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SAN FRANCISCO—The
man whose exposé on the horrific abuse by US soldiers of
detainees in an Iraqi prison is said to have cost him
his job was once asked to reform the coup-prone
Philippine military, but was not allowed by his
superiors to do so.
In a
rare media interview—he has kept a low profile after his
report on the Abu Ghraib prison conditions—the
Philippine-born Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba revealed that
he was invited to help reform the Philippine military
that tried to topple the Arroyo administration twice.
“The US
ambassador to the Philippines had asked the [US] Defense
Department whether I was available to assist them in the
reforms in the Philippine military. The whole issue was
they are going to utilize me as part of that strategy of
ensuring that there’s structure and integrity in the
system,” he told the BusinessMirror in an exclusive
interview at the sidelines of the preview for Sandaan, a
documentary on the centennial of the Filipino diaspora
to the United States, at the University of San
Francisco.
“But I
was not allowed to go,” he added, recalling that this
took place in 2005, a year after he came out with the
Abu Ghraib report that rocked the Bush administration
and strengthened calls for an end to US presence in
Iraq.
Besides
not having gotten permission to go, Taguba indicated he
did not agree with the circumstances by which he would
be “helping” the Philippine military, stressing it was a
matter that should begin with the Philippine commander
in chief, not an alien government.
He added
he would be willing to help reform the Philippine
military, but as part of a larger group than as an
individual officer.
“I don’t
want to be used like a prop. You don’t request an
outsider to help reform a corrupt system,” he said,
adding that he does not have “the talent to provide that
kind of help for them.”
According to him, only Arroyo can and should institute
reforms in the Philippine military, being the commander
in chief.
“They
have to do that themselves and that direction should
start from the President of the
Philippines, and
not from a foreign government. It’s her nation, it’s her
army. She should put her military leadership to task,”
he ended.
The
ensuing congressional and military investigations after
the Taguba report had resulted in indictments of several
American soldiers and officers.
Taguba,
a son of a former Filipino war veteran who migrated to
Hawaii in his teens, is one of only two Fil-Ams who rose
to the rank of general in the US military. He was tasked
in 2004 to investigate the alleged torture of Iraqi
detainees by American servicemen. A month later he filed
a classified report confirming the “horrible
circumstances” of torture against detainees, including
sodomy committed against both men and women prisoners.
Taguba’s
report confirmed previously leaked pictures of Abu
Ghraib abuses—like that of a male detainee made to wear
women’s panties, of a US soldier intimidating an Arab
prisoner using a dog, and one showing a prison guard
standing on a pyramid of naked detainees—images deemed
not only inhuman but offensive to the Islamic culture.
In
January this year the two-star general was asked to
retire when some US officials got into trouble because
of his report that was leaked to the media.
A year
after his controversial report, Taguba said someone came
to his office to relay the request of the
US
embassy in Manila for his assistance to reorganize the
Philippine military.
At that
time calls for President Arroyo to step down were fresh
following allegations that she tapped the help of an
elections official to steal her way to the presidency in
the 2004 polls. Some military officials were also
accused of taking orders to rig election results for
her.
“Somebody just came to my office and asked if I was
available. I said you have to ask [Defense] Secretary
[Donald] Rumsfeld for that,” Taguba recalls telling the
US embassy emissary.
He added
that the invitation was followed up at the State
Department last year, but it was declined. Rumsfeld, who
was grilled by Congress because of the Abu Ghraib
torture, was said to have been infuriated by Taguba’s
report.
During
their first encounter at a meeting in the Pentagon
before that Congressional hearing, Rumsfeld referred to
him as “that famous General Taguba of the Taguba
report.”
(Jimenez is the Yuchengco Media Fellow at the Center for
the Pacific Rim, University of San Francisco) |
