted temporary freedom by a Makati court. However, he was not allowed to leave his detention on the day of the forum, allegedly because the PNP could not provide enough security for him and that no high-ranking PNP officials were avaialble to approve his release.—JV, GMANews.TV
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