PALACE DISMISSES OUST-AQUINO CALLS; AN 'ISOLATED' CASE
PHOTO - Colonel Generoso Mariano was removed as deputy chief of the Naval Reserve Command on Friday put under investigation over a video in which he called for President Benigno Aquino's overthrow, the military said yesterday. STORY BELOW]
MANILA, JULY 19, 2011 (MANILA TIMES) BY WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL REPORTER -
PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino's office on Sunday brushed off a call by a Navy colonel for his overthrow, saying that the officer was not backed by anyone else in the 120,000-strong Armed Forces.
The video appeal by Generoso Mariano was an "isolated" case, said Malacañang deputy spokesman Abigail Valte as she hinted the political opposition was behind the footage.
"We are not alarmed. The [military] leadership had said that these are only his own sentiments, not the sentiments of the others," Valte said during an interview aired on government radio.
"There are no others that share his views or his opinion [on] his call even to replace [President Aquino.] We are confident that the soldiers know that they are here to uphold the Constitution . . . and not to engage in politics," she added.
Valte said that Mariano seemed to be "saying the same thing" as the political opposition and joked that he could work for them openly after his retirement from the military.
Mariano, who called for the "replacement" of the Aquino government, made his sentiments known after he was cleared for retirement to ensure that his benefits would be intact.
According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman, Commodore Juan Miguel Rodriguez, who considers Mariano a "friend," the renegade officer on Sunday turned 56, the mandatory retirement age for military officers and enlisted personnel.
"Actually he [Mariano] is inviting me for coffee at his office but I'm still out of town," Rodriguez said.
A video of Mariano went viral on the Internet on Friday as he called for change, saying that soldiers also felt the sufferings of the people brought about by continuous rise in prices of basic commodities such as food and medicines while the government remained helpless to save the people from hunger and death.
In the video that was also released to the media, Mariano stressed that it is the duty of soldiers to defend the people and if the Aquino government has no intention or no means of saving the lives of the majority of the people, "it is the right of every Filipino, including soldiers to replace the government, I repeat replace the government."
With his retirement, Mariano was deemed promoted to the next higher rank and would receive benefits corresponding to that rank.
In the military, it is customary for a retiring officer to seek clearances and arrange all documents one year or at least six months prior to actual retirement.
Mariano may have recorded his video when he was already set to officially bow out of service.
But Rodriguez explained that Mariano's retirement would not affect ongoing investigation because it "is not something that can cleanse any wrongdoing."
On the issue of whether his benefits should be put on hold, the military spokesman said it would depend on the recommendation of the Navy special investigating team.
Rodriguez added that the Armed Forces remains united and everybody is focused on a single "matuwid na landas [right path]," adding that soldiers now are more professional and that they had learned from the bitter lessons of past uprisings.
"We have learned so many lessons from the past. We cannot let this happen or else we cannot move forward. So everybody understands that now," he said.
Rodriguez added that the military remained puzzled as to the motives of Mariano, who was ordered sacked from his post as deputy commander of the Naval Reserve Command and placed under investigation by his mother unit, the Philippine Navy.
He appealed to the public and the media to stop speculating on the motives of Mariano and to just wait for results of the ongoing investigation.
The AFP spokesman said that there was no need for a "loyalty check" among different branches of the military, adding that it was unnecessary and out of tune with realities at present.
Rodriguez clarified that as directed by AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr., the embattled colonel was not detained but only "restricted to his residence."
He described Mariano's statements as "political," which is not the province of the military.
Soldiers' constitutional mandate, Mariano said, is "protecting the people to ensure that territory, our territory, and to uphold the sovereignty of our state."
"Here at the general headquarters, for Chief of Staff Gen. Oban, we will just wait for the results of the investigation so we can also be fair to Col. Mariano, who is also a colleague," Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, military officers and soldiers in Mindanao were silent on the call of Mariano for the President's ouster.
Security officials and their spokesmen did not give any statement about the demand made by the embattled Marine colonel.
The Western Mindanao Command in Zamboanga City and Eastern Mindanao Command in Davao City were quiet about the accusations against Mr. Aquino. WITH REPORTS FROM AL JACINTO AND AFP
FROM ASIA-ONE ONLINE
Colonel calls for Aquino's ouster AFP Sun, Jul 17, 2011
A COLONEL in the Philippine navy has been stripped of his post and put under investigation over a video in which he called for President Benigno Aquino's overthrow, the military said yesterday.
Colonel Generoso Mariano was removed as deputy chief of the Naval Reserve Command on Friday and investigated for possible sedition and unbecoming conduct, navy spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Omar Tonsay said.
"The tape showed him speaking out against the government," Tonsay told AFP, adding the footage appeared to show Mariano laying out scenarios when a president's removal could be justified.
Tonsay said the tape, copies of which began circulating on social networking sites on the Internet on Saturday, had been viewed by some military units. One copy was anonymously delivered at the gate of navy headquarters.
However, he stressed that the president's ouster had no support in the 120,000-strong armed forces.
Mariano, who is set to retire Sunday when he turns 56, must stay in his navy quarters until the investigation is completed, Tonsay added.
"The possible offences are conduct unbecoming of an officer and sedition," he said. "Sedition is a grave offence."
A video said to be of the footage and making the rounds on Facebook showed a bespectacled middle-aged man wearing a blue shirt with an indistinct but military-style crest speaking to a microphone while seated behind a table.
"It is the duty, it is the right of every Filipino including soldiers to replace the government. I repeat, replace the government," the man says in the 95-second tape, which was dated July 3, 2011.
The shared videos on Facebook come from the account of a group calling itself the "Oust Noynoy Movement! ". Noynoy is Aquino's nickname. The Philippine military has been wracked by periods of unrest since a military-backed bloodless "people power" uprising toppled the 20-year rule of strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Two of the five presidents that followed him survived a series of military coups.
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