THIS administration is engaging again in doublespeak, muddling the flow of information from those in power to those being ruled.
We refer to the latest political question to confront us right after the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections — is there really a destabilization plot against President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.? While the query may be answered with just a simple “yes” or “no” from the military establishment itself which is the source of the rumor, those who are in the position to answer are equivocating.
Media reports said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) clarified on Saturday that there is no confirmed destabilization plot. The clarification came from AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar who said AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. was “misquoted” in reports claiming he revealed a destabilization plot hatched by a group of retired military officers, during the change of command ceremony at the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) on Friday.
‘Brawner should follow through these strong words with action.’
Aguilar’s official statement which was released last Saturday reads: “General Romeo S. Brawner Jr., the Chief of Staff, AFP, was simply misquoted. He (Brawner) merely mentioned the reported efforts by certain individuals to upset the peace and stability that the country is enjoying right now under the leadership of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.”
It is hard to imagine that the nation’s top soldier, the AFP chief of staff no less, would be misquoted on a topic as sensitive and touchy as a destabilization plot, which can only come from groups in the military because they have control of weapons to flesh out any plan for a political misadventure.
Also, General Brawner could not have been misquoted because he talked about the topic in a formal speech — recorded in sound and video — before military officials and soldiers in Mindanao. During Brawner’s speech at the Westmincom on Nov. 3, he warned active AFP personnel against joining movements led by retired officials.
“Many were saying to change the President because of many reasons, some are saying there will be coup d’état again,” Brawner said in Filipino on Friday. “And sadly, some of them were former officers of the AFP and I talked to some of them. I said to them, ‘Sir, you have the right to do that because we are in a democracy but please do not involve the active personnel of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.’”
We understand that the spokesman of the Armed Forces was just doing his job of trying to calm the nerves of the public, by playing down any destabilization news or rumor. But he need not tell a lie and say that his boss was misquoted, because the fact that Brawner had to talk with retired military officers on the matter points to the likelihood that the stirrings of government destabilization are present.
The AFP chief was a bit soft when he told the retired generals that it was their right to advocate for change because we are a democracy. But he showed firmness and leadership when he warned, “Once we find out that any of our active personnel are involved in this, we will act swiftly.”
Brawner should follow through these strong words with action. This is the time to use those millions of pesos of intelligence funds to ascertain how serious the destabilization threat is against the President, and nip it in the bud right away.