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Chinese geomancers forecast that the coming Year of the Rat would be
particularly propitious for people born under the Oriental zodiac
sign of the Dragon. Born on February 9, 1952, Gen. Hermogenes
Esperon Jr. is one of them—and the winds of fortune are blowing in
his direction even before the Chinese New Year actually starts.
Over the weekend President Arroyo gifted Esperon
with an early birthday present when she announced her decision
extending the tour of duty of the controversial Chief of Staff of
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (CSAFP).
This corner has aired its misgivings over a term
extension for Esperon—echoing the fears of many that it would
demoralize many officers whose career advancement would have to be
put on hold. Still, there is no denying the President’s
prerogative to order such an extension. If she sees no other officer
who could be better than Esperon as CSAFP, so be it.
Of the seven generals who have thus far served
as CSAFP under Mrs. Arroyo, the terms of three were similarly
extended: Roy Cimatu, Benjamin Defensor and Efren Abu. Each of these
“extendees” became the subject of widespread denunciation.
Esperon can only expect to be similarly slammed.
What could muffle the howls of disapproval is
the President’s promise that Esperon would only serve three more
months and that Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, the Philippine Army chief,
would be appointed CSAFP in May.
Still, as the old saying goes, “There is many
a slip betwixt cup and lip.”
Dismissing yarns of fresh destabilization, which
some of her advisers floated to justify Esperon’s extended tour,
the President said she wanted the general to press ahead with the
military’s counterinsurgency drive.
In media interviews, Esperon has claimed credit
for reducing the armed strength of the communist-led New People’s
Army to about 5,000 last year. He said the military needs to keep up
the pressure on the NPA so that the Maoist insurgency could be
reduced to “inconsequence” ahead of the Arroyo
administration’s self-imposed 2010 deadline.
Of course, the media accounts on the
counterinsurgency gains do not highlight enough the fact that the
brunt of the fighting was done—and still being done—by the Army
under Yano.
Command continuity
Sustaining the drive against, not just the NPA,
but also the other rebel movements requires continuity of military
leadership. Unfortunately, requiring generals and other officers to
leave the service when they reach age 56 prevents such continuity.
And when their tours are extended for any length of time, the
decision immediately comes under suspicion—often with good reason.
Moreover, the current rule obliges generals to
curry political patronage. Ever since the Philippines became a
republic, chief executives have wielded the power to appoint
military chiefs as well as the prerogative to extend their tours for
their own partisan purposes.
A bill seeking to establish a fixed term for the
CSAFP has been pending in Congress for some time now. The measure
will not stop the chief executive from picking a favorite officer as
military chief—but once appointed, a fixed-term CSAFP would be
insulated from political pressure.
Unfortunately, even anti-administration
lawmakers have shown little enthusiasm for passing this bill. The
opposition’s presidential hopefuls, in particular, evidently want
to have the same advantage over the AFP that the incumbent Chief
Executive enjoys.
In which case, the goal of truly
professionalizing the military will remain out of reach.
Breakthrough novel
A book written by California-based Filipino
author, Enrico Antiporda, was named a semifinalist in the Penguin
Books/Amazon.com American Breakthrough Novel Award.
Of Antiporda’s novel, TITLE MUST BE ITALICS A
Light in the Cane Fields, the independent Publishers Weekly said:
“This coming-of-age story chronicling a
Filipino boy’s wrenching passage from son of privilege to
guerrilla fighter is a stylistic tour-de-force. From its first
lines, the saga of Jando Flores seizes readers with the same
chilling intensity as the cold water that wraps around Jando’s
chest as he hides in a river to escape a gang of pillaging
cutthroats.
“While such murderous militias dispossess cane
farmers in the Central Plains of the Philippines, the NPA [a brutal
leftist insurgency] combats the government troops of Ferdinand
Marcos and the ruthless sugar barons who steal the poor farmers’
land.
“Jando, whose family owns a plantation, is
forced into the NPA, but he remains a sensitive soul, brimming with
empathy for his fellow countrymen—even as he watches others, like
his beloved uncle, morph into fierce, sadistic killers.
“Incandescent descriptions radiate from the
pages of this book. When a wounded Jando wakes, after narrowly
escaping a death squad, he sees ‘marmalade light slicing through
the fronds, weaving orange and black tiger stripes.’
“Mountain bandits, sugar warlords, Peace Corps
volunteers, dignitaries, and revolutionaries all jostle beneath
‘mango-colored’ skies in this riveting epic of loss and
transformation, but it is a masterful and delicate choreography.”
Check out Antiporda’s novel at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00121WDW4.
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