Under Control - Sketches

Gen. Angelo Reyes, Armed Forces chief of staff, scanned the front pages of 10 broadsheets displayed in the STAR's editorial office last Wednesday. "You'd think you're reading about another country," he said after reading the headlines, mostly bad news, including a report about a brewing coup.

Like his commander-in-chief, the Armed Forces chief prefers to look on the bright side of national affairs. "Everything is under control," President Erap usually says each time disaster strikes.

Critics, on the other hand, usually ask who's in control. It's a question often asked these days amid stepped up attacks by communist rebels and Muslim secessionists, criminality and fresh rumors of a coup.

The buzz at Camp Aguinaldo is that there is discontent in the ranks and that the idea of a coup is being tossed around by a group of young military officers. Although a letter expressing the soldiers' concerns was sent to Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado by Domingo Calajate of the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa, the RAMboys have grown old and are no longer leading this group of disgruntled officers.

I've been told that leadership is one factor lacking among the disgruntled elements. So the government can rest easy, for now. National Security Adviser Alexander Aguirre can mean it when he says, "The national security situation is generally stable and promising." And General Reyes can say that everything is under control.

You may not feel too reassured when Reyes naughtily adds, "You want me to say it's not under control?"

But he also emphasizes that the possibility of a coup "occurring now" is "close to zero." There's no schism in the military similar to the split between the forces of Fabian Ver and Juan Ponce Enrile during the Marcos regime. And Reyes sees no one capable of leading a coup at this time.

What about the grumblings of the overworked, underpaid and poorly equipped soldiers who are also disgusted with developments in the government? There is always dissatisfaction with government, Reyes says, "so what else is new?"

The crucial factor here is the degree of dissatisfaction. But you don't argue about this with the military's chief of staff, who is sworn to defend the duly elected government and, of course, the commander-in-chief.

It may also be hard to win an argument with Reyes, who's so witty and articulate I smell a budding politician. In a barong, he looks and talks like a glib congressman. Why, he can even defend the multiple positions of Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim and sound like he means it.

Will Reyes follow in the footsteps of Fidel Ramos, Rodolfo Biazon and Gregorio Honasan? "Never say never," says Reyes, who's retiring from the AFP next year.

Despite the coup rumors and the renewed attacks by communists and Muslim secessionists, Reyes believes the situation is... uhm... under control. He concedes that after communist ranks were decimated from 1987 to 1995, the AFP became complacent.

"We became a victim of our own success," he says. So while the AFP focused on external defense, the communists renewed their recruitment particularly in the countryside.

Still, it's a moribund, divided communist movement. Why discuss peace with a weak enemy?

"The best negotiating position is, the other party is kneeling in front of you, you have a gun pointed to his head, and you are negotiating," Reyes says. But even a weak enemy, he adds, must not be pushed into a corner. "Otherwise he will fight back like a tiger. Give him an honorable exit. Otherwise it will be very, very bloody."

Despite all the terrorist attacks, he insists, no group has the capability to topple the government.

So there's nothing to worry about?

I waited for Reyes to retort, "You want me to say there's something to worry about?" But all he did was grin.

BUZZ: For the record, former STAR editor-in-chief Ramon Farolan says it's not true that there were 51 "reasons" for his hasty departure from the Bureau of Customs. The 51 names of "untouchables" reportedly came from Malacañang. Farolan says that during his brief tenure at Customs, he was too busy attending congressional hearings and he neither met nor talked on the phone with any of the purported untouchables.