E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
Let the military do its job
Sunday, 06 25, 2006
Let the soldier yield to the civilian — Cicero
Robin Moore, in his book The Fifth Estate, described the mafias — the gangsters and those in the underworld — as the fifth in the hierarchical order of those who have such shadowy powers that can influence any state power. But such potent threat cannot be far greater than the threat posed by the military. In the Ancien Régime before the French Revolution, the military was noblesse d’épée, or the Nobility of the Sword, generally considered to be the members of the Second Estate. Neither a shadow but a real visible presence that exercises active and real powers, the military wields tremendous influence in the affairs of government and continues to rise beyond its limits. Unwittingly, Moore summarized the current Philippine situation when he stated in his book: “The military is the basis, the implied threat of a national leader’s power.”
Harry S. Truman had a wide perception when he said, if there is one basic element in the US Constitution, it is civilian control over the military, an element we have incorporated in all our versions, past and present, of the basic law of the land. But even as our Constitution clearly prescribes that “civilian authority is at all times supreme over the military,” the current state of affairs does not so indicate. What is happening today is the unfettered intervention by the military in the affairs of governance, contributing to our worst nightmares and anxieties that the constitutional precept of civilian control over the military is now more a myth than a reality.
There is even the provision that waxes poetic about Edsa I: that they are the protectors of the people. Not anymore. The military mind in February 1986 has become an aberration — a perversion, if you will — 20 years after that shining moment in our history. It will never happen again. It was a noble act, indeed, but in the aftermath of that glorious revolution and after that heady taste of power that it can wield, the military mind wandered out of the barracks and cast a covetous eye on the corridors of civil governance. This time, with an entirely different set of focus: You owe your power to me; so, must you yield to me, or else…Worse, still, the sitting president has found a way to maneuver around this mindset.
There is generally no harm for the military to participate in the affairs of governance: The military is not only a big help during a time of peace as a partner in nation building. But the military today is in conspiracy with the (civilian) Commander-in-Chief, a willing instrument in the commission of various atrocities against the people and in the perpetration of anomalies in the very government it has sworn to protect and serve. Gone is the integrity of the members of the Nobility of the Sword. Many of them will fail a lifestyle check anytime. Supplanting that integrity is endemic graft and corruption: scandals on the purchase of military boots and uniforms, sale of arms and ammunition to criminals and enemies of the state, etcetera. The “Hello Garci” tapes scandal, where members of the military were involved in the fraud that denied Fernando Poe Jr. the presidency, has yet to be brought to a closure. And just recently, a number of private citizens were arrested without warrants by the military, an atrocity that smacks of political overtones.
Talking of large-scale corruption, what were the recently discovered millions worth of medicines and military ordinance doing at the Senate commissary premises? One enterprising military man had obviously used that area as an innocuous storage point as those pilfered items waited for an auspicious time to be handed off to some buyer. Or might this be another one of those bungled attempts to blacken the image of a Senate that steadily refuses to kowtow to Malacañang?
With mounting alarm, the country has seen the President continuing the distasteful practice of appointing retired generals to key positions in the government. Is she afraid of the military? Or, are these appointments a continuing manifestation of what she said in regard to the Garci tapes as “just protecting my votes?” It is hard to say which, but definitely we know that when favors are called in, the cost of sin could be costly.
It may be significant to point out that the modern managerial knowledge that a military man possesses may not be easily transferable to the civilian government, which does not operate according to the command-and-obey principle and hierarchical structure of modern times. Although these officers may have already retired, but are retained in the bureaucracy with their appointment to civilian posts, nothing has changed in both their physical and psychological attitudes acquired and developed in the commands they previously served.
It is evident that the President continues to attract and pamper a number of military officers who, in the revered military tradition, obey first before they complain. She needs such breed of unthinking, obeisant officers in order to silence the clamor of the populace for her to resign, in order to sow terror in the hearts of idealists and reformists who pursue the path of righteous dissent within the military itself. By doing so, the President becomes active in directly controlling the affairs of the military to the extent of doing things not of purely strict military significance, but for political ends. This direct political power on the part of the President has alienated the military society, destroyed its unity, warped its professionalism and sense of purpose, as well as crippled its ability to protect the state.
Let the military do its job — and keep it out of the civilian government. Otherwise, it may end up that the members of the Nobility of the Sword will either start hacking at each other or take part in the direct control of this country.
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