Constitution allows military to grab power, says Cha-cha advocates

The 1987 Constitution has given disgruntled members of the military the "moral license" to grab power from duly elected officials, advocates of Charter change said yesterday.

An article in the Constitution allows the military to interpret its role as the sole defender and "protector of the people and the State," Advocacy Commission for Charter Change (ad-com) chairman Lito Monico Lorenzana said.

Unless the Charter is rewritten and amended, Lorenzana said soldiers would continue to invoke this right and military adventurism will never stop.

He was particularly referring to Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution which states "The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is the protector of the people and State."

"The 1987 Constitution, specifically the clause ‘protector of the people and State,’ legitimizes military intervention during deep political crisis. It is often used as a compelling legal argument that justifies the military to take over the government and grab power," Lorenzana said.

In addition, he said, the 1987 Constitution also gives the military an "unbridled license" to engage in political dynamics and employ the use of force without having to face accountability for its armed actions.

"The Armed Forces of the Philippines has become too politicized and we have seen renegade soldiers, together with their rightist leaders, fall and rise from grace without being charged in the courts for their actions," Lorenzana said.

"Even (Army Brig. Gen.) Danny Lim was promoted to star rank and some putschists have been rewarded and eventually appointed to sensitive government posts," he noted.

Lim was among those tagged as the organizers of a botched Feb. 24 military uprising, in which they planned to withdraw their support from President Arroyo during the 20th anniversary celebrations of the EDSA I people power revolt.

Lorenzana said it is imperative that the 1987 Constitution be amended now to finally put a stop to military intervention.

"In our proposed amendments, we have omitted the clause ‘protector of the people and State’ in order to put it in the proper context. The military is always subordinate to the people and the civilian commander-in-chief," he explained.

The ad-com head expressed concern that "military adventurists" often drop the term "withdrawal of support" as cover up to stage a coup d’état or military takeover.

"The military is expected to remain apolitical. Its duty is to uphold and defend the Constitution and not to allow itself to be used by sinister powerbrokers in the furtherance of some political interests," he said.

‘Smoking guns’

Meanwhile, local officials said the videotape of Lim declaring his withdrawal of support from President Arroyo and the admission of former ambassador Roy Señeres on the alleged plot to oust her are "smoking guns" proving that there was indeed a conspiracy to destabilize the administration.

With this, they also asked those set to sign up for more serialized impeachment complaints against the President to dump their plan.

"The plot to overthrow the government justified (Mrs.) Arroyo’s issuance of Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of national emergency (last Feb. 24). But the endorsers of the second complaint said the President’s action was an impeachable offense constituting a betrayal of public trust and transgression of the Charter," Liga ng mga Barangay president James Marty Lim said.

Señeres earlier implicated several businessmen and other personalities as civilian supporters of Lim in the alleged plot to oust Mrs. Arroyo.

Albay Vice Gov. James Calisin, spokesman for the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), said the second complaint has collapsed in the light of this new evidence, especially because the repeat filing of charges last week focused on Mrs. Arroyo’s alleged "betrayal of public trust" when she issued the proclamation and other presidential directives.

Calisin added that, as for the rest of the charges, the opposition is well aware that these are rehashed complaints that were thrown out by Congress last year.

He said the opposition’s serialized filing of new complaints, which will reportedly end on July 24, is largely viewed as a publicity stunt meant to mask its weak support in Congress because the charges lack legal basis. — With Cecille Suerte Felipe