Esperon to military rebels: Don't expect case to be lifted

By Ronron
February 18, 2008

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. said Monday it is expected that military officers who are currently detained and facing charges for botched coup attempts in 2003 and 2006 will take advantage of the current political noise brought about by the expose of Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, Jr. on the National Broadband Network (NBN) project.

Esperon said a downfall of the Arroyo government makes the rebel officers hopeful that their charges will be dropped in favor of an amnesty.

Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and resigned Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV have earlier called on the public to join the recent public protests against the Arroyo government for its alleged commission and toleration of massive corruption.

"That is expected of them. That's probably their hope in evading their liabilities under the Articles of War that they have been charged of… Mabye, they think that is their hope that if there will be a new leadership, then we will just simply forget the Articles of War that they have violated," Esperon said.

But Esperon quickly said: "They are wrong. The Articles of War, the trial for violating the Articles of War, will continue even if there will be changes in leadership because that's just the leadership. The institution itself must never change in its approach to these violations of war."

Esperon said that, "otherwise, if we forgive them for that, then what happens to the Articles of War? You would see an Armed Forces that will have nothing to stand on."

Besides, Esperon said, the group of Lim and Trillanes "are getting no supporters" from the military, so their calls will remain futile, as they did last November 29, 2007 at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City.

"The Armed Forces of the Philippines, as I said, has been building on this, that we should remain Constitutional, loyal to the duly Constituted chain of command, and to the commander-in-chief. We could do no less than that," he said.

He said the public should no longer drag the military into the current exercises to denounce the Arroyo government, and instead just allow the Senate hearings on the NBN controversy to be completed.

Esperon said the military will not be worried about the rallies for as long as they are legal and peaceful.

He appealed for the public not to be carried away by emotions and theatrics, instead look for the evidence of the allegations.

Meanwhile, on the group of his former classmate and roommate at the Philippine Military Academy, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, Esperon said the case will really proceed eventually to the arraignment stage despite the objection of the defense lawyers.

"They will be arraigned," Esperon said./DMS