(Ret.) Brig. General Lim

turn a blind eye on corruption or that he should walk, talk and act like the elite and the trapos, then I humbly offer that he should remain an ordinary man doing extraordinary things.

As a soldier I have seen many of my kind put forward the same pretense—“we are no longer ordinary men.” Yet, these so-called extraordinary men did the foulest things that only lowlifes can do. Together with an illegitimate president, they robbed the nation’s coffers, sabotaged our electoral process, bastardized the cherished principles and values of the uniformed service and even enforced fake consent from the people through coercion and intimidation. Yes. They were no longer ordinary men; they have become extraordinary scoundrels and criminals that tyrannized ordinary people.

Ronald Llamas vehemently opposed these people and their acts. It is an advocacy I share with him and the same crusade that eventually led to the crossing of our paths. I vividly remember during the height of the people’s campaign to remove Arroyo in 2006, it was Ronald and his group that first heeded the call of the patriotic soldiers to march in the streets together with the masses. We paid dearly for that political action. The mammoth mobilization was violently dispersed and Ronald was arbitrarily arrested together with UP Professor Randy David. I, on the other hand was incarcerated for four years. Nonetheless, we have no regrets. We kept our heads high and our principles intact. That is the price one pays for dreaming a better future— something which is slowly turning into a reality with the arrest and detention of Arroyo and her ilk for high crimes against the people.

With all of these, it is not a surprise at all why the trivial DVD issue is in the same stage together with the impeachment trial of the chief justice accused of accumulating millions of ill- gotten