It’s the government, alas, glamorizing the ‘coup-coup’ phenomenon

Former RAMrod and veteran putschist, Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, finally surfaced yesterday and strode through the halls of the Department of Justice on Padre Faura like a matinee idol, with DOJ employees and rubberneckers flocking around him, or clinging to the bannisters to view his progress – many buttonholing him and asking to be "snapped" with him for souvenir photos.

Whose fault is it that Gringo, whose star had begun to wane owing to his lackadaisical and indifferent record in the Senate, has re-emerged with all the glitz, glitter, and restored sheen of a folk hero and quintessential rebel? Why, the GMA Administration, of course.

Everyday for the past two weeks, the President’s pet pursuivants – Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes (who’s having a tough time defending himself), Interior and Local Government Secretary Joey Lina, and the top brass of the Armed Forces – have been dubbing Honasan the kuya of the Oakwood coup, the instigator of other hiccups of discontent, and one of the masterminds of a wider plot to topple the government.

Last Tuesday, DILG Secretary Lina announced that 26 Magdalo recruits, military officers allegedly displaying the telltale scars on their arms, have fingered Gringo as the one who presided over their clandestine "blood compact" ceremonies.

In effect, all that government publicity contributed mightily into portraying the temporarily fugitive Senator into an "underdog", but a fighter nonetheless, a figure beloved, traditionally, by the oppressed masses (hence his popularity among the C, D, and E) and the type of script-hero of which made big hits out of all those FPJ movies, and ranging further back, those Rogelio de la Rosa fight-for-justice romances of our puting tabing.

For all we know, perhaps Gringo indeed strongly influenced and possibly even "led" those youthful Oakwood mutineers, who brandished, after all, his "National Recovery Program" as their vision of the Holy Grail, and the rebel-turned-solon may have contributed to the unrest in many other sectors of the military. He may have returned to his old role of troublemaker – yet there’s no doubt he has special magnetism and charisma in dealing with young officers and cadets, while, by contrast, many of his former brods and boks in the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansa Makabansa (RAM) hate, despise or deride him. Once again, life is like that.

Yesterday though, Honasan went back to the Senate to deliver one of the shortest privilege speeches on record, mainly thanking those who supported him and believed in him – and denying any role in any plots.

Time will tell how this drama plays out.

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Yesterday, the AFP Chief of Staff, Gen. Narciso L. Abaya announced that intelligence had uncovered a plan by anti-government "forces" to seize the EDSA Shrine and even the nearby premises of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Soldiers and riot police were dispatched to saturate that neighborhood, no doubt sending the crowds normally surging through those streets and possibly a number of ADB bankers and executives into a tizzy.

Such moves, in case we forgot, impact greatly on the international scene since the Asian Development Bank, although playing a less prominent role than the World Bank, is a big player, investor and lender throughout Asia-Pacific.

Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay, who at least ceremonially replaced Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus as head of the Intelligence Services (ISAFP), went even further, pointing to groups close to deposed President Joseph Estrada as behind the destabilization conspiracy.

It’s correct, naturally, to be vigilant. But when the go-vernment is perceived to be jumping at shadows, it becomes a major destabilizer in itself. Anti-coup propaganda is a sword that cuts both ways.

By the way, don’t think that – by his much-publicized and very cosmetic "resignation" from the ISAFP – General Corpus has lost control of the military intelligence apparatus and had his wings clipped. The very opposite has been achieved. Instead of holding office in Camp Aguinaldo, he holds office daily in Malacañang – virtually at the elbow of President Macapagal-Arroyo, the Commander-in-Chief. Corpus may carry the ambivalent title of Presidential Adviser or Assistant on Civil Relations, but his role is not civil. He’s in charge of the "War Room" – yep, that’s its name – on the ground floor of the main Malacañang Palace, right near the elevator. As such, can we say that Corpus’s brief is war, not peace?

In case you’ve forgotten Corpus’s background, it’s timely to refresh yourself on it, because – by enjoying the full confidence of President GMA and the persistent backing of Defense Secretary Angie Reyes – he’s acquired tremendous power. Yes, today, even more than ever.

I’ve known Vic for many years – he hails from Vigan, in my home province of Ilocos Sur – and even came to visit me in my home to seek my advice and support shortly before he "came in from the cold" and defected back from being a Communist New People’s Army (NPA) commander, to surrender to the government. In fact, General Fortunato Abat (PMA ’51) refused to accept Victor’s surrender, but instead "arrested" him and clapped him into jail.

Nonetheless, when he was rehabilitated (he even sent me the proofs of his book, Silent War), I was one of those who foolishly agreed to his assuming the delicate post of chief of intelligence, the ISAFP – what a great leap forward for a former Communist insurgent! I have begun to doubt the wisdom of our having entrusted our security to Victor.

It’s well-known that all the former heads of ISAFP, those who’re retired but still alive and kicking, strongly objected to Corpus being given that vital ISAFP command position. They called him a "security risk", and some of them even dubbed him a "traitor".

One of the most vocal against Corpus was a retired ISAFP officer and member of PMA Class ’44 whom I had known for many years since he was a young military attaché in Singapore (indeed, an ISAFP spook even then, like my other friend, his contemporary in Burma, the late nationalist Congressman Bonifacio "Boni" Gillego).

When Toby Irlanda’s classmate (another of his Mistahs was the late Terry Adevoso), Brig. Gen. Aurelio Ugalde (PMA ’44) died last November, 2002, Irlanda furiously declared he was poignantly reminded of "the perfidy perpetrated by Corpus at the PMA on December 29, 1970" – an act which had destroyed the life and career of General Ugalde. This is because the general had been PMA Superintendent when Corpus "mutinied" himself, raided the Academy’s armory, and brought those weapons and ammunition over to the New People’s Army rebels.

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Irlanda recalled that on that fateful day in 1970, Ugalde was waiting with his PMA staff, as part of the welcoming committee of Baguio officials, to greet the motorcade of then President Ferdinand E. Marcos on the Naguilian Road (from La Union).

When Marcos arrived, he immediately confronted the startled Ugalde and barked: "General, do you know that your armory has been raided by the NPA?"

It was only at that embarrassing moment that the poor PMA Superintendent learned (from his President and Commander-in-Chief no less) that 1st Lieutenant Corpus, as Officer of the Day, had "betrayed his trust, abandoned his post, and deserted to the NPA of the Communist Party of the Philippines bringing with him a sizeable amount of arms he ransacked from the camp armory".

Ugalde assumed full command responsibility for Corpus’s act and was immediately retired from military service.

Irlanda wrote a blistering article on Corpus last April 2003, entitled "Victor Corpus: The Social Engineer", and sent it to the Cavalier Magazine, the quarterly of the PMA Alumni Association, Inc. (PMAAAI).

Its publication had been endorsed by Cavalier Rosalino A. Alquiza, PMAAAI Executive Director at the time and member of the Editorial Board, and the manuscript was sent to Cav. Restituto Aguilar, Editor-in-Chief, with instructions to publish the piece in the 2nd issue of the magazine. Instead, it was sent back to "Cavalier Irlanda" by Commodore Carlos L. Agustin (ret.), Chairman of the PMAAAI, with a letter saying that "based on existing editorial policies and subjecting it to the Rotary Club’s ‘4-way Test.’ . . . the (Editorial) Board was unanimous in their view that its publication might unduly impinge upon personal sensitivities and could create an atmosphere of animosity . . ." etc.

Frankly, I didn’t realize that the PMA followed Rotary Club rule (as a former Rotarian, indeed, I well know the 4-way test – which many government officials, sadly, couldn’t pass if applied to them). What outraged Irlanda most, I suspect, was the added information supplied by Agustin’s letter which stated: "Copies of the said paper, however, have been sent to Secretary Angelo T. Reyes and subject Cavalier (Corpus) for their information."

If the magazine had rejected his article, Toby fumed, why did Agustin make "copies" of his paper and send them, then, to Reyes and Corpus?

Wrote Irlanda: "Corpus likes to be remembered not as a traitor to his country, but as a patriot who sacrificed his career, and joined the communist rebellion against the martial law of President Marcos. In fact, this is how he is being perceived, even in the media."

Irlanda claimed this is "pure canard" because "in fact, Corpus became a clandestine member of the militant Kabataang Makabayan, the youth wing of the Communist Party even when he was still a PMA cadet. And when he defected to the NPA/CPP (in December 1970), the declaration of martial law was almost two years away in September 1972. The raid at the PMA armory, together with the defection of Corpus, a Regular Officer of the AFP, was a well-planned operation of the NPA/CPP aimed at embarrassing the Military Academy, the military establishment, the government, and the flag and country, with Corpus playing the starring role."

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Corpus spent five years (1971-1975) fighting the government as an NPA leader. He was entrusted with the recruitment and training of new cadres. (Mind you, he had been trained and had served in the Airborne and the Special Forces). By 1975, he was the commander of the NPA forces in the Cagayan Valley and a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Central Committee.

In January 1976, incidentally after being informed of his reassignment to Mindanao, Corpus reportedly slipped out of the safe house where he was staying, contacted one of his PMA classmates, went over to Fort Bonifacio, and offered to surrender to General Abat, a fighting general, by the way, who had fought in Korea and Mindanao, and became Defense Secretary during the FVR regime.

Abat rejected his offer of "surrender" and placed him under arrest. Corpus advanced as his reason for abandoning the NPA (indeed, this is what he also said to me), that he was disgusted with Joma Sison, who was a ruthless leader and didn’t hesitate to liquidate both NPA officers and cadres and partymates when they crossed him, or when he considered them threats to his leadership. As proof of Joma’s ruthlessness, he revealed to me, and later his military interrogators, that it had been Sison who was behind the terrible Plaza Miranda "bombing" of 1970 which had killed so many, including our own "Manila Times" photographer, as well as critically wounding (and maiming for life) such Liberal Party stalwarts as Senate President Jovito Salonga, the late Serging Osmeña Jr., the late Speaker Monching Mitra Jr., and the future Manila Mayor Ramon Bagatsing (the latter lost one leg).

I rang up Jovy Salonga at once to tell him that Corpus had disclosed it was Joma, not Marcos, who had sent those assassins to throw hand grenades at the LP miting de abanse in Plaza Miranda which had so grievously crippled him.

Corpus asserted that he was convinced a movement which had no qualms about killing and wounding innocent people could not save the country, so he had decided to quit the NPA/CPP.

On the other hand, the military scoffed that Corpus had no choice. He was nearing the end of his rope, the former ISAFP chiefs – ironically – declared. The military had been closing in on him, and, in addition, he was already being mistrusted by many in the ranking echelons of the NPA/CPP because an armed forces "psywar campaign" had successfully spread the idea that Corpus was "actually a deep penetration agent of the AFP" injected into the New People’s Army.

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Few remember that, when arrested, Corpus, together with NPA Commander Dante (Buscayno) – and, it must be said, also Ninoy Aquino – were tried for rebellion by a military tribunal, which found them guilty and sentenced them to death by musketry!

Yep. How the world turns! Corpus was detained in the Maximum Security unit compound in Fort Bonifacio (where Ninoy and this writer had been cellmates) and later turned over for further incarceration and debriefing to the ISAFP detention center. During the martial law years, then, he was under the "control" of General Ignatio "Ashiong" Paz, head of ISAFP.

"Ace" Paz had been a captain in Jakarta, as asst. military attaché at the time of the 1965 GESTAPU coup (wherein half a million persons, Chinese and suspected Communists, were massacred in the aftermath of that Gerakan September Tigapulo).

As a correspondent covering that coup and the subsequent massacres, I had recruited the very able Captain Paz to be my "driver and bodyguard", a role which he cheerfully and enthusiastically accepted. We went together from Solo, Semarang, Bogor, to Bandung (our rented car broke down on the Bandung zigzag because "Ace" hadn’t checked the crankcase, and we found it completely dry of oil!).

It was a great relief to find Ace to be the ISAFP commander, when he came to visit Ninoy and myself in our Fort Bonifacio cell.

"Don’t frame us, Ace," I said, looking my old friend in the eye. He shook my hand earnestly and replied: "You know I’ll never do that!" He died, though, of a heart attack I heard, less than a year later. Good old Ashiong! I remember him well.

When all is said and done, the job of intelligence chief is too essential to the safety of our nation to be entrusted to the wrong hands.

Is this happening today? That is the question.