Arroyo keeping her security team intact

President Arroyo does not intend to change the country’s security officials despite calls for the ouster of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

But she hinted she would not mind if certain officers followed the example of Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, who quit the other day as chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

"I’m keeping my security team intact," the President told reporters in an ambush interview in San Fernando, Pampanga. She had resumed her provincial sorties yesterday after quelling the mutiny last weekend.

Calls for the ouster of Reyes and Ebdane mounted after junior military officers who staged a mutiny in Makati City last July 27 demanded their resignation as well as that of Corpus.

Corpus will remain in the military service.

The mutineers accused Mrs. Arroyo and Reyes of corruption and of sponsoring terrorist bombings in Davao.

Reyes is now facing an investigation after the mutineers implicated him in reports that the government was selling arms and ammunition to rebels.

But Reyes told a congressional probe into the mutiny that he did not have any intention of stepping down.

"I will resign if I am the problem. But I am not the problem, I am part of the solution," Reyes said.

"The people who want me to resign… are moving towards a certain objective, they want to reach that objective and I am standing in the way."

"I will stand in their way. I’ll stay here," he said.

He said he personally received orders from Mrs. Arroyo to stay in his post for the interest of the people and "like a good soldier, I obeyed the President."

The President expressed anew that she has "trust and confidence" in Reyes and Ebdane, who are members of her Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COCIS).

The COCIS is chaired by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, and its members also include Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr., National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, presidential adviser on the peace process Eduardo Ermita, Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople, presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao, Presidential Management Staff Secretary Silvestre Afable, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Narciso Abaya.

Corpus, on the other hand, resigned from his post effective Wednesday to end what he termed "restiveness" in the Armed Forces following the mutiny. He was also a member of COCIS.

The President broadly hinted that the former ISAFP chief did the "noble" thing by tendering his irrevocable resignation and early retirement from military service.

"General Corpus is an officer and a gentleman. If all others in uniform had his noble values, this country would be the safest in the world," she said.

While Mrs. Arroyo accepted Corpus’ irrevocable resignation as ISAFP chief, she prevailed upon Corpus to stay in military service for a new key assignment in the AFP, which the Palace has yet to announce.

There is also no word yet from the Palace on who would replace Corpus as ISAFP chief.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye sought to clarify the President’s statement on Corpus’ resignation.

"I would interpret it in another way. The President referred to the safety of the nation, and I believe the President is taking a dig at those who would put our nation at risk by taking up precipitate action against our republic, those who use illegal means to put our country at risk," he said.

Bunye reiterated that he and the rest of the Cabinet serve at the pleasure of the President, and they would take the hint from her if she has lost her trust and confidence in them.

"The President feels that those who are in charge of security are very capable and they have her full trust and confidence and just right now, there will be no revamp," he said.

Bunye stressed that "the tendering of resignation by a Cabinet secretary is superfluous because each member of the Cabinet serves at the pleasure of the President."

He shrugged off the political opposition’s demand for Reyes to at least go on leave pending the investigation of the mutiny by a newly created six-man presidential fact-finding commission chaired by retired Supreme Court associate justice Florentino Feliciano.

"That’s the opinion of the opposition but the President has trust and confidence in the people who are in charge of security," Bunye said.

Bunye clarified that in Ebdane’s case, the PNP chief had earlier "verbally tendered his resignation" to the President following the controversial July 14 escape of Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi and two Abu Sayyaf members, Abdul Mukhim Edris and Omar Opik Lasal, from their detention cell in Camp Crame.

"But he (Ebdane) was asked by the President to stay on and was tasked to get Al-Ghozi at the earliest possible time," Bunye said.

He also said that neither is there any truth to claims that the President asked for Corpus’ resignation to comply with her commitment to the mutineers to sack the ISAFP chief.

"That (resignation) was the initiative of General Corpus," Bunye said.

He added that placing Corpus in some other capacity in the AFP "is the privilege of the President, who is also the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces."

Meanwhile, despite the recent mutiny and what Malacañang claimed to be continuing threats of a coup, observers said security was unusually light during the President’s visit to Pampanga yesterday.

The President had come to inspect one of the bridges built from the P90 million fund released by the Palace for 37 anti-flooding river projects in Pampanga, her home province.

In San Fernando City, local journalists noted that members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) were hardly visible, and their tape recorders and cameras were not inspected.

En route to Mexico, Pampanga, only local police provided security, unlike on previous visits wherein military personnel provided additional protection for the President. The PSG were also hardly visible when the President inspected the new bridge in Barangay San Lorenzo.

Mrs. Arroyo, however, expressed irritation over the failure of government engineers to move the debris dredged from the river in San Lorenzo further from the riverbank. She noted that the debris would merely slide back into the channel during heavy rains.

"This is why I came to inspect this project," she said, as she told officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways to look for an area far from the riverbank where the debris could be dumped. — With AFP