Arroyo gives Ramos bigger role in government

Amid all the rumors of a coup or a destabilization attempt, President Arroyo is giving former President Fidel Ramos a bigger role in her administration.

The President has tapped the expertise of Ramos to assist her administration in drawing up a national security plan for this year, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said yesterday.

Golez said this was the main reason why the executive committee of the National Security Council (NSC), chaired by Mrs. Arroyo, invited Ramos to attend the annual security situation review at Malacañang the other night.

"The President asked FVR to attend the working meeting of the NSC executive committee because of his extensive security background," Golez said.

Ramos is a West Point graduate who went on to become the chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He later turned to politics, winning the presidency in the 1992 elections.

A key figure in the people power revolution that toppled the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, Ramos also played a key role in the uprising that forced impeached President Joseph Estrada to leave Malacañang last year.

Golez said Tuesday’s meeting was more of a briefing, where past events of 2001 were reviewed and assessments for the new year made.

"It was a working meeting aimed at setting directions for year 2002," he said.

Among those who also attended the meeting were Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo and Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes.

Ramos was recently implicated in rumors of an alleged coup being hatched by former military men identified with him. The former chief executive denied any involvement and reiterated his support for the Constitution and for the current leadership.

Ramos simply laughed off allegations that he or members of his group were involved in a destabilization campaign against the Arroyo administration, saying he did not want to destroy his legacy.

Despite the recent coup rumors and concerns related to the detention of renegade Muslim leader Nur Misuari, Mrs. Arroyo has not indicated plans to convene the entire NSC at this time.

The NSC is made up of members of the Cabinet and Congress, including representatives from the opposition. Last year, Mrs. Arroyo issued a directive compressing the NSC membership to 26 regular members, plus the participation of former presidents of the Republic.

She first convened the NSC Sept. 18 last year to tackle possible national security scenarios in the aftermath of the terror attacks on the US.

Golez said the NSC has been busy preparing for the President’s plan to convene an intelligence summit, which she announced last December.

"This is a long process and I still don’t know when this will take place," he said.

In a related development, the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation (RPDev), a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization chaired by Ramos, is sponsoring the Manila presentation of the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), entitled "The Responsibility To Protect."

The presentation will be held tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. at the Kalayaan Room of the Export and Industry Bank Plaza (formerly Urban Bank Plaza) in Makati City.

The ICISS Report, which was launched at the United Nations headquarters in New York and other key cities around the world last Dec. 18, highlights the need for effective intervention by a coalition of states to help endangered peoples who are victims of human rights violations, ethnic cleansing, forced migration and mass killings.

Such human catastrophes have been happening well before the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US in many "least developed countries" such as Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia, Somalia, Sierra Leone and East Timor.

The ICISS is an independent commission established in September 2000 as a response to the challenge of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the international community to endeavor to build a new international consensus on how to respond to massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

Annan issued the challenge because of the inability of some states to cope with insurgency and civil war or the persistence of abusive and corrupt regimes in various countries.

The government of Canada, with the support of key humanitarian organizations, is the leading supporter of the ICISS.

Ramos is a part of the 12-member commission composed of eminent personages from the international community, which also includes Former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans of Australia and Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun of Algeria, who serves as co-chairs of the Commission.

Members of the Cabinet, diplomatic corps, academe, foundations and foreign affairs specialist from media have been invited to attend the briefing-presentation.