Opposition hits appointment of Ebdane as DND chief

The appointment of Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane to the top defense post has cast doubts on the neutrality of the military in the coming May elections, the opposition said yesterday.

"We in the opposition have serious reservations about his planned appointment to the defense department," Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, president of the United Opposition, said. "Secretary Ebdane still has to answer questions regarding his alleged role in the widespread cheating in the 2004 elections."

The planned appointment was also inconsistent with the recommendation of the Feliciano Commission that only civilians occupy the top defense post. The Feliciano Commission investigated the cause of the failed Oakwood mutiny in 2003.

But Malacañang appeared convinced of the propriety of appointing Ebdane as defense secretary.

"This is not the first time that there are concerns being aired whenever there are appointments of this nature," Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. "We go by the dictum that the President as the appointing authority takes responsibility for the people she would like to appoint to help her in the Cabinet."

In opposing Ebdane’s possible appointment, Binay said the former Philippine National Police chief has yet to explain his being tagged as one of President Arroyo’s "special operators" in the 2004 presidential elections.

"This is another case where the ‘Hello Garci’ generals are rewarded with plum postings in the government," Binay said.

The "Hello Garci" scandal referred to the wiretapped conversation between Mrs. Arroyo and former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano during the counting of votes.

Binay, campaign manager for Mrs. Arroyo’s top challenger the late Fernando Poe Jr., said several military and police officers linked to massive election irregularities in 2004 have since been promoted.

An exclusive report by The STAR revealed that Ebdane will assume his new post by the end of the month.

"He will be appointed within the election period and two weeks before the start of the campaign period for the Senate race. Again, that is alarming and suspicious," Binay said.

"The neutrality of the AFP is once again put in doubt. We fear a repeat of 2004, when military officers were involved in cheating and fraud on behalf of Mrs. Arroyo," Binay said.

But Ermita was unfazed. "Let’s give it to the President. It’s her prerogative and she will always consider the competence of the person she is appointing," he said, adding that Mrs. Arroyo is expected to announce a major appointment when she comes back from a two-day visit to Switzerland on Jan. 28.

When pressed for details, Ermita said, "the President knows best." He said Ebdane is already a civilian, having retired from the military more than 10 years ago.

He said if the Palace would be "very technical about it," Ebdane has long retired from the PNP, which is actually a civilian agency in the first place.

"You hardly think of me anymore as a retired general. I don’t think that (being a former military official) is a handicap," Ermita, himself a former military official, said.

He said there was nothing wrong with the Feliciano Commission’s recommendation and that it was followed by Mrs. Arroyo with her appointment of Avelino Cruz as defense chief.

Cruz resigned in November last year due to disagreements with other Cabinet officials over the Palace’s role in pushing for people’s initiative, which he had strongly opposed as "hare-brained." Mrs. Arroyo later assumed the post in a concurrent capacity. — With Paolo Romero