Army man who hit promotions probed

A senior Army officer who publicly denounced the military’s promotion system is under investigation, the Army said yesterday. Similar complaints have fueled past military unrest and anti-government uprisings.

Lt. Col. Oscarlito Mapalo, deputy chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ordnance and chemical service based at Camp Aguinaldo, held a news conference yesterday to denounce the promotion system, calling it politicized and rotten and saying it demoralized an already weak military.

Citing his field accomplishments and medals, Mapalo said he qualified for promotion last year, but that the promotions board ignored his credentials and promoted junior officers over him.

He said favoritism in the military would ultimately be bad for the Philippines.

"In the end, it is not only soldiers who will continue to be victims of such abuse of power and political compromises," he said in a statement. "It will be our country and our people who shall be the bigger victims of such a cancer."

Mapalo, however, clarified in the news conference held in Quezon City that he doesn’t favor a military uprising, preferring to fight the system and bring changes in the military through a peaceful manner.

He said basically the officers and men of the AFP follow the rule of law, but once they express their grievances they are misunderstood as wanting to instigate a coup.

Mutinous troops, some complaining of favoritism, staged a 1986 uprising that toppled late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The military also played a key role in the ouster of former President Joseph Estrada in 2001.

In July last year, about 300 junior officers and soldiers staged a daylong mutiny in the financial district of Makati City. The government said the action was part of a larger coup conspiracy. The mutineers’ leaders claimed they were only protesting against government corruption and poor conditions for soldiers.

Mapalo said he has handed in his resignation notice, but it hasn’t been accepted.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Danilo Lucero said Mapalo was being investigated for violating a directive banning soldiers and officers from making public complaints about the military establishment. Such complaints are handled by a military grievance committee.

"We’re in a democracy, but we soldiers chose an authoritarian environment where some of our rights are waived," Lucero said.

Mapalo’s punishment depends on the outcome of the investigation, but he could be reprimanded, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said, adding that Mapalo had presented no evidence for his complaints. He also said Mapalo hasn’t completed a masters degree that he includes on his resume.

Buenaventura said Mapalo’s allegations could be part of a smear campaign to derail the bid of Lt. Gen. Efren Abu — head of the promotions board — for the top AFP post when Gen. Narciso Abaya retires next month.

A member of Philippine Military Academy Class ’79, Mapalo is now the most senior officer in his present rank in the Army after his application for promotion was turned down by the Philippine Army Board of Senior Officers (PABSO).

Rejection of his promotion application prompted Mapalo to file charges before the Ombudsman against members of PABSO then chaired by Army deputy commander and now Army chief Abu.

Sources noted that Mapalo’s reported links with anti-government forces and later to opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr. did him in.

In coming out he said he is ready to face the consequences of his actions if only to change the trend by showing his colleagues that the wrong culture long embedded in the military can be corrected through peaceful means.

Mapalo, former chief of the AFP Anti-Crime Task Force, was relieved last year from his post when he investigated former Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group director Chief Superintendent Eduardo Matillano for his alleged role in the mysterious escape of terrorist suspect Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi from Camp Crame.

Mapalo’s men were later arrested by Matillano’s men while conducting casing operations at Matillano’s house in Libis, Quezon City. — Jaime Laude