AFP: Faeldon not a security threat, but a police problem

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said yesterday alleged Magdalo ringleader and fugitive Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon does not pose any threat to national security, since he is considered “more or less a police problem.”

In an interview at Camp Aguinaldo, Esperon said that while Faeldon, who escaped during the Peninsula Manila standoff, could do some things, his actions would not imperil the country’s security situation.

“There could be plans, they could try their luck, but I will assure you they will not succeed,” Esperon said.

Esperon also denied reports that there are attempts to recruit soldiers for another destabilization plot against the government, saying they have verified the information and found out there is no truth to it.

He said this has been shown in the Peninsula incident, when Sen. Antonio Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim called for soldiers to join their action, and nobody, particularly soldiers in the active military service, came to support them.

“As you have seen during the Manila Pen caper, there are no new faces, those are the usual destabilizers who have come from the ranks of the Oakwood participants,” he said, referring to those who staged the foiled uprising staged by the Magdalo group on July 27, 2003 in Makati City’s central business district.

He said operations are ongoing to ferret out Faeldon, but could not give details as this could jeopardize their efforts to track down the fugitive officer, who is facing various charges before military and civilian courts for his alleged involvement in attempts to overthrow the government.

Earlier, Esperon called on the public to reject rebel soldiers, who, like Communist insurgents, “seek to destroy the country’s democratic way of life and grab power for themselves through armed uprisings.”

He said in a recent news forum that military adventurists and insurgents are both enemies of the people, who should be rejected by the people and quickly brought to their “inevitable end.”