General Danilo Lim Faces Court Martial...What About Angie Reyes?

ABSCBN NEWS has the item on the Court Martial recommendation by Army Commanding General Hermogenes Esperon to AFP Chief of Staff Generoso Senga against General Danilo Lim (West Point, PMA, Brigade commander of the Elite First Scout Ranger Regiment) .

Army spokesman Major Bartolome Bacarro told ANC that Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon has recommended to the Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga that Lim face court martial proceedings for violations of the Articles of War for mutiny. Cases against Lim range from mutiny to failure to stopping a mutiny," Bacarro said, adding that charges against Lim are linked to coup plots against the Arroyo administration uncovered on February 24.

Speaking of Mutiny...

Retired General Romeo Dominguez was the guest on Ricky Carandang's show, The Big Picture this week on ABSCBN News ANC (2100 GMT+8 Thursday evenings in Manila), in which the Big Question is posed: "What's Eating the Philippine Military?" I've considered this question recently in The Citizen-Soldier's Moral Dilemma and had recently been thinking again about General Angelo Reyes and Edsa 2 in When Last the Military Withdrew Support. So I was very pleasantly surprised to hear General Dominguez on television last night characterize the actions of then AFP Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes at Edsa 2 as a plain and simple "Mutiny." -- which 20/20 hindsight and everything that has come to light proves it was! Yet the politically correct won't call a spade a spade. It is still official cant that what Gen. Reyes' "withdrawal of support." But that is definitely what it was. And in fact that is what General Reyes himself called it. The Philippine Commentary post, WHEN LAST THE MILITARY WITHDREW SUPPORT looks at the events of 19 January 2001, when then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes abandoned his Commander-in-chief, Joseph Estrada, broke the Chain of Command (quite utterly) and famously addressed his major service Commanders by saying, "Well Gentlemen, you know we are about to commit Mutiny!" just before repairing to the Edsa Shrine and defecting to the forces calling for the resignation or ouster of the President. Sure enough, on the very next day, Saturday, 20 January 2001, Chief Justice Hilario Davide swore in Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as President, under whom General Reyes would shortly serve as Secretary of National Defense, later Secretary of the Interior and Local Governments, and today Environment Secretary. The final day of Edsa 2 is covered in The Real Coup d'Etat

Now, It is generally conceded that the 2001 REGIME CHANGE could not have happened without the Mutiny of Angelo Reyes, which was pre-arranged in conspiracy with Vice President Arroyo, as told in his own words by the First Gentleman. It is perhaps worthy of note to linguistically sensitive sociologists like Prof. Randy David that General Reyes' actions in the 2001 "people power" event are euphemistically referred to even today, as a "withdrawal of support," which made Dominguez's candor refreshing. But such lexical political correctness cannot save the Military from the moral dilemma that has been created by the 2001 Mutiny of General Angelo Reyes. I would submit that Mutiny itsel has been made morally or ethically ambiguous and indeterminate. Insanely, people blithely accept that Mutiny is a legitimate course of action if it succeeds, whereupon it gets to be called "withdrawal of support." Because Angelo Reyes 2001 Mutiny is no longer considered as such, the breaking of the Chain of Command for some perceived higher moral purpose--the righteous mutiny-- has been made a legitimate moral or ethical option--just make sure you succeed in grabbing political power!

What General Angelo Reyes did in 2001 was purely and completely a Mutiny that led to the next day's successful "civilian-military-judicial" coup d'etat. That Mutiny has gone unpunished and given moral legitimacy by being called a withdrawal of support.

Angelo Reyes' Mutiny IS a fait accompli...a CONTINUING CRIME if you will...I wonder WHAT CRIME exactly will be alleged against DANILO LIM in his Court Martial?