DOJ chief: Escaped mutineers in alliance with NPA

The four Magdalo officers who escaped from military detention last Tuesday have forged a tactical alliance with the communist New People’s Army (NPA) to overthrow the government and topple President Arroyo, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said yesterday.

Citing intelligence reports, Gonzalez revealed a plan by the four renegade officers to join fellow renegade Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon in the effort to launch destabilization moves against the government.

Gonzalez claimed the four renegade officers — Army Capt. Nathaniel Rabonza and First Lieutenants Lawrence San Juan, Sonny Sarmiento and Patricio Bumindang — have joined Faeldon in the underground movement with support from personalities identified with the political opposition and retired military officers.

Faeldon escaped detention last month after outsmarting his escorts while taking a break from a court hearing in Makati City.

The government has launched a massive manhunt for all five escapees, who are facing charges of mounting the short-lived Oakwood mutiny against Mrs. Arroyo in July 2003.

Gonzalez claimed the renegade officers’ tactical alliance with the communists was arranged yesterday, which also marked the fifth anniversary of EDSA II, highlighting the day that former President Joseph Estrada stepped down from office in 2001.

Gonzalez maintained the two separate escapes indicated a grand plan to launch another power grab against Mrs. Arroyo.

Part of the plan, according to Gonzalez, is for the escapees to go underground while convincing their colleagues in the military to join their cause.

Navy Lt. Sg. Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the six detained core leaders of the Magdalo group of soldiers who launched the Oakwood mutiny, claimed the escape was part of a bigger plot against the government.

Lawyer Argee Guevarra quoted Trillanes as saying that the escape received the "full blessings" of the Magdalo group and that the four renegade officers would "do the right thing at the right time."

Guevarra disclosed that Trillanes confided to him the latest escape "is just part of bigger things to come."

Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) chief Brig. Gen. Marlu Quevedo said they were still assessing the security implications of the claims made by Trillanes.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, for his part, claimed it would not be surprising for the renegade soldiers to seek a tactical alliance with the NPA.

Since both share a common goal to "destabilize the government so that they can take over," it would be a logical conclusion to form a tactical alliance against a common enemy, Lomibao said.

"But of course, the PNP and the military will not allow that to happen," Lomibao said.

Lomibao, however, advised all regional and district police commanders to be on alert as the NPA announced they would welcome the renegade officers into their ranks to intensify their armed offensives against the government.

Two days after their escape, the four officers sent statements to various media outfits calling for the overthrow of the government and an overhaul of the country’s political system.

They claimed to have received help from "brother officers" in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) who were sympathetic to their cause.

Lomibao downplayed the possibility of another coup in the offing with the escape of the four mutineers and Faeldon.

As far as the PNP is concerned, the Tuesday escape was not enough evidence that anti-government forces were ready to mount another power grab.

Lomibao said the four escapees "do not have enough influence" to lead a coup. "They are not a threat to national security."

Lomibao also announced plans to put up a P500,000 bounty for the capture of each fugitive Army officer.

The military and police have joined forces in the hunt for the five renegade military officers.

Authorities have put up posters and distributed to the public leaflets with pictures of the four escapees.

‘Security lapse’

Army officials, on the other hand, admitted it was a lapse of security on their part that made the escape possible.

Maj. Gen. Ferdinand Bocobo, Army Inspector General heading the investigation over the escape, however, dismissed allegations that the four officers had assistance.

"There was really a security lapse... (We) will determine what really happened so that this will not happen again," Bocobo told a news conference at the AFP headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Bocobo said their initial investigation indicated the four flew the coop between 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday when their lawyers were negotiating with camp officials against plans to transfer the four officers to maximum security.

"The guards were distracted by the negotiations," Bocobo said.

He said the four officers scaled the fence of the compound and tore through the barbed wire using improvised tools.

"The improvised tools could have come from their visitors," Bocobo said.

After scaling the fence, the four officers then simply walked to freedom, heading for a main road a kilometer away from the compound, he said.

The four officers were among more than 300 soldiers who surrendered and were detained after the short-lived mutiny against Mrs. Arroyo in 2003.

The four slipped out of Fort Bonifacio late Tuesday even though Army officials admitted they had prior information that the detainees were planning to escape, raising suspicions that there had been inside help.

Lawmakers, for their part, called on the police and military to unmask and prosecute those who had helped the four mutineers escape.

Baguio City Rep. Mauricio Domogan said a thorough investigation of the incident and the unmasking those responsible for the escape would be "a test to the leadership" of AFP chief Gen. Generoso Senga.

"We need results, not plain promises or statements in the media. The AFP leadership should effectively deal with sympathizers of the Magdalo members," Domogan said.

Malabon-Navotas Rep. Federico Sandoval, for his part, noted the claims made by Young Officers Union new generation (YOUng), a shadowy group of officers who claimed to have helped the four Oakwood mutineers escape.