Thai coup plotter won't share tips with Pinoy putschists

BANGKOK, Thailand – He may have stood out prominently in the latest regime change in his country, but Maj. Gen. Thawip Netniyom is not about to share tips with fellow Filipino officers, many of whom may be agonizing over how to deal with an unpopular civilian commander-in-chief.

“Sometimes, someone has got to do something,” is Thawip’s usual reply to badgering from media regarding his prominent role in the bloodless coup against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September 2006.

Thawip, 50, who topped the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1981, was named spokesman of the Council for Democratic Reform under the constitutional monarchy immediately after the coup.

He said he spent some of the best years of his life in the Philippines as a young cadet but that he believes his experience doesn’t make him an authority on Philippine issues.

“It is quite hard for me to comprehend exactly what it is now. It is so hard to really understand what is going on,” Thawip said when asked if he would be in favor of a coup against the embattled President Arroyo.

“It would be wrong if I am going to state my opinion on a thing that I do not really comprehend,” Thawip said.

He stressed that he doesn’t relish the idea of launching coup to oust a government.

“As a matter of fact, I am against coup. I never, never want to make any coup during my entire (military) career. I never want to make it. I never want to be the one to decide to make a coup,” Thawip added.

“I am not saying I want to wash my hands. I just do my job. Having grown up in a military family, sometimes, you have to conform to the esprit de corps once you belong to this institution and that there are certain rules in that institution to follow for as long as it is not against the constitution, except for the coup. That’s why I said I never want to make a coup,” he said.