Official says verdict on mutineers not assurance of non-recurrence of military uprisings in the future

By Ronron
May 17, 2005

Any verdict on the more than 300 government soldiers who attempted to grab power from the Arroyo administration on July 27, 2003 does not ensure that the country will be free from future military uprisings.

Thus said UP Professor Carolina Hernandez, a member of the Feliciano Commission that investigated the so-called failed Oakwood Mutiny two years ago and who now serves as Presidential Adviser on the Implementation of the Recommendation of the Feliciano Commission.

“I can not say it will stop because a coup d etat or a coup attempt is a result of many factors… The enforcement of the law to discipline those erring soldiers is only one component of the many factors,” Hernandez told reporters on Tuesday in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

The military court last week has sentenced the 184 enlisted personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who took part in the Oakwood Mutiny to a demotion in their respective ranks, forfeiture of a percentage of their salary and a detention for a year with hard labor as penalty after pleading guilty to three lesser charges.

On the other hand, majority of the officers, excluding the core group headed by Lt. (SG) Antonio Trillanes IV and Capt. Milo Maestrocampo, have sent feelers for a plea bargain, wherein they are expected also to plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for the dropping of the mutiny charge against them.

Hernandez, in an earlier interview with Manila Shimbun, had welcomed the decision of the AFP tribunal as regards the cases of the EP’s.

“In this case, there are legal processes that are going on both the civilian and the military courts. And you know, the judicial process allows plea bargaining. So, you have to support that kind of approach,” Hernandez said yesterday.

She said that what is important is that the law in this particular case was enforced, “consistent with the recommendation, with the sense of the (Feliciano) Commission that the law has to be enforced.”

But Hernandez is hopeful that with the enforcement of the law on the EP’s, the July 2003 incident will no longer be replicated.

“It (handing down the verdict) is probably one of the important components for deterring future coup attempts but it is not the only one,” she said.

Asked what she thinks is the appropriate punishment for the mutiny leaders, Hernandez replied: “There is a coup d etat law, there is a law prohibiting mutiny. So they (courts) will know what to do. In the case of the Articles of War, there is also a range of penalties for certain violations of certain articles. And I think the General Court Martial will know what to do. So it’s not a good idea if I would be answering that question.”/DMS