The Unfortunate Realities of the Philippine Military
Disclaimer: The views and opinions of this Author do not reflect the views and opinions of the Institutions with whom he is affiliated.
Earlier this day, it was announced on different news sites that the Secretary of National Defense unilaterally revoked the UP-DND accord, which prohibits the presence of military and police personnel in the University of the Philippines (UP) campuses, except on certain grounds.
This revocation means that the military personnel may now enter UP campuses anytime. This alarmed several people within and outside the UP System as this might be abused to curtail the free speech of students considering that UP students and personnel are strong critics of this Administration.
For obvious reasons, this is another stunt by the Duterte Administration to redirect the attention of the public from the issues surrounding its subpar pandemic response and vaccine procurement plan.
Unfortunately, this stunt once again demonized the brave men and women who are just following orders of their superiors. The Duterte Administration dragged the military into an unnecessary situation.
Now that the topic of military is dragged at this point, there is no better way to criticize this administration on the basis of how it treats the military.
As a context, prior to writing this piece, I watched two documentaries regarding the military personnel station in the Mavulis Island (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50clDQGl4g) and the stories of World War II veterans (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilU1llp_fFo). Those documentaries show how two different generations of soldiers perceive our sovereignty and democracy. I felt nothing but gratitude and respect for those men and women who sacrifice their lives and serve our country to protect and defend our sovereignty and democracy. I almost cried when I hear them singing the National Anthem — “sa manlulupig di ka pasisiil.” I remember my step-grandfather’s war stories — how he and his comrades used guerrilla warfare in Bataan to prevent the Japanese from fully invading our Nation. I remember our military surrendering to civilians during the People Power Revolution when the military’s conscience could not take the atrocities of the Marcos Regime anymore.
And then, I see Secretary Delfin Lorenzana who unilaterally revoked the UP-DND accord out of boredom and want for attention. A step that is completely unnecessary. He even reasoned out that the reason why he did so was that the University became a safe haven for rebel communists when he is aware that the University conducts classes online, and no student goes to the campus for class. This move irked a lot of activists, and some of them, unfortunately, called the military names, which is uncalled for. These activists perceived the act of Secretary Lorenzana as the act of the entire military, which unnecessarily and improperly demonized the institution and the men and women who are just serving our country.
I also see the President philandering with China when we also know that our military personnel in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) are harassed. Our troops in the WPS are stationed there for months trying to defend our islands from a foreign adversary, yet their very own commander-in-chief is favoring China. I could not blame our troops if our country cannot do any retaliatory measures against China when our President himself does not want to, and these troops are just following orders.
The soldiers became guinea pigs, as well. The AFP top officials smuggled unaccredited coronavirus vaccines and injected these vaccines to our servicemen and women when these officials know that these vaccines might be dangerous.
I further see the Congress allowing the budget of Php19 Billion for an anti-insurgency fund to fight communists and restore communities when we all know that the regular operations of the AFP includes anti-insurgency and the restoration of communities is within the powers of local government units concerned.
Then, finally, I see Senators urging the increase in the budget of air force after knowing that an air force plane crashed, which killed AFP personnel, due to obsolescence when they could have reallocated the amount for that earlier and could have prevented that tragedy. Because of the tragedy, the families of the AFP personnel that died would receive a monthly pension (which varies on the rank, with a minimum of Php5,000.00) plus the benefit to the dependents of the deceased personnel a month. They will also receive burial expense benefit and scholarship grant to one dependent.
For this Administration to boast about being strong on military and being zealous in investing in our military and then we see those issues, it just appalls me. I cannot accept the fact that our commander-in-chief who uses the military as part of his vanity project also insults our military in the WPS when he obeys China’s desires and does nothing about our islands. He spends billions for this anti-insurgency project, yet he cannot even extend the scope of the veteran pension and benefits and invest in military equipment to dispose the obsolete ones to prevent deaths relating to faulty military equipment.
It is disappointing, so much so that I can imagine my step-grandfather rolling in his grave because the country he defended from the Japanese during WWII is being led by a commander-in-chief who uses the military for his vanity projects and does not really care about the welfare and principles that these men and women uphold.
