ShareThisMANILA – With his approval and trust ratings diving to its lowest, his continued bashing due to his hardheaded stand assailing the Supreme Court for its ruling on the “unconstitutional” Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the filing of several impeachment complaint against him due to the P144-billion DAP scandal, President Aquino maybe facing destabilization attempts out to remove him from office.
This loomed as rumors on people reportedly planning to mount coup attempts are swirling Metro Manila but this was quickly doused by the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff himself Lt. General Pio Gregorio Catapang.
No less than Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, himself a leader of several military coup attempts, reported alleged recruitment of soldiers in the planned coup attempts.
In talks with officers and soldiers as he moved around the country, Catapang warned his officers and men for attempting any misadventure. The AFP has a history of several coup attempts in the past, foremost of which led to the ouster of then President Ferdinand Marcos.
“We should be reminded that as members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we should remain professional and non-partisan,” Catapang stressed in his visit to the troops.
“The DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Programme) has become a political issue. We should allow the democratic process to take its course and let the judicial, the executive and legislative branches of government deal with this,” he said.
“We should not meddle (but) concentrate on our mission,” Catapang stressed.
Catapang was installed as AFP chief of staff only on July 18 and has until July of next year to lead the military. He he kicked off his tour and meeting with the troops at the Northern Luzon Command, which he used to head and which is based in Tarlac, President Benigno Aquino III’s home province.
“The President, our commander-in-chief, is clear that the DAP was a mechanism created by government precisely to accelerate services to the people. The government felt that it is unconscionable to close its eyes to the problems that can aggravate especially when there is no money made available,” Catapang told the troops at Clark, referring to the Disbursement Acceleration Program, key provisions of which the Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional.
“This is a concern that all officers and soldiers must understand. Recently, the nation has been preoccupied with this issue on DAP … And of coruse, we are also a beneficiary of this DAP,” Catapang said.
AFP public affairs office chief Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala also said there is no attempt to destabilize the military within.
“Presently, there is no monitored destabilization among active members of the AFP, there is no recruitment nor any moves within the active service to do such,” said Zagala.
Sen. Trillanes claimed that some retired ranking officers, with ties to former administration, are planning to destabilize the government.
“As destabilization within the ranks of the AFP, there is none,” Zagala said.
Zagala, however, said that if the retired officials “wishes to speak against the government or conduct rallies that is inherent in our Bill of Rights, and that since they are already retired, we have no control over them.”
“I think that is the liberties that each of our citizen of our country enjoys,” he said.
Zagala stressed that the level of professionalism of the AFP is very high and the morale of all its officers and enlisted personnel excellent.
“I think like any Filipino who wishes to be heard there is nothing wrong as long as they (retired senior officers) don’t instigate on the taking of arms,” he added.