Grumblings over Palace 'cash gifts' real - detained officers

Officers linked to last year’s supposed failed power grab on Wednesday lashed out at Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Ben Dolorfino for saying that the Palace payoff uproar will not spur grumblings in the Armed Forces of the Philippines. “Tell that to the Marines who are in harm's way in Sulu and Basilan who have been promised a pittance increase in their combat pay," said the 28 officers detained in the AFP Custodial Center in Camp Capinpin, Tanay, Rizal, where they are being tried by a general court martial. Last week, AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr said that due to “limitations of funds," they cannot afford to give all soldiers assigned in the frontline the P150 daily combat incentive which was announced by the President about two months in Zamboanga City. “If pervasive corruption and the stark truth don't bother you, the soldiers are deeply affected by them," the detained officers said. The officers are led by former Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and former First Scout Ranger Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim. Lim allegedly planned to lead their men in withdrawing support from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on February 24 last year. “No funds for them but Malacañang can afford to give every toady congressman, governor and other local government officials half a million pesos each," they said to Dolorfino. The combat incentive, which is on top of the P240 monthly combat pay for soldiers, will only be initially covering soldiers in Basilan and Sulu provinces. The combat incentive would be given to soldiers actually involved in combat. The President has vowed several times to increase the meager monthly combat pay of soldiers but the hike has yet to be realized. A bill that seeks to increase the combat pay of the troops is pending before the Congress “It hardly affects you because you’ve got it so good enjoying all the perquisites dispensed by an illegitimate leadership bereft of moral scruples, which perpetuates itself thru bribery and corrupting others. You’ve got it made all for your blind loyalty and myopic sense of professionalism," the officers said of Dolorfino. Dolorfino has also said that soldiers should not be joining any adventurism because this might lead to bloodshed and civil war. He said “our professionalism should reign over our respective personal and political interests" and that the AFP must be neutral at all times. “We totally agree," the officers said on the Marine commandant’s pronouncements that soldiers’s professionalism should be reigning over personal and political interests and that the military should be taking a neutral stance. “But it’s not professionalism and neutrality when your chief of staff cheats in elections and in the process dragging the AFP in partisan politics. He continues to lie up to this time. You're not a professional and neutral when you continue to keep a blind eye. There's no such thing as being neutral when it comes to the truth," they said. They were referring to AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr’s alleged involvement in the rigging of the 2004 presidential elections. The officers have dared Esperon to “tell the truth" on the “Hello, Garci" scandal but Esperon issued a counter dare to Miranda’s and Lim’s group to tell the truth on their plan to grab power. Dolorfino has praised former Marine commandant Brig. Gen. Artemio Tadiar for not following orders from his superiors to open fire at demonstrators in the February 1986 People’s Power Revolt. He said if Tadiar obeyed his superiors, bloodshed would ensue. “We wholeheartedly agree with him. And being the professional that he claims to be we expect no less from him when orders are given by being the professional that he claims to be, just like Tadiar, Dolorfino should refuse to obey when ordered by butchers in Malacañang and Aguinaldo to fire at the crowds and violently disperse them," they said. AFP public information office chief Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro told a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo that although soldiers are aware of the bribery issue, they are not going to be distracted in fulfilling their sworn mandate. “Indeed, our soldiers are aware of these issues that are coming out and this could have been subject of some discussions...But one thing is sure: that this not in any way affect our soldiers in terms of performance of their jobs and they will remain focus in doing their job," Bacarro said. “So the possibility of violence (adventurism) is very very far-fetched." Bacarro said the four junior officers who have been previously reported by the AFP chief as recruiting fellow officers and soldiers for a destabilization move are not even capable of creating an “atmosphere or environment of violence." On whether the AFP shares Dolorfino’s statement that a civil war could break out if soldiers are again involved in adventurism, Bacarro said: “That statement was premised if there are soldiers who will be joining. But at this point in time, we are very very confident to inform everybody no soldier is joining." - GMANews.TV