A PROPOSAL: TRANSFORMATION THROUGH MILITARY AND CHURCH PARTNERSHIP
I. THE MOVERS FOR CHANGE
Who are WE who have identified ourselves as movers for change and transformation? We should know who we are, what makes us distinct. Then we can also identify our friends and allies and discern those whom we can work with. Is it enough that we are anti-Gloria Arroyo? Are we the same as any of those who have come forward to criticize or castigate this present administration?
No we are not. We are not simply against Gloria Arroyo. Yes, we want her out, we are convinced we have to oust her because she is an illegitimate commander in chief, she is a corrupt president and an immoral leader. She does not care a whit for the welfare of any of us Filipinos. She only wants to maintain herself in power to continue enabling herself, her family and cohorts to rape our national coffers and rip the moral fiber of our society. She rides roughshod on our collective intelligence and our time honored values, crushing whatever worthy traditions we have built with recklessness and impunity because what matters basically to her is the satisfaction of her loins, the filling up of her pockets and dragging down the whole Filipino people with her. She is evil and has built over the years a culture of evil not only in Malacanang but all over our land.
But beyond the filth and the vile, the demons and viciousness that Gloria Arroyo is, we are also agreed that we have to remove the present system which has crumbled and no longer responds to the needs of our people.
We are equally determined that in its place we must transform the current governance into a revolutionary government led by a core of nationalist military, church people and civilians who will on the short term directlly address the resolution of the widespread hunger and poverty we all are desperately experiencing at the moment, and undertake a thorough and unequivocal cleansing to eradicate the pervasive immorality around us and uproot the deepening corruption that has gradually enveloped and seeped through our very way of life. To accomplish this we have opened our options to whatever it will take to bring this about. Underlying our choice is the basic concept that sovereignty resides in the people and emanates from them.
And on the long term we are aware that unless we strike at the core of what keeps us a poor country, we will not see the dawn of a new nation in our land. While we do not have the intention to address this basic problem now, we must keep at the back of our minds the reality that the rich of this world, the so called financial oligarchs of our global economic system do not want us to prosper because this will infringe on their tremendous wealth. Thus they want to keep us perpetually poor and undeveloped through their counterparts in our society, the well entrenched elite and the powerful traditional politicians in our midst.
The ongoing collapse of the
financial system we are witnessing all over the world is the handiwork of these
so called global financial lords. It may
lead us into a new dark age unless someone or some group as powerful and
influential as they are stop them. We
are told that the recent and ongoing
As we face our immediate future we
have to brace ourselves as a people to withstand the pressure not to
industrialize. But
This is our identity. We are the nationalist Filipinos both military and civilian who are committed to work for all the above. If we shall struggle for a mere change in leadership we are only interested in gaining power for ourselves to what others call, a mere change of court. The same dog with a different collar. But our distinguishing mark is our dedication and commitment to change the present leadership and system so that we can respond more humanely and effectively to the crying needs of our people. It is their ultimate welfare that we genuinely want to promote, and the salvation of our country from chaos, dismemberment or disintegration. We are the genuine Third Force and we hope to pave the way to a bright and prosperous future for our generation and for generations of Filipinos to come.
But how do we accomplish all of the above under a present set up that is growing more fascist and oppresive by the day? How can we move on if many of us are hesitant to work more openly for what we believe in. Precisely Gloria has stayed on and on because many Filipinos are terrified to be openly counted as among those willing to oust her. One is tempted to ask: where has all the courage of the Filipinos gone? The genuine opposition is headless because those of us who can be leaders hide our heads and bury our convictions and principles in the sand to remain safe and invulnerable.
We who are here have tried to be different though we have not been reckless to rush headlong into prison for sedition. We have tried to be counted for our principles and convictions. We are the Third Force. And our task today is to start campaigning and persuading our relatives and friends, colleagues and comrades and all those who care to listen, that the time for transformation is now! And our most urgent task is to spread the idea, the influence and inevitability of the Third Force.
II. THE AGENTS OF THE
STATUS QUO
Before we can achieve the above objectives which alone can save our nation, we have to know who are preventing us from achieving those goals we have. There are influential personalities and or groups who will do everything to stop us. We must be wise and smart enough to identify them – the agents of the status quo or those who have obstructed us and will continue to obstruct us. Only then shall we know how to stop them.
Evidently we have Gloria Arroyo and her minions who have bribed or seduced witnesses or whistleblowers with money, hounded their oppositors with harassments including libel and sedition/rebellion or banished them with extra judicial killings, and imposed on the general public, majority of whom want her out of Malacanang, an unseen but felt martial law which has included EO 464, CPR, Proclamation 1071 etc. At the moment Gloria’s demons are paving the way for life beyond 2010 and for a graceful exit through Bert Gonzales and Archie Integan in 2012 who have been in cahoots with the killing machines of Gloria namely Palparan, Mendoza, Berroya, etc. and have gone the rounds of the AFP to gather to their circle the young officers now or when they are promoted as lieutenants or captains. Since she can no longer dismount the tiger this can best be done by charter change through the lifting of term limits with a congress where she has the numbers aided by her lackey Prospero Nograles or through a parliamentary/federal option with the Senate in cooperation.
Closely allied with her in implementing charter change is FVR who still fondles the desire to go back to power. By January 2009 his boys expect they will be submitting to the Filipino people the ratification of the proposed parliamentary system where FVR believes he will either be a strong president or prime minister in tandem with Gloria Arroyo. Statements from his trusted allies reveal that FVR’s throwing the monkey wrench on the July 8, 2006 Hyatt 10 Event was to stop Noli de Castro from taking over considering that he would have had no part in a De Castro Government immediately or long after. On hindsight the Club Filipino-Malolos Congress fiasco was deliberately done by him and his boys to fail so as to demoralize the efforts to get Gloria out through civilian and military moves. Indeed there are many among us or among the anti-Gloria crowd who have lost belief in any joint civilian - military effort and in the propaganda that there is no hope in our military because of the repercussions of that planned and planted fiasco.
On the same side of the spectrum as
a strangebedfellow of FVR is another big personality
with supposed millions of paid followers and who cannot give up the idea that
he can still be king because his term was cut short. This is Estrada who in the 2004 presidential
elections deliberately foiled the attempt to have FPJ and Ping Lacson join forces to prevent their win against Gloria
Arroyo in exchange for his son’s senatorial proclamation. This is the same Estrada who also thwarted
the march to Malacanang of the hundreds of thousands
of FPJ mourners and sympathizers by leaving the wake very early despite the
furlough given him after he was warned by Larry Mendoza not to pursue the
people’s plan to oust Gloria otherwise he would not be able to leave for Hongkong. Again in
2007 over and against the advise of many of those who
were close to him, he consented to the pardon of Gloria thereby making him
acknowledge her legitimacy as president in exchange for his release from
prison. And very recently he has
instructed his boys to obstruct attempts to a takeover by the military as in
the Nov. 29
Lastly we have the extreme left of
the RA group who do not want us to undertake anything and cut short Gloria’s
heinous crimes and regime so they can continue building their base in the mass
movement. This was so with the rallies
on February 29 with more than 80,000 in
There are other groups either political or election oriented, ideological or cause oriented, para-military or retired military, personality oriented or religious oriented but they have tie ups with either of the four groups mentioned above. The others are independents like us, advocates of the Third Force and we believe we can draw them towards us whose main agenda is the welfare of our country and the Filipino people.
It is necessary to know all of the above so that as we move on from here we will know who are with us and against us and they can not use our naivete against us. In the past they have used our efforts towards open alliances to create a broader front in the anti Gloria campaign as opportunities to penetrate our ranks and subvert our goals. They are wary of a change that does not rely on traditional politicians and a transformation that will include cleansing. We are not iconoclasts but rather, we want to prevent them from isolating or destroying us. Those who obstruct us should not gain from our information, our skills and resources because whenever we allow them to take advantage of us, our moves forward become retreats that become political debacles that will delay our moves, if not outright guillotines that could chop our heads politically and even literally. It is for this reason that we have been very careful and that it has taken us time to clinch our objectives.
As we look at the agents of the status quo or the obstructionists to our people’s cause, we see that it is personal interest that moves them. On the other hand we are here because we can no longer allow them to continue sacrificing us and our people before the altar of their vested interests. It is also for this reason that the base of the efforts of the Third Force towards change or transformation are the soldiers and our church people, even if the hierarchical leadership in our country appear to be retreating from its social justice apostolate.
III. THE PRINCIPAL
ACTORS
The Third Force believes that people power cannot effect the transformation we want. It is our military, the patriotic and nationalist among them, who will have to deliberately intervene and stop the state machineries from using its awesome powers to continue to oppress and suppress our people. Only then can liberation come to our people. This kind of military has expressed their respect and trust for our church people and their willingness to undertake transformation with the latter.
The question that begs to be answered however is: Does the Third Force military have the capacity to undertake such a serious mission? Perhaps it will help to look briefly into some of the nodal points of the recent past and see how they fared.
Dates Presumptive Events Or Performance Analysis
Leaders(Mil) Issues
July 2003 Greg H. Oakwood Magdalo gave Failed mutiny but showed
Mutiny up/Greg left. crack in the military est.
Dec 2004 Montano & FPJ burial Huge crowd Erap capitulated to Mal.
FVR boys/ & March to but Erap did Sabotage by FVR boys
TF begins Mal not gv signal Whole mil est. ready to
& left early side with critical mass
Feb 24’06 Danny Lim Withdrawl DL arrested DL under rated Senga
Of support by Senga Crack in top mil hierarchy
Feb 26’06 Ariel Q. Marine Marines Disagreemt on main leader
Boy Miranda standoff wdrew fr AQ-Erap, DL-PL so BM
Confrontation kept issue internl 2 marines
Whole marine corps ready
to fight chain of command
Nov29’07 Danny Lim Mla Pen Trillanes/DL Erap intervened/mil wdrew
Trillanes surrendered mil attack force friendly
TF ready TO w/o surrender
Feb29’08 TF Ayala Mkti 80,000 present Affair controlled by Erap
Crowd presence & RA/ TF ready for TO
not maximized but no coordination w org
Mar14/08 TF Liw. Bon. Last big rally Controlld by RA/TO abort
After JL expose disagreemnt w orgs
To sum up, our analysis of actual events show that the initial crack within the military that needed known military leaders to lead them has blossomed into a clear force from within that is ready to TO and break from the chain of command. The capitulation of Greg Honasan, the capture and incarceration of Danny Lim et. al. have forced the patriotic and nationalist military to close ranks from within and create their own active force. This is a very significant development which indicates that whereas before the whole military establishment was for the status quo, followed by a sporadic restlessness from within, there is now inside the military a clear Third Force for the people, determined to act at the opportune time.
The factors that prevented them from successfully effecting the transformation were 1) personalities with their own private/selfish agenda 2) sabotage or obstruction by the agents of the status quo . That is why it has been quite important to establish who are part of the status quo. They have to be sidelined to enable us to move on.
There were also a few instances when cooperation from some of the civilian personalities who became the focus of the nation through media could have facilitated the TO. This happened at the time of the election of Sen. Trillanes. The TF-Mil had suggested to him that instead of focusing on his proclamation, that he do away with it and instead announce his withdrawl of support and they would have all followed him. But he did not, he pursued his Senate dream instead which however eluded him. Had he followed them, Gloria would have been gone by now and Trillanes the leader of the Interim Government and Council. Another time at the height of NBN-ZTE when Jun Lozada was being mobbed, our TF-Mil suggested that together with us he call for a big rally or a smaller prayer rally and the TO would happen. But the powerful personalities behind him did not allow him to.
It has become apparent therefore
that any future endeavor must take into account all of the above. The wide perception that there is no hope in
the military which has frustrated a lot of people including ourselves is not
true and have been perpetrated by the status quo. Part of the government propaganda has been
that there have been many destabilization moves but they all failed because
Gloria’s government is strong and stable.
This is farthest from the truth.
She is still around but a lot weaker and there are land mines all around
her. Thus a look at the above analysis
shows that we have gained ground, a lot of ground. As they say “
IV. HOW TO MAKE THE LEAP FROM PROPOSAL TO REALITY
(10 point program)