By Mortz C. Ortigoza
A police Colonel assigned in Metro Manila called my attention last Saturday that there was a brewing coup rumor in the country as armored personnel carriers were ubiquitous in the police camp.
“Heightened alerts ang dalawang kampo,” he told me through Messenger about the highest level of alert in Camp Crame and the nearby military headquarter's Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
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He cited that this looming putsch ensued after Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff General Bartolome Bacarro was sacked from his post without explanation. Bacarro was replaced by his Philippine Military Academy’s classmate General Andres Centino. The latter was unceremoniously booted out from his office and left in floating status in August 2022 when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. replaced him with Bacarro.
Bacarro was rumored to be a recommendee of disgraced former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez who resigned because of the alleged appointment- for- sale in top government positions.
A broadsheet of the Philippine Star reported that an "unsigned memorandum" from Caraga and Cordillera police offices quoted Philippine National Police Chief Gen. Arnold Azurin ordering all the cops to go on alert status "in view of the resignation of all Department of National Defense personnel at Camp Aguinaldo. All duty personnel are required 100 percent police presence and monitor movements of AFP troops."
Because of this brouhaha, Department of National Defense officer-in-charge Jose Faustino Jr. - a former General - resigned from his post. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. appointed to the DND Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez.
Bacarro's appointment was a slap on the face of Centino because of Republic Act No. 11709 passed by Congress and approved during the administration of Marcos’ predecessor President Rodrigo Duterte. The law sets a fixed term of three years for eight of the most senior AFP officers, including the chief of staff and the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Navy.
The turned over ceremony of the top brass of the AFP was deprived of pomp and pageantry of the traditional changed of command ceremony where a band and colors lead by cadets of the PMA and military where the President of the Philippines and the Defense Secretary as guest of honors at the grandstand in Camp Aguinaldo.
Centino’s reappointment – a first in the annals of the AFP – was graced by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who presided over the ceremony, and Special Assistant to the President Anton Lagdameo Jr. It was held in the Tejeros Hall of the AFP Commissioned Officers Club House.
“Therefore, to implement this law, the [AFP] needs strong and determined leaders capable of steering the organization in the direction of stabilizing unity, and ushering in a truly modern and professional Armed Forces,” excerpt of the speech Centino’s cited.
“Both unprecedented and a welcome development, justice is done to a truly deserving officer by a President who is willing to rectify an error when it is the right thing to do,” he added on the mistake committed by President Marcos on the statute.
Journalists were not even invited to the ceremony of the 144, 000 strong military.
My Colonel-source even told me that there is restlessness among the almost 1,000 police generals and colonels after Secretary Benhur Abalos called for their mass resignation.
This was due to the deteriorating narcotics problem in the country where the law enforcers were involved.
In October last year, Police Master Sgt. Rodolfo Mayo Jr. was arrested in Tondo, Manila and found to have amassed 990 kilos of shabu (meth) worth P6.7 billion he kept in the lending company office’s Wealth and Personal Development Lending Inc. in Sta. Cruz, Manila . The arrest led the police to investigate a general - who remained anonymous as of press time - who was the patron of Mayo.
In December 6 last year, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency’s Southern District Office Chief Enrique Lucero, agents Anthony Vic Alabastro and Jaireh Llaguno, and driver Mark Warren Mallo were arrested by police in a buy bust operation selling P9.18 million worth of shabu inside their office in Bonifacio Street in Barangay Upper Bicutan, Taguig
During the administration of Duterte – whose gauntlet hand approach to narcos saw the death of 7,742 civilians (ACLED) – the appalling involvement of law enforcers like that of Sergeant Mayo and PDEA Chief Lucero et al. were unheard of.
These malefactors trembled to the take-no-prisoner approach of the Davao City’s Dirty Harry while they are not deterred to the present occupant of Malacanang.
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