BY NICK SOUDAKOFF
On July 27, 300 junior officers and soldiers occupied the Glorietta complex in the Makati business district in Manila. They demanded the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, her cabinet and all Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) generals. The mutineers surrendered 20 hours later. While the mutiny collapsed quickly, it has had significant political repercussions.
The mutiny occurred after a week of speculation in the Philippines press. On July 25, the government took the precaution of surrounding the presidential palace with tanks and armoured personnel carriers. The following day, some 70 junior officers deserted with their weapons.
General Victor Corpus, head of military intelligence, immediately declared that the desertion was part of a coup attempt by forces loyal to former Philippines president Joseph Estrada. No-one knew where the deserters were hiding.
At 2am on July 27, the Glorietta complex was seized by the mutineers, who rigged bombs throughout the mall and apartments that make up the complex and positioned snipers on the rooftops. They released statements to the press as government troops surrounded their positions.
Throughout the following day, both the rebels and the government held numerous press conferences. Arroyo demanded that the mutineers surrender or face attack, but let two deadlines pass before lifting the ultimatum.
Government behind terrorism
The rebel officers identified themselves as belonging to the "Magdalo Group", a name that refers to General Emilio Aguinaldo's faction within the Katipunan — the armed group that waged a successful national liberation war against the Spanish colonial government in the 1890s. The rebel soldiers sported red armbands showing the white insignia of the Katipunan-Magdalo.
In their public statements, the mutineers demanded better conditions for soldiers, in particular a reduction in the pay differentials between the ranks. They accused the Arroyo government and the AFP leadership of corruption, including selling guns and ammunition to the Abu Sayyaf terrorist gang, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Maoist New Peoples Army (NPA).
They warned that the government was plotting to declare martial law in August, and accused the AFP of carrying out the March 4 and April 3 bombings in Davao City, Mindanao, in an effort to frame the MILF as "terrorists" and attract increased US military funding and support. Those attacks killed 37 people and injured hundreds.
These charges are particularly explosive as the rebels were from the AFP's elite Light Reaction Company, Scout Ranger Regiment and other Army and Philippine Marines units. According to the July 30 Cebu-based Sun.Star, the majority of the mutinous officers have had combat assignments in Mindanao, many being decorated for "gallantry".
'Died for nothing'
Manila has waged a 30-year war in the southern island of Mindanao to crush the struggle by the island's Muslim minority for national self-determination. But while a military solution has been aggressively pursued in Mindanao since 2000, the AFP has had little success in defeating the MILF. The stalemate has prompted increased military aid from the US for the rearming and retraining of the AFP. Its failure to quell the Moro people's struggle has demoralised the AFP's ranks.
"I spent eight years of combat duty in Mindanao", one rebel officer told the July 28 New York Times. "I saw my friends die, but did their deaths have any value? I say they died for nothing."
In an effort to minimise the political damage caused by the soldiers' mutiny and their damaging charges, the government has blamed the mutiny on senator Gregorio Honasan and disgraced former president Estrada. Honasan led a number of coup attempts in the late 1980s against President Cory Aquino. Honasan had declared on July 11 that he intended to run for the presidency in the May 2004 election.
The Arroyo government has repeatedly accused Estrada of trying to destabilise it since he was overthrown in January 2001 in a popular uprising.
During the July 27 siege, interior and local government secretary Joey Lina accused Honasan of being behind the coup, saying that the rebels' "National Recovery Program", which they presented as their platform for change, is the same program as the senator's. The government announced on July 31 that it is planning to charge Honasan with rebellion.
On July 28, the Philippines government arrested Ramon Cardenas, the former deputy executive secretary to Estrada. Cardenas' house is alleged to have been one of the staging areas for the revolt. M-16 rifles, ammunition and armbands used by the mutineers were found there. The government is also claiming to have found a second staging area in a three-story apartment in Mandaluyong City, which belongs to Estrada and his mistress Laarni Enriquez.
To address some of the discontent within the military, Arroyo announced on July 29 that she will push for an extra 5.8 billion pesos (US$120 million) to be allocated in the 2004 budget to increase soldiers' salaries.
The first political casualty for the government was General Corpus, who resigned on July 30. The mutineers had accused him of masterminding the Davao terrorist bombings. He wrote in his resignation letter, as reported in the July 31 Philippines Daily Inquirer: "The current political crisis is far from finished. There is still a deep restiveness in the officers' corps of the AFP... I think it is best for all that I get out of the picture."
Corpus, a 1967 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, raided the academy's armoury in 1970 and defected to the NPA. He surrendered to the government in 1976 and was sentenced to die by firing squad. After the "people power" revolt that toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, he was reinstated in the AFP. He was appointed as head of military intelligence after Estrada was ousted in 2001.
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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