Former coup plotter to stay as Scout Ranger’s chief

First posted 02:04pm (Mla time) Oct 06, 2005
By Joel Francis Guinto
INQ7.net


BRIGADIER General Danilo Lim will stay on as commander of the elite First Scout Rangers Regiment, the military leadership said Thursday.
Army chief Lieutenant General Hermogenes Esperon said he sees no reason to relieve Lim from his post at this time, contrary to news reports.

"He [Lim] has been performing well as Regiment Commander of one of our premier national maneuver units. He has provided the FSRR the leadership and direction contributing greatly toward the accomplishment of the Army's mission," Esperon said in a statement.

Should Lim be reassigned, Esperon said it would be for his "career development" and he would be given a higher position.

"But that [Lim's reassignment] is not yet in the immediate future," the Army commander added.

Prior to assuming the top post in the Army, Esperon served as chief of the Special Operations Command (Socom), which includes the Scout Rangers.

Reports said Malacañang ordered Lim relieved as it was wary of his record as a former coup plotter and the FSRR’s proximity to Metro Manila.

"I believe in the integrity and loyalty of Brigadier General Danny Lim, contrary to the insinuation or rumor that there is a question in the loyalty of subject officer," Esperon said.

As a young captain, Lim led Scout Ranger troops in joining the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), which staged a bloody coup against former president Corazon Aquino in December 1989.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy Class of

1978, Lim is also the founding chairman of the Young Officers Union (YOU), which later signed a peace pact with the government in October 1995.

The YOU was recently resurrected as the Young Officers Union of the new generation (YOUng). Lim has denied involvement with the group.

Rumors of Lim's relief came amid renewed tension within the Armed Forces over the relief of Brigadier General Francisco Gudani and Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Balutan for testifying before a Senate investigation on polls fraud without Palace consent.

Gudani and Balutan were also ordered charged before a court martial for alleged insubordination.

http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?in...&story_id=52489

===================================================

Removing Lim will demoralize the SR.

Now, that's trouble. :exactly:

Trying to break up the military? Rumours, intrigues, divide and conquer? :bs:

:agree:

They are moving heaven and earth just to demoralize the Scout Rangers. Those who want to cause trouble to country knows the potential of this special outfit.

Hope they won't fell to this trap. I believe they will not. They are not called Special Units for nothing.

:snipemo:

Im against in removing Gen. Danilo Lim as the Regiment Commanders of the Scout Ranger due to the involvement of the junior officer in the mutiny but as the re-assignment is concerned well its time for Gen Lim to lead a bigger Unit. He already proven a lot as a Commander of the Scout Rangers. I want him to be the nest SOCOM chief.

:agree: That's better.

The problem here in the country are RUMORS that has nothing to do with the goodness of the institution. Ganito ba tlga ang prize ng isang democratic country? Media people often goes for a stories which has nothng to do with Gen. Lim's life as a soldier? Why are we tolerating this action of media people? If you will gonna invoke your freedom of the press it should be also followed by responsibility by giving the people with real info. di sensational masyado ang right ups.

Only in the Philippines. Demo-crazy! Rally dito, demo duon. Parang Fiesta. May pag-kain, may pera, may mga artista...lahat gusto maging bida. :bs:

Dito sa Pinas all the news agency's and press all over the world are free to come here but what happened to our local press, most of their stories are more sensationalized. They alwyas used their FREEDOM OF THE PRESS but they should also see their bigger responsibility in delivering a real stories not rumors.

dyan ka naman nagkamali, sa palagay mo masisira ang loob namin? or baka lalong tumibay? tsaka may demoralized ba na ranger? bihira yata yun tol!

I can surmise. :armywink:

But it all starts from there.

Pero it's good that you said that. At least the agitators will have a hard time figuring out what to do next.

So, intelligence report was right after all?

Buti na lang :patrioticpinoy: karamihan sa kanila.

http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=624


February 24, 2006 @ 7:28 am · Posted by Yvonne Chua
Filed under In the News

MALAYA columnist Romeo Y. Lim wrote about then newly promoted Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim in his April 22, 2005 column, heaping praises on the military officer who has "consciously chosen to live a simple life dedicated to serving his country and people." General Lim is under military custody for his supposed role in a destabilization attempt against President Arroyo.

Following is Romeo Lim’s piece (reprinted with Malaya’s permission):

Who is BGen Danilo Lim?

I want to take time out today to write about a man I greatly admire. It may be biased, but I have no apologies. In these times of endless shenanigans perpetuated by people who are supposed to serve our country and people, this man shines as a small candle in a sea of callousness and indifference.

The roots of newly promoted Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim can be traced to Xiamen, China, formerly Amoy. His father married a girl from Bohol but Danny, as he is called by both friends and detractors, was born and raised in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya. He is the youngest of five brothers.

He finished elementary and high school in Solano with flying colors. He was in his first year at UP when he took the entrance exams to the Philippine Military Academy. He topped the exams.

While a plebe, he took the entrance exam to the US Military Academy at West Point, one of the world’s premier military academies. He topped the exams.

After graduation, he returned to the country, took the Scout Ranger Course where he graduated not only No. 1 but also led his team in registering the only encounter of the class during their test mission. He opted to be assigned to Jolo after that. He commanded the forward Recon Unit of the 1st Infantry (Tabak) Division in Sulu where his name became a byword due to his combat exploits. He was wounded twice in combat.

Then AFP chief Gen. Romeo Espino noticed this officer and promptly directed GHQ to transfer then Lt. Lim to his alma mater, PMA, for instructor duty. He stayed for a few years then packed his bags again for the US to take up the Advanced Infantry Course at the Infantry School in Fort Benning, Georgia. He not only topped the course but was also awarded the Distinguished Allied Student Award for that year. When he returned, he joined the First Scout Ranger Regiment as chief of operations.

In 1989, then Capt. Lim led the Makati siege that lasted seven days. The failed coup attempt resulted in his incarceration for two years. He was released during the Ramos administration after the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement between government and the military rebels. He was a member of the RAM-SFP-YOU peace panel in the negotiations.

Moving on with his life, Lim took the Command and General Staff course which he again topped. He ran off with seven of the eight awards given by the school. Only the physical fitness award called the "Tarzan Award" slipped through his fingers and was given to a much younger officer.

He later commanded the 42nd Infantry Battalion where he again made a name for himself for the various combat accomplishments of his unit. He also endeared himself to the Bicolanos in Camarines Sur where his battalion was based.

He then became deputy commander of the First Scout Ranger Regiment and later regiment commander.

BGen. Lim is married with a daughter still in high school. Despite all his achievements and accolades, this soft-spoken and modest officer does not have his own house yet – in direct contrast to his siblings who occupy senior positions in huge corporations (also in direct contrast to some AFP officers we know). He has consciously chosen to live a simple life dedicated to serving his country and people.

In six years, he will be bowing out of the military service.

I take my hat off to this officer and gentleman whose values and principles seem to be dying traits in this mess of an AFP. We need more people like him if we are to even hope to lift our country out the quagmire it is in.

So today, I greet all the other people who are not like BGen. Danilo Lim: Mabuhay ang mga kurakot sa gobyerno ni GMA!

In this regime "good apples "are thrown away for fear of contaminating the "bad" ones and it's typical.

It really is sad when good apples turn bad. When that time comes, there is no choice but to throw them out to prevent them from corrupting the good apples that are still good.

There are no flawless heroes; all are human. Let the good things they have done inspire us all to do something similar in our respective spheres of influence. Let us cherish the achievements of these former good apples -- but let us not forget what they have become. To do so would be to abandon the good apples who remain true to their oath.

He was given a chance to prove his worth, he blew it. He just can't avoid going back his old ways, after saying "he was sorry"... as usual, tao rin lang naman, nagkakamali, paulit-ulit... pero sayang Sir. You could do more from the inside.

Had Gen. Lim not allowed himself to be swayed by today's political quagmire, he could have done much much more for his country by insulating the Army's elite units from demoralization and manipulation.

But despite of this, i still admire the man. My admiration for his character and principles will never weaken.

I know he is a good man. A good man who just can't restrain himself from doing what he believed is right, no matter if it's not the right thing anybody else might think of doing, just to serve or save his country that is besieged by political turmoil and public unrest. He's just a good soldier caught in this perflexed, dirty and foolish game of politics.

I agree with what Adroth has just said, "Let the good things they have done inspire us all to do something similar in our respective spheres of influence. Let us cherish the achievements of these former good apples -- but let us not forget what they have become."

Despite of putting "what he wished our people should do for our country" to something not everyone will agree, we should never forget the good he had done for our country and the sacrifices he had endured just to keep living a principled life.

Gen. Lim will forever hold a distinction of a good soldier that the rest of the men in uniform can emulate or look up to.

His "misjudgement" in fact helped the rest realize that serving our country requires considering what the rest wants to achieve for the country as well.

Just like what Magdalo had earlier realized, .... DAPAT KASAMA NATIN ANG BAYAN SA LAHAT NG ATING HAKBANG.

This bayan is not just the noisy communists and the opposition who flock to the streets just to make it appear as if they are the majority already.

This bayan includes the "silent majority" who are doing their best, doing their share in propelling the economy by continuing their work in the office or factories, and who are trying to solve this problem through peaceful means.

PRE-TAPED VICTORY



EVERYTHING WAS set—a written statement that was issued to select reporters before D-Day, “Proclamation No. 1” of the “new government,” and a videotape showing an Army general with­drawing his support from President Arroyo.

Last February 24, soldiers and their civilian allies were to march on EDSA to demand the ouster of President Arroyo. So confident were they of victory that Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim appeared on a pre-taped video reading a statement about his withdrawal of support from his commander in chief. NEWSBREAK learned that three other officers were with him—except that their faces were not seen. We have it on good authority that at least two Manila-based media organizations received a copy of the video—about a couple of days after February 24.

A print version of the statement was issued to a few reporters days before February 24. A portion of it read: “A crisis of proportions now confronts our nation…chaos and political factionalism remains to be the order of the day, thanks to a President whose legitimacy is denied by a vast majority of our people.” The statement added, “Pursuant therefore to our constitutional duty as the protector of the people and the state, and in response to the calls of our brethren in the armed services, we are hereby declaring our withdrawal of support from [the] illegal regime of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.”

The statement and the video never saw the light of day.

In previous coups, military rebels didn’t think of pre-taped state­ments. To get their message across, they seized TV stations—which is why in nearly all the failed coup attempts against President Cora­zon Aquino, the mutineers’ first targets were the broadcast stations. Previously seized were Channels 9 and 13, GMA-7, and, of course, the government-run station, Channel 4.

Former Navy 1Lt. Robert Lee remembers that bloody day in Au­gust 1987, when the rebel command assigned him to seize Broad­cast City (which hosts Channels 9 and 13). Lee got very specific orders: to bring around four of his men to Broadcast City, meet the “friendly” forces there, secure the area, and wait for a senior officer to read the rebel statement to be broadcast on the two stations.

The senior rebel officer never came so Lee was forced to scrib­ble down a new statement. But they couldn’t broadcast since some equipment was missing. This was solved in no time, and after taking a deep breath, Lee and his men faced the cameras to broadcast the rebels’ demand for good government, etc. Soon enough, government troops swooped down on Broadcast City.

Lee got orders from the rebel command to stand his ground. “But what was the point?” he recalled to NEWSBREAK. The mutineers had been defeated by then. Lee escaped but was captured two years later. He has since left the military.
—Glenda M. Gloria

http://www.newsbreak.com.ph/newsbreak/story.asp?ID=177

Let this serve as a lesson for all of us, fellows and our dear brothers and sisters in the military service.

Let's hear the real pulse of the people, not just the noisy demonstrators, the oppositions and the opportunists, before we make our move.

I think it's unfair to judge Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim based on what the government has said or what was written in the papers, basing on this sources, we may conclude that he is a bungling fool, or what ever names you may want to call him, yet no one has heard his side of the story and i think it's worth hearing. In spite of his past, Danny Lim is one officer respected both by his senior and junior.

I had the opportunity of meeting the guy in '95 after he was pardoned for his role in the '89 coup, he was preparing for "re-integration" in the AFP (though technically he didn't leave the service.)

:agree:

Absolutely ! Whatever the General had said about the can of worms he noticed himself which deserved to be thrown back to the regime is equavalent to the voice of thousands of desenters marching down the street to protest against the same subject as the General was protesting about.

Binura na ng Inquirer pero "hinugot" ko hikhikhikhik -yung link di na gumagana pero "stored" ko:

http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?ind...&story_id=68380

Danilo Lim’s ‘roller-coaster ride’

First posted 07:34am (Mla time) Mar 05, 2006
By Fe B. Zamora
Inquirer



Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the March 5, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer


AS he lay dying in January last year, retired Commodore Domingo Calajate kept asking for Capt. Danilo Lim. When Lim finally showed up at the Cardinal Santos Hospital, the nurses heaved a sigh of relief and ushered him into a room.

“How can I refuse a dying man’s wish?” Lim would tell the Inquirer in May at the Club Filipino, where he was given a testimonial dinner for his promotion as brigadier general, and as chair of the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), which was Calajate’s dying wish.

In his speech, Lim dispelled doubts about possible conflict of interest that may arise from his positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and in RAM, which, despite a peace pact with the government, continues to be linked to destabilization plots. Lim emphasized that under his helm, RAM would become a civic group, even a cooperative for the welfare of retired and active military men.

Calajate’s final request highlighted his trust and confidence in Lim over the more
senior former Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, who co-founded RAM, then known as Reform the Armed Forces Movement, in 1985. Honasan tried to wrest control of RAM by declaring himself chair of the steering committee. But majority of RAM’s some 4,000 membership agreed to honor Calajate’s choice.

Former rebel soldiers from RAM, Young Officers Union and the Soldiers of the Filipino People (SFP) speak highly of Lim’s role in the peace negotiations in 1993, which resulted in amnesty in 1995. Except for those who opted to retire with full benefits, the mutinous troops, including those convicted for the 1987 violent attack on Camp Aguinaldo, were reinstated and given back pay for years spent in the military stockade.

No work no pay

Lim, the defiant Army captain who led the march of fully armed Rangers back to Fort Bonifacio after a failed coup in December 1989, waived his back pay, invoking his personal creed of “no work, no pay.” But he would not impose his belief on others. That was one of the reasons he negotiated the back pay.

Close friends said that was typical Danny, whose military career had been described by his wife, Aloysia Tiongson-Lim, as an exhilarating “roller-coaster ride.”

“Danny’s military career can be described as a roller-coaster ride mainly due to his principles, advocacy and fight for ideals in the military organization and good governance for the country,” she wrote in the class roster.

West Point

A 1978 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and member of the same batch at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Lim’s military career began as platoon leader of the all-Igorot Forward Recon Unit based in Jolo, a unique group organized and led by another controversial officer, then Lt. Ricardo “Dick” Morales.

But Lim’s career took a nosedive when rebel soldiers led by him occupied the Makati commercial district from Dec. 1 to 7, 1989 in an attempt to unseat President Corazon Aquino.

The Scout Rangers occupied Makati after other rebel attempts to seize military installations had failed, including the rebel Marines who rammed Gate 1 of Camp Aguinaldo with a Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), leaving more than a dozen soldiers dead and wounded.

... Ariel Querubin’s escape

Among the ‘cadavers’ was the team leader—then Capt. Ariel Querubin. Querubin was bleeding profusely from wounds in the stomach. A doctor who checked the cadavers for identification, however, noticed a slight twitch on his finger.

Querubin was nursed back to life at the V. Luna Hospital where he would escape months later with the help of the doctor. Years after the incident, Querubin would tell the Inquirer that his getaway vehicle was driven by a businessman.

Wanted

He joined the underground rebel group when the military issued “wanted posters” with rewards for him and three other Marines who were branded “mad bombers and terrorists.” Then AFP chief of staff Gen. Renato de Villa even described Querubin as “psychotic.”

By that time, however, Querubin’s exploits at Gate 1 had already formed part of combat stories that soldiers love to talk about among themselves.

Even his classmates expressed awe at his exploits, but in typical PMA banter. “Whenever we hear rumors of a coup, we always ask, ‘On which side is Ariel?’ We don’t want to be on his side because he would surely survive, and we won’t,” a colonel from PMA Class 1979 said with a laugh.

Truancy

Even at the PMA, Querubin already led a charmed life, according to another classmate. Querubin was originally a member of class 1977, but was “turned back” twice for various infractions of PMA regulations, such as drinking alcohol, breaking curfew and even plain truancy. “But never on academic deficiencies,” Querubin once told the Inquirer.

That Lim and Querubin would find themselves on the same side during the 1989 coup was something that colleagues did not find surprising. But their amnesty and subsequent promotion were resented by officers who fought them during the coup. One officer said promoting Lim would send the wrong signal to younger officers that in the military “one can get away with murder.”

The rebellious past of Querubin was also the subject of discussion by the board that decided to award him the Medal of Valor. A source, who was privy to the discussion, said the issue also hinged on the “wrong signal” that could arise from giving the most prestigious medal to a former rebel.

That they would become “suspects” in fresh plots to unseat a President also did not surprise a police senior superintendent, who is close to both Lim and Querubin.

“They are not corrupt. They are both idealists and they have their own tales of heroism that would inspire soldiers to follow them,” the source, a 1978 PMA graduate who is involved in monitoring suspected coup plotters, told the Inquirer.

Make this for real, not another moro-moro, to finally teach a lesson to these misguided and opportunistic (and future) leeches in the military:

38 AFP officers, 27 men face raps for Feb. 24 coup

full story

Muntik ko nang makalimutang idagdag ito sa ating forum.

Brigadier General Danilo Lim, YOU co-founder..."rebolusyunaryong ranger"[salamat sa isang SR sa PASR forum who coined the term]

Parang showbiz ano!? Malapit nga pala ang 18th. anniversary ng Y.O.U. this coming August 8.

-Ka Joma Season/intel 101/"alexcruel"


http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/sim/sim/vi...rticle_id=11260

Sunday Inquirer Magazine
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COVER STORY
The military’s ‘VIP’ (very important prisoner)


By Fe Zamora
Inquirer
Last updated 03:21am (Mla time) 07/23/2006

Published on page Q1 of the July 23, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

BRIG. General Danilo Lim has the heart of a civilian trapped in a soldier’s battle-scarred body.

“Maybe I should have not been in the military,” Lim told a friend who had visited him recently at his heavily-secured military quarters at the Philippine Army Officers’ Village (Paovil) in Fort Bonifacio. “I cannot be a fence-sitter; never was, never would be,” Lim was also supposed to have said.

Outside his leafy abode, a group of soldiers man a makeshift checkpoint; another group had set up a sentry at the back, beefing up the guards at the Paovil gate, just 20 meters away from Lim’s house. Such airtight security arrangements have earned Lim the distinction of being “most important prisoner” in recent coup-prone military history.

Lim has been under military custody since a videotape of himself announcing his withdrawal of support from President Arroyo surfaced in a news program. The tape was to have been used on Feb. 24, when soldiers marching out of their camp were supposed to meet with civilians out in the streets to commemorate the Edsa revolt. It was proof, claims Malacañang, of a Leftist-Rightist plot against the government that justifies Arroyo’s proclamation of a state of emergency.

The charges that Lim would lead the conspiracy have surprised those who know him only as an indulgent father to his only daughter, Aika.

Just five years ago, Aika Lim dragged her father to the Cineplex in Glorietta. The older Lim had already forgotten what it was like to watch a movie. “I haven’t been inside a movie house since 1973,” Lim told the Inquirer then. Transformed from security-conscious officer into a dutiful dad, Lim was having a good time when Aika nudged him to take a closer look at their seatmate. It was Phillip Salvador, the movie actor whose tumultuous love affair with Kris Aquino had been the staple news in those days. Lim was amused, but Aika was adamant. She wanted her Dad to get Phillip’s autograph.

Putty

Lim, the hardline Army captain who negotiated that the rebel troops be allowed to returned to barracks, weapons and all, can be putty in his daughter’s hands. An only child, Aika was a baby when Lim was detained for the December 1989 coup. A former detainee recalled several officers doing “infantry” duties in jail, among them Lim.

Another detainee, an alleged communist leader from Southern Luzon, Vic Ladlad, would be Aika’s godfather, a relationship that transcended the ideological divide between Lim and Ladlad. When Aika starred in her school’s musical production in 2001, Lim unabashedly invited media friends to watch the play. The souvenir program also showed ad placements from military organizations that could only have come from the solicitation of a very supportive father.

A consistent honor student in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, Lim was a freshmen at the University of the Philippines in Diliman when one of his classmates, Renato Heredia, came to class with application forms for the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). It was 1972. Martial law had just been declared. Lim said he signed up for the heck of it. “There were many who had signed up, so I joined the line,” he said. The successful examinees either had brothers at the PMA, like Heredia, or had fathers who were PMA alumni or military officers.

Second highest

Lim, the youngest of five sons of a Chinese migrant worker from Xiamen and a hardworking businesswoman from Bohol, did not top the exams, but the topnotcher backed out, pushing Lim, who had the second highest score, to the top slot. Lim was sent to the US Military Academy in West Point in 1974.

“I would have wanted to be a doctor, but it was too expensive,” Lim said. He did not want to burden his mother or four brothers, either. Lim’s father died when he was 5 and his mother raised the brood by herself. Since his older brothers finished college on scholarships, Lim felt he too had to get by on scholarship.

Fortunately, Lim found academics, especially the math subjects, a breeze at West Point. The regimented military life also suited him, as he adapted to it seamlessly. Even his marriage was something of a record, according to another classmate. Lim’s wife, Aloysia, was actually his neighbor and classmate from elementary to high school. “But there was nothing there then,” Lim once told the Inquirer. “(The attraction) came later.”

Upon graduation from West Point in 1978, Lim was sent to Jolo to head the all-Igorot Forward Recon Unit. The unit was often sent out to patrol the enemy lairs, chalking up seemingly endless encounters that had their senior officers shaking their heads in disbelief. A former pilot who sometimes airlifted the wounded recalled in jest that the Igorot troops never realized what they were getting into because Lieutenant Lim kept them drunk with gin.

Wounded twice

But Lim would himself be wounded twice from grenade shrapnels. After his second hospitalization in 1981, then Col. Arturo Enrile sought him out. “He told me, ‘I better take you out from here before you run out of luck,’” Lim recalled. From Jolo, Lim was transferred to the PMA, where he taught math subjects. He would also become the aide-de-camp to PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Jose Ma. Zumel, and administrative officer of PMA Superintendent Brig. Gen. Rodolfo Biazon in 1986.

In March 1987, a bomb exploded at the PMA grandstand, ripping off a roof and wounding several personnel, including then Col. Lisandro Abadia, the PMA commandant of cadets. Lim was among those suspected behind the incident, but this was never proven.

Before the incident, however, Lim had supposedly questioned the alleged anomalous deals at Biazon’s office. From the PMA, Lim was transferred to the Scout Rangers, the unit that he led in the takeover of the Makati Commercial and Business District in the December 1989 coup.

Doubts

The Feb. 23 videotape seemed to be an apt follow up. Lim’s doubts about President Arroyo’s mandate started soon after the May 2004 elections, when rumors circulated in the military circle about how some senior officers had allowed the President’s allies to use the military camps in the cheating operations, particularly in Basilan, Sulu, Lanao and Cotabato areas in Mindanao. There were also rumors that some units from the Marines and the Scout Rangers had reportedly refused to cooperate with Malacañang’s allies in the military.

Compounding the situation was the alleged braggadocio of some officers who were supposed to have orchestrated the cheating operations, to the consternation of the young officers, including some Rangers who sought out Lim for advice. A senior colonel who talked to Lim then told the Inquirer that he was concerned about the Scout Rangers that Lim headed. “Lim does not believe that GMA won the elections. This is problematic,” the colonel said of his former classmate.

Fearless prognosis

Lim’s doubts were reportedly shared by many officers, with one of them expressing doubts that the President would be hounded by questions about her mandate. “GMA cannot govern,” was his fearless prognosis, as of June, 2004.

The cracks in the military armor surfaced after the June 6, 2005 airing of the “Hello Garci” tapes, the wiretapped telephone conversations between Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano and several personalities, including Ms Arroyo and her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. The tapes seem to confirm allegations of fraud during the May 2004 elections, with at least four generals mentioned in the tapes as being involved. On July 8, 2005, a group of military officers had reportedly planned to withdraw support from the President, joining the group of senior cabinet members who had resigned en masse and urging Ms Arroyo to do the same for the sake of national unity.

But Lim prevailed over the disgruntled. Later that month, Lim’s group, the now-defunct Young Officers Union (YOU, also issued a statement of withdrawal from the 1995 peace agreement it had forged with the government. Lim denied the YOU statement. He also sent a text message to the Inquirer, to the effect that he was “under pressure from all sides.” In fact, Lim was under surveillance from the military and under intense courtship from the opposition. At the necrological rites for Capt. Rene Jarque at the Fort Bonifacio chapel in September 2005, Lim showed up by his lonesome.

Close tabs

But a civilian-clad soldier tailed him, always keeping within earshot of the general. Malacañang also kept close tabs of his activities, often inviting him to dinner at the Palace. By late January 2006, Lim had reportedly visited troops in Mindanao to sound them off about his plans to withdraw support from President Arroyo. An officer he talked with said Lim did not indicate he would “do something” anytime soon. “We talked and he said it was ’no go,’” the officer told the Inquirer. In less than a month, Lim would “go,” to the surprise of even his closest friends.

Since Feb. 24 when he was placed under house arrest, Lim has not been allowed to talk to the press. Some have managed to sneak in, however, accompanied by lawyers, priests and relatives. Former Inquirer reporter Andrea Trinidad-Echavez visited Lim one day in July. Lim had been Echavez’ sponsor at her church wedding to Dick Echavez in 2001.

According to Echavez, Lim was in good spirits, and seemed at peace with himself and the world. “He looks confident that all would end up well,” Echavez said. Having hit rock bottom after the 1989 coup, Lim knows only too well how to play his cards. “He’s a tactician. He’s been through a lot. What is happening to him now is chicken feed,” Echavez added.

Besides, people who’ve met Lim also know that the man would rather pay the price of taking sides than stay still, watching from the sidelines.



Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gen. Lim set to retire from AFP

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/18/2009 12:55 PM

MANILA - Detained Brig. Gen. Danny Lim on Friday expressed his readiness to retire from the Armed Forces of the Philippines following his declaration to join the senatorial race in the coming 2010 elections.

“This is mandatory both by law and the dictates of ethics, yes, I am shedding my uniform but not my oath to serve the Filipino people and pursue meaningful reforms,” Lim stated in a press statement.

Lim issued the statement as a response to the issue on whether government officials should resign from their positions after signifying their intention run for national elective office.

“This is also required by our people’s longing for a new brand of politics, and yes, I am prepared,” Lim said.

Lim, 54, declared his intention to run as senator on a platform of nationalism and reform during his two-day pass visit to his hometown last month.

He said he will effectively hang up his uniform after 35 years of service once he files his certificate of candidacy on the last week of November.

Lim has been detained since 2006 for his alleged involvement in two botched rebellions under the administration of President Arroyo.

The co-founder of the Young Officers’ Union (YOU), an organization of young lieutenants and captains that joined alongside other AFP reformist organizations, Lim has served in the Philippine Army upon graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1978.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/18/09...-set-retire-afp

It is typical of this country. Good wo/men just fade away. The bad ones always flourish and even got a chance to rule. And it is co-terminus with the existence of this planet..ie...it will never be different again.