AFP PROBING IF COLONEL HAS TIES W/GMA / PALACE: GMA SPREADING OUSTER CALLS
[PHOTO COURTESY OF GMA NEWS TV]
MANILA, JULY 19, 2011 (MALAYA) BY VICTOR REYES THE Armed Forces yesterday said it is determining whether a Marines colonel who has called for a change in government has ties with the previous administration.
So far, military probers "have not found anything to that sort," said Commodore Jose Miguel Rodriguez, AFP spokesman.
On Sunday, deputy presidential deputy spokeswoman Abigail Valte implied that Col. Generoso Mariano is working with the camp of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo by saying the recently retired officer is mouthing the lines of President Arroyo's critics.
Yesterday, Valte reiterated that Mariano seems to be allied with the Arroyo administration officials because they have the same statements, "down to the last word."
She brushed aside accusations that the Aquino government may be behind Mariano.
"Certainly not. That is not a tactic that is up the sleeve of this government. We will not employ or we will not resort to such a ploy," she said.
She said the points that Mariano raised, which include oil price hikes, rising cost of basic needs, and poverty, "are all motherhood statements."
"If he could cite something specific, it would be easy to check if there is a basis," Valte said.
Rodriguez said, "Abigail Valte might know something that we don't know but we hope to be able to ferret that out during the investigation."
Told that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy lieutenant, has also said that pro-Arroyo personalities are behind Mariano, Rodriguez said, "Well, Senator Trillanes may know something that we do not know yet."
Mariano was deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command before he reached the retirement age on Sunday. He was restricted to quarters at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio on Friday after appearing in a video, dated July 3, calling for a change of government for continuing increases in the cost of food and medicine and what he said was the inability of the government to address these problems.
The five-man military probe body is headed by Brig. Gen. Eugenio Clemen, deputy commander of the Marine Corps. In general, the investigating team is looking into Mariano's possible violation of the Articles of War.
The investigation on Mariano started Saturday, said Rodriguez.
The probe panel has granted Mariano's request to get a counsel of his choice, and expects him to have the lawyer by tomorrow.
Rodriguez also said military investigators are verifying information that Mariano tried, but failed, to convince fellow officers to join his advocacy.
He said Mariano appeared in a forum at the Club Filipino on June 24, where he got in contact with a group. "That is where I think these things started," he said.
An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "We don't know why he did that. As of now, we cannot connect him to anybody."
Former Marines Col. Ariel Querubin, a key player in a plot to overthrow the Arroyo government, said Mariano is not anti-Aquino. He said Mariano sympathized with his group of military officers who rebelled against the Arroyo government. But Mariano was not able to join his group because the latter was on schooling, taking up a General Staff Course, he said.
"If he was not on schooling then, I am sure that he would have been one of us in jail," Querubin said.
He also said Mariano, in airing his gripes, was referring to the government in general, and not specifically the Aquino government.
Querubin said Mariano should not be linked to the Arroyo camp.
Former Scout Ranger head Brig. Gen. (ret.) Danilo Lim, who was jailed together with Querubin for uprisings against the Arroyo government, said he disapproves of Mariano's call to overthrow the Aquino government.
Lim said there are grievances but these stemmed from the previous administration which he said "abused" the soldiers. – With Regina Bengco and Ashzel Hachero
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Palace accuses Arroyo of spreading ouster call by Joyce Pangco Pañares
THE Palace on Sunday accused the camp of former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo of masterminding the ouster calls of Marine Col. Generoso Mariano against President Benigno Aquino III.
"He can start working full time for Representative Arroyo after he retires, but not while he is still in active duty," deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte said.
Mariano, who retired Sunday, said in a video dated July 3 that every Filipino, including soldiers, had a duty "to replace the government" if it failed to address poverty and to save the lives of the majority.
Mariano told the Manila Standard Friday he had been talking in general terms, and that he had never called for President Aquino's ouster. He said the two-minute video clip was taken during a public forum at the Club Filipino, where he had been invited to speak on military issues.
Mariano was stripped of his command over the weekend and remains restricted to quarters pending an investigation.
Arroyo's lawyer, Raul Lambino, denied Malacañangs claims.
Valte said her statement pinning Arroyo to the ouster call was not based on any intelligence report.
"It is based on what her allies have been saying so far and what Colonel Mariano has been saying so far. It is easy to tell who is behind all these," she said.
"If we listen to what he is saying and to who are the other groups that are making the same call, it is not hard to tell who has been mouthing the same lines."
Valte said Mariano's ouster call was meant "to further someone else's interests."
Military spokesman Commodore Miguel Rodriguez declined to comment on Mariano's motives pending an Armed Forces investigation.
"I cannot comment on that until after the investigation," he said.
"Maybe the Palace has its own sources, and of course they can see the bigger picture to include the political spectrum."
Navy chief Vice Adm. Alexander Pama said Mariano might be charged with sedition and conduct unbecoming of an officer.
The military said Sunday there was no need for a loyalty check in the wake of Mariano's video, saying this was "a thing of the past."
Rodriguez said the military was a "very small organization" and could account for its soldiers easily.
Arroyo, jet-lagged after flying home from Europe on Saturday, said she would face her accusers and the string of plunder cases against her in the proper forum, but not in Congress.
She described the cases against her as "squid tactics" to divert public attention from the Aquino administration's "lackluster performance" in the last year.
Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares on Friday repeated a call for immediate congressional hearings on the supposed cheating in the 2004 and 2007 elections raised by former governor Zaldy Ampatuan, who is standing trial with other family members for the 2009 massacre of 58 people in Maguindanao.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., however, rejected the call and reminded House members that its investigations were meant to aid legislation, "not to prosecute or persecute anyone out of politcal vendetta." With Christine F. Herrera and Florante S. Solmerin
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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