Alliance Update

Sept. 23, 2009



PMA Class ’78 head vs coup, ‘No-el’



LUCENA CITY, Quezon — " Where there is smoke, there is fire"

The Alliance Philippines (AJLPP) learned from news sources that after Malacanang made announced that there will be no martlal law in the Philippines" another ranking AFP general echoed the same statement.

The Alliance express alarm over these statements. The same propaganda pervaded the Philippines before Marcos declared martial law in 1972. President Marcos signed the proclamation 1081 on Sept. 21 and announced martial law on Sept. 23, 1972.

Lieutenant General Roland Detabali, current president of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) “Makatarungan” Class of 1978, defended his class from allegations that its members are plotting to keep President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in power beyond the end of her term in 2010.

Detabali, who is also commander of the military’s Southern Luzon Command, said in a statement issued on Monday that he was supporting former President Fidel Ramos’s call to prevent any move for a so-called Palace coup or a no-election (No-el) scenario.

“We thank him (Ramos) for warning against adventurism in the military, particularly now that the elections are nearing,” the Solcom commander said in a statement sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

However, Detabali, based in the Solcom headquarters in Camp Nakar here, strongly denied the allegation made by Ramos, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, that the PMA Class ’78 has been conspiring to carry out a coup or any military-backed conspiracy to keep Arroyo in power beyond the end of her term on June 30, 2010.

In a speech at the close of the 6th Media Nation conference in Antipolo City on Saturday, Ramos warned military elements who have been contemplating to grab power and preempt the president elections in 2010 that any plot would fail because the PMA Class of 1978, now holding top positions in AFP and the Philippine National Police, did not command the loyalty of the vast majority of men in uniform.

“We are sure that former President Ramos was misquoted because, as a former Chief of Staff, we believe he would not undermine the integrity of the military and the police by insinuating that one, the commanding generals do not command the loyalty of their own soldiers and that two, the soldiers are not loyal to their officers,” the Solcom commander said in the same statement.

Detabali stressed: “Time and again, our soldiers have proven their professionalism, courage, and loyalty to the duly constituted authorities, which include their own officers.”

The AFP general said he held Ramos in high esteem and remembered him as one of the military officers who helped mold the PMA Class ‘78.

“We have seen how he commanded the military and dealt with it during the many coups d'etat against former President Aquino,” Detabali said.

He added: “We thank him for the lessons taught to us as by those tumultuous years; and we assure him that the members of PMA Class 1978 are professionals, and as professionals, we remain loyal to the constitution and to the government.”

Detabali vowed to carry out their constitutional mandates and not be distracted from accomplishing Arroyo’s June 2010 target deadline to make the communists insurgents irrelevant, enforce the law, contribute to peace building and socio-economic development, and always ready for disaster relief and rehabilitation, and environmental protection.

Aside from Detabali, Lieutenant General Delfin Bangit, Army chief, is also a member of the PMA Class 1978.

The class of 1978 is being groomed and positioned by PGMA in the AFP to hold power until 2016.

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