Military discipline gone haywire
IN the military world, it is called “discipline.” But in the civilian realm that can also be seen as “stubbornness.” And that is how it got former Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon a bland space and a cold bed at the Pasay City jail last Tuesday, January 30.
It all started, as many of us civilians know, during the Senate hearing on the surreptitious release of tons of kilos of shabu worth, PDEA officials claimed, more than 11 billion. The testimonies of Faeldon, along with his deputies at the “Aduana,” were just as hazy as the interior of a Valenzuela City warehouse where the illegal drugs were found.
Subsequent hearings were even messier. Faeldon showed his disciplinary upbringing in a military school by being taciturn. He refused to answer questions from the senators. And what got worse for him was that he avoided his “warm body” from being seen in the subsequent investigation days.
Faeldon’s handlers may call his disappearance from the Senate Plenary Hall, “May sariling prinsipyo siya,” but to Senate Blue Ribbon Chairman Sen. Dick Gordon that was an insult to the Upper Chamber and its members.
To many fence-sitters, it was plain stubbornness. But to the Olongapo City lawmaker, it was disrespect of the proceedings and plain disobedience of a lawful order. More than enough reason for Senator Dick to bang the gavel that sent Faeldon to the custody of the Senate sergeant-at-arms.
“Don’t allow him to get out of those quarters at the basement,” Gordon hollered. And it was “home” for the former AFP lieutenant colonel for a few months, until last Tuesday when he was ushered in to the F.B. Harrison Street jail.
But those of us who are grizzled public opinion observers, every now and then, experience some sort of sudden twist in the molding of public opinion. This can be it – a change of fate of sort in favor of Faeldon. In what way?
If Faeldon has thousands of admirers in and around the bureaucracy, it is because of his apparent resoluteness – a firm stand that is enhanced by a formidable image. It is a trait that many are looking for among the most outstanding civilian career officials in government. It is euphemistically called “political will.”
It is even seemingly absent from the character of the recent crop of retired military officers who have been appointed to civilian jobs by President Duterte.
Unmistakably, among the majority of regular gallery audiences, Faeldon is rated high, if only to end the “monologueing” of Senator Gordon during those hearings.
Many of those sympathetic to Faeldon would openly call Senator Gordon “and his nasty habit of grandstanding the proceedings.” And hogging the procedure of the probe to the point of obscuring the presence of other senators, even making them virtual non-entities.
The so-called militarization of our civil government started with the emergence of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement, or RAM, in 1986. It propelled to the limelight its participation in ousting President Marcos and forcing him to his Hawaiian exile.
Of course, the young junior officers – Honasan, Robles, Kapunan, Legaspi – took credit much as the same way as they installed President Cory. And streamlining her administration and bureaucratic service.
But it did not take long for the RAM aura to fade. It was implicated in several attempts to unseat the then popular President Cory and prop up someone else. Then public opinion took a sharp turn on the “renegade” junior officers, from the cheering to the jeering!
For a time, they were incarcerated on a ship converted as a floating jail anchored off the coast of Manila Bay. They escaped and later on pardoned. Much like a Hollywood adventure movie.
The RAM boys decided to join the electoral process. Sadly, it was only Honasan who triumphed and the rest were contented giving endless live TV interviews. When their audience ratings were starting to spiral, the remnants of the group disappeared into oblivion.
Then came 2002 and out bubbled a new brand of military adventurists – the Magdalo. Fully armed battalions of Infantrymen and re-enforced by Scout Rangers. At first they took over Makati’s financial sector, mainly the Oakwood Tower and skipped into the nearby Peninsula Hotel.
New young military officers emerged: Trillanes (he was the only one who ran for public office and won) Gambala, Melstrecampo, Faeldon. They denounced corrupt military generals in Mindanao who were living a lavish life-style, while foot soldiers were wearing combat boots with holes and missing soles.
Next?