Querubin denies plotting against government

Saying that he should be commended for helping stop a coup, Marine Col. Ariel Querubin denied yesterday ever plotting against the government.

Querubin is among the 40 Army and Marine officers, led by former Marines commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, who are facing military charges for their reported involvement in the failed Feb. 24 power grab hatched by disgruntled military officers.

"I feel that having stood down and convinced other officers from not going on with their intention is enough to merit a commendation," Querubin said in his sworn affidavit.

At the same time, a law school dean warned restive soldiers yesterday against joining destabilization efforts once the impeachment process is finished.

Querubin issued his affidavit before the ad hoc investigation committee, chaired by Rear Admiral Rufino Lopez, which looked into the involvement of military officers in the Feb. 24 coup attempt.

The Lopez committee later tagged Querubin, along with detained former Army Scout Ranger chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, as the brains behind the failed military exercise.

Querubin was charged despite his insisting in his affidavit that he never committed any military infractions before Feb. 23, the eve of the failed coup, up to Feb. 26, when he figured in a tense standoff at the Marines headquarters.

"I don’t think anything was violated. Intention was very much different from manifestation. If I say, I think of killing you and I did not do it, what will you charge me of? That is only the intention. If something really happened, that is the offense," he said in his affidavit.

Querubin also claimed that in one of the meetings at the Philippine Marine Corps headquarters to discuss prevailing issues involving Marine officers’ restiveness, he even enjoined all the officers to stand behind the chain of command.

Querubin, a Medal of Valor awardee, also denied ever trying to convince then Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief retired Gen. Generoso Senga to join the soldiers’ protest march to the EDSA shrine on Feb. 24.

Admitting that he and Lim — along with AFP deputy chief for intelligence, now Maj. Gen. Rodrigo Maclang — went to Senga’s office, he said their only purpose was to relay to him the prevailing sentiments of officers on the ground.

But the committee reported that Querubin and Lim personally saw Senga to convince him to join the soldiers’ protest march and the subsequent withdrawal of support from President Arroyo.

The Lopez committee report also accused Lim and Querubin of even offering Senga to lead them so the scheduled Feb. 24 military exercise would not be bloody.

Querubin was also grilled by the committee over his telephone conversation with an unknown caller on the evening of Feb. 23 at the Marine headquarters, during which he purportedly said that Senga was already in but changed his mind following the arrival of then Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon.

But Querubin only dismissed this, saying he never uttered these words. He said that their intention in meeting with Senga was to inform him of the soldiers’ plan and ask him to do something about it.

Asked by the board his position on the plot, Querubin said that this was the reason why he and Lim went to Senga — to preserve the unity of the AFP.

"I have no intention at that time and that is the reason why we intimated this to J2 (Maclang) and to the chief of staff (Senga) for them to do something, because as I have said, I am not really with the idea that the Armed Forces should be divided," Querubin said.

He also claimed that he had suffered enough and realized his past mistakes, referring to his detention for his direct involvement in the December 1989 coup attempt against the Aquino administration.

Querubin was detained for several years and was only reinstated after being pardoned by then President Fidel Ramos.

Querubin’s statement resembled the declaration made by Lim. Both men have claimed they were never part of the coup plot and in fact were instrumental in nipping it in the bud.

All in all, 25 Army Scout Rangers led by Lim and 15 Marine officers led by Miranda, are now facing pre-trial investigation in connection with the Lopez committee’s recommendation to subject them to general court-martial proceedings for allegedly leading the failed Feb. 24 coup.

‘Twisting in the wind’

University of the East College of Law dean Amado Valdez said in a statement that soldiers who opt to join another attempt to stage a coup when the impeachment process is over should "think doubly hard" about doing so, "lest they end up twisting in the wind once their renegade officers disown their cause in the same way that (Brig. Gen. Danilo) Lim is now presenting himself as the accidental hero of last February’s failed putsch."

Valdez was referring to the legal strategy presented by Lim’s lawyer, Vicente Verdadero, who said that his client — instead of leading the Feb. 24 coup attempt — actually prevented it by making a videotaped message in which he and other AFP officers declared their withdrawal of support from Mrs. Arroyo, whom they described as a "bogus president."

The videotape was supposed to have been aired on television on Feb. 24, the same day disgruntled soldiers were to march and take part in an opposition rally ostensibly meant to commemorate the 20th Edsa uprising that ousted then President Joseph Estrada and put Mrs. Arroyo in his place.

Valdez said that contrary to Lim’s claim "that he was an accidental hero... there is overwhelming evidence at this time that point to that videotaped message as the trigger of a larger conspiracy to overthrow the Arroyo presidency and apparently set up a junta or transitional governing council."

He said that while the officers’ withdrawal of support from Mrs. Arroyo may not be considered a crime under local penal laws, "this action has to be taken in context with the bigger picture of an apparent conspiracy last February by extremist groups in the military — in cahoots with certain opposition and big business personalities and possibly left-wing forces — to topple the Arroyo presidency."

Valdez said his view about this "bigger picture" was validated by Esperon, who recently said that Lim informed Senga and other senior military officers on the eve of Feb. 24 that renegade troops were ready to shoot it out with loyalist soldiers and that the coup plotters already had a lineup of people who were supposed to run the transitional council in Mrs. Arroyo’s stead.

He said Esperon’s declaration; testimonies by former ambassadors Roy Señeres and Rey Parungao and 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan; and seized documents pointing to future destabilization plots corroborate military intelligence reports of a civilian-backed rightist-leftist conspiracy to overthrow the Arroyo administration last February.

Valdez said these pieces of evidence "lend credence to the government position" that there was an active plot to destabilize the Arroyo administration.

He said impeachment complainants would have difficulty proving that Mrs. Arroyo "acted with malice" and resorted to a "deliberate decision to injure" or curtail certain constitutional rights in issuing Proclamation 1017, which put the country in a state of emergency.

Valdez said even if certain rights may have been affected by the proclamation, this is covered by the "damage without injury" principle in law because Mrs. Arroyo acted in the presence of a "tendency that certain actions will lead to serious threats" to the state.