Senga warns of more coup attempts by Left, Right, rebels --www.inq7.net

Senga warns of more coup attempts by Left, Right, rebels

First posted 02:28am (Mla time) Mar 23, 2006
By Dona Z. Pazzibugan
Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on Page A1 of the March 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


EXPECT more coup attempts against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The warning came from Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga who said that the alliance between the military and leftist rebels to oust Ms Arrroyo has already taken root.

"We may have not seen the last of the attempts at a power grab," Senga said in a speech before members of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) on Tuesday.


Media blamed

Senga partly blamed the media for portraying rebel military officers and soldiers as "messianic figures."

He said Ms Arroyo's critics "will always find allies in opportunist personalities who will not hesitate to bankroll" plots to oust her from office.

"We were fortunately able to blunt the ever-closer leftist-rightist alliance for the time being ... Now is not the time to relax our vigilance. This alliance has been deepening for over two years now and will not be uprooted in a single stroke," he went on.

Senga complained that their attempt to counter further military uprisings "is further made difficult by the propensity of certain sectors of the media to romanticize erring officers and soldiers, portraying them as messianic figures that they are certainly not."

"This is not helping the AFP heal past wounds of divisiveness and in fact indirectly encourages our younger officers to adopt the wrong values and warp their perspectives," he said.

The military leadership foiled a plan by the Marines, Scout Rangers and the Philippine National Police Special Action Force on Feb. 24 to withdraw support from Ms Arroyo, who has been accused of cheating in the 2004 elections.

Ex-Scout Rangers chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin disclosed their plan to Senga, apparently hoping to convince him to withdraw support from Ms Arroyo as former AFP chief of staff Angelo Reyes did in 2001 to then-president Joseph Estrada.


Final takeover

Senga said the plan was for military elements to announce a withdrawal of support for President Arroyo on Feb. 24 when the Edsa People Power II anniversary rallies had reached a "critical mass," and then march to Malacañang and hold vigil there.

Then, "the real plan would unfold: Sympathetic units from the AFP would make military strikes that would allow the plotters to seize power, culminating in a final takeover of the seat of government," Senga said in his speech.

To reports he was offered to head the so-called transition government after Ms Arroyo's ouster, Senga declared he would never agree to such a setup.

"I will resist the establishment of a "military caretaker government" or a "transition council" even at the cost of my own life, if that is what circumstance demands of me," he said.

"I am not so presumptuous as to believe that I know what is best for this country, not do I believe I know who does, outside free elections. The military leadership are neither kings nor kingmakers," he went on.

Senga said the military should never again intervene in the nation's political troubles, bringing to mind how the AFP chief of staff's withdrawal of support from Estrada allowed then-Vice President Arroyo to assume the presidency in 2001.


Never again

"Never again will the AFP be used for ulterior political motives," vowed Senga, who was the military spokesperson in 2001.

He said the military should stick to the chain of command to avoid the "nightmare" of soldiers shooting one another, as happened in the 1989 coup d'état staged by the Young Officers Union led by Lim and Querubin, when rebel Marines shot at fellow Marines at the Camp Aguinaldo general headquarters.

"It was the bloodiest incident in the 1989 coup attempt. That incident must not happen again. It should never happen again," stressed Senga, as he pledged to prosecute those involved in the Feb. 24 foiled coup before military and civilian courts.

Lim and Querubin and other YOU rebels were granted amnesty in 1995 along with the Reform the AFP Movement (RAM) rebels led by former colonel Gregorio Honasan.





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