Lawmakers dismiss coup threat from fugitive soldiers

Two congressmen dismissed a threat from three fugitive military officers to mount a coup although they urged the military to recapture the rebels as soon as possible.

House Deputy Majority Leader Antonio Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur and Malabon-Navotas Rep. Federico Sandoval II said the military should do everything possible to show that any takeover attempt would be futile.

Cerilles said the public pronouncement by rebellious junior officers led by 1Lt. Sonny Sarmiento was virtually an open challenge to the military leadership.

"The continued defiance of government by these fugitive Magdalo mutineers, which they aired to the media, is an insult to AFP chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga and the various military commanders. It seems the military’s intelligence operations must now work double time because these rebel soldiers are freely issuing their threats in the media," said Cerilles.

Sandoval brushed aside Sarmiento’s threat as ridiculous. "It’s all propaganda. They just want their presence felt."

In an interview over ABS-CBN television, Sarmiento warned they would soon surface and show the public that "we junior officers are still here" and are "still continuing our fight."

Sarmiento, 1Lt. Patricio Bumidang Jr. and 2Lt. Angelbert Gay were among 300 disgruntled officers and enlisted men who seized a ritzy condominium in Makati City in 2003, complaining of corruption among the military leadership.

Sarmiento, spokesman of little-known group Makabayang Kawal Pilipino, claimed they plan to install a caretaker government with former coup leader and former senator Gregorio Honasan as its head.

"We have a timeframe," he said. "In the first 1,000 days, we will overhaul all branches of government to give way to a new order which will be for the people."

As a renegade army colonel, Honasan led a series of coups against President Corazon Aquino in the late 1980s.

Honasan now carries a P5-million bounty on his head and is in hiding after the government accused him of involvement in a coup attempt against the Arroyo administration last February.

Sandoval belittled their plans. "These rebel soldiers should wake up and realize that day-dreaming will never be a substitute for nation-building. It’s impossible to overhaul the system in 1,000 days unless they are advocating civil war."

He also criticized them for planning an alliance with communist rebels, saying "principled soldiers do not forge partnerships with enemies of the state."

Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, chief of the military’s Northern Luzon Command, has ordered troops to have the three fugitives shot on sight.

"If they will make themselves felt then we will also try to feel where they are. Once they get inside my camp, as much as possible we will try to capture them alive, but if they fight, part of my instruction to my men is... it’s not shoot-to-kill, shoot-on-sight," Tolentino told reporters during a ceremony at Malacañang yesterday.

"These (mutineers) say they are from the elite (forces) and my soldiers are not so I always tell my men you can serve your country better alive than dead," Tolentino said.

He downplayed the military rebels’ supposed plan to take over the government, saying the armed forces remained loyal to the government.

These soldiers were only trying to wage a "psychological war" since they could not possibly succeed, he said. "We have the silent majority. Most of our soldiers do not talk but they are on the side of the government." — Aurea Calica