Robles told to SHUT UP by AFP

By Ronron
May 18, 2005

A military spokesman on Wednesday told Rex Robles, a member of the executive council of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, to keep silent if he has nothing good to say about the country.

The reaction came a day after Robles, a retired senior commander of the Philippine military who figured in a successful coup against the government of the later President Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, hinted of a possibility of military intervention if the present government fails to address the prevailing economic and social problems.

“To Commodore Robles: Shut up. You are doing disservice to the Armed Forces and the people whom you once served,” Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Information Officer Col. Buenaventura Pascual said in a press briefing in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Robles had raised fresh warnings on Tuesday about the inevitableness for disgruntled military men to link up with political groups to change the present administration unless the present problems are solved.

His statements came over a week since another retired military and government official, Fortunato Abat, threatened to overthrow the Arroyo administration in exchange for his proposed revolutionary government.

Pascual stressed the AFP is “solidly behind President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo” and that “there is no such group that will go against the chain of command.”

He just branded Robles’ statements as “a pigment of his imagination.”

“If he has any political ambition, he must join the elections. He might win there,” Pascual said.

The Philippine National Police (PNP), for its part, cleared speculations of a coup d etat following Robles’ pronouncements, saying that it has not received any reports to that effect.

“Those are only allegations and we are always prepared for it,” said PNP Acting Chief Dep. Dir. Gen. Ricardo de Leon./DMS