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A JUNIOR
military officer, who is one of the 29 core leaders of
the Magdalo Group that staged the Oakwood Mutiny four
years ago, lamented the absence of changes in the
administration including the military, claiming that the
same problems that led the group to rise up in arms
still persists.
Marines
Capt. Nicanor Faeldon said there has really been no
change in the government despite the calls for reforms
that he and his fellow mutineers aired.
“Years
later, it is to my sorrow that no significant changes
have taken place despite our warnings, our concerns and
our acts in Oakwood. The system is as corrupt as ever,
the military is now more politicized than ever before
and the highest executive in the land holds office in
spite of the absence of a clear mandate,” Faeldon said
in a statement issued from his detention cell in Fort
Bonifacio, Taguig City.
Faeldon
issued the statement in time for the fourth anniversary
of the failed mutiny on Friday.
Faeldon
said he was saddened that as wrongdoings by the
administration goes unchecked, soldiers are dying in the
field, recalling the cases of 14 Marines who were killed
in an ambush-encounter in Basilan, 10 of whom have been
beheaded and mutilated by suspected Abu Sayyaf bandits
aided by Moro Islamic Liberation Front fighters.
On July
29, 2003, Faeldon with more than 50 other junior
officers and almost 300 enlisted men went to
Makati City
and occupied the Oakwood Premiere Hotel to denounce what
they claimed were corruption in the government and the
military, among others.
Faeldon’s colleagues, including then-Navy Lt. SG Antonio
Trillanes IV, who is now a senator, and prominent
leaders Capts. Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo and
Lt. Lawrence San Juan have since admitted their
“mistake” before a military court martial that is trying
them and the Marine officer on violation of the Articles
of War.
All,
except for San Juan, who pleaded to the lesser offense of conspiracy to commit mutiny, are
also being tried by the Regional Trial Court in
Makati
City on coup charges.
Gambala
and Maestrecampo have also apologized to Mrs. Arroyo for
turning against her, being their commander in chief.
Faeldon
said that while he has already forgiven Gambala,
Maestrecampo, San Juan and the other officers who have
turned their back on the “Magdalo cause” by pleading
guilty to lesser offenses before the military tribunal,
he chose to fight it out as Mrs. Arroyo’s four years in
office since the Oakwood incident have proven him right.
“I
refuse to bargain with the dubious authorities who
exercise power without conscience and who are
responsible for the ills that I felt compelled to report
to my countrymen. At any rate, an agreement of this
nature would be a tacit ratification or recognition of
presidential powers that lie uneasily in the wrong
hands,” he said. |
