Marine officer's anti-PNoy rant puzzles military

The military is puzzled at what drove Marine Col. Generoso Mariano, who is described as an “intelligent person," to suddenly demand a change in the government, causing his superiors to order him confined to his quarters pending the result of an investigation. “We were surprised because Col. Mariano is an intelligent person. I am sure he thought of this before he said these [statements]. We don’t know what motivated him to say this," said Commodore Miguel Lopez Rodriguez, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), on Sunday. Mariano, in coming up with the brave statements, cited the Aquino administration’s alleged inability to address some of the pressing problems of the society, like poverty and rising cost of basic needs, as the reason behind his call. Rodriguez said Mariano’s call could be considered as a “political statement" and is not part of the duties of a soldier. “What he said [was] political. The job of the soldiers, our constitutional mandate, is protect the people, our territory and to uphold the sovereignty of our state. Making political statements are outside our job," he said. Rodriguez, however, downplayed Mariano’s call, saying none among the active military personnel shares his sentiments. “We have a President who understands the rules of the Armed Forces, who has a very high level of knowledge when it comes to military hardware and equipment and his thrusts of treading the straight path has given us the inspiration," he said. Rodriguez said there is no need to conduct loyalty check among its officers and men. “The Armed Forces is a small organization. It’s like anybody knows everybody, even the soldiers at the bottom. The soldiers are headed to one direction and we see that this is towards treading the straight path," he said. A video leaked to the media last Friday showed Mariano calling for a change of government, noting that soldiers also experience poverty brought about by the continuing rise of the cost of food and medicines. The video was reportedly taken July 3. Mariano is now confined to headquarters at the Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio. - KBK, GMA News