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Villar hits Arroyo during PMA homecoming

No campaign poster was allowed inside the Philippine Military Academy in Fort del Pilar in Baguio City Saturday and politicians adopted by different PMA class were not around during its alumni homecoming but the event still did not escape politics.

ABS-CBN News reported that guest speaker and re-electionist Senate President Manuel Villar took the occasion to hit the Arroyo administration in its alleged railroading of Charter change.

In his speech, Villar scored allies of President Arroyo for their alleged efforts to hastily amend the 1987 Constitution without going through the proper procedures.

Villar was referring to the attempt of the House majority last year to convene a Senate-less constituent assembly to change the Charter.

"The process of Charter change must strictly follow what the Constitution provides. There should be no short cuts. The whole process must be transparent and above board," he said.

The Senate president, adopted member of PMA class 1977, said that implementing reforms to alleviate the plight of majority of the Filipinos should be the administration’s top priority instead of amending the Constitution.

Villar made this speech despite the organizer’s request to refrain from bringing up politics during the celebration as part of efforts by the military to become apolitical.

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Director Gen. Oscar Calderon, Philippine National Police chief, declined to comment on Villar’s speech. Calderon instead said he was glad that the annual homecoming was peaceful.

Security in the PMA grounds was tight as thousands of alumni and their families attended the celebration. The military police were also instructed to confiscate election campaign paraphernalia.

Re-electionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former senator Gregorio Honasan and Zosimo Paredes of PMA batch 1971 and Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV of PMA batch 1995 are running for seats in the Senate in the coming mid-term polls.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/...rticle_id=50147

Biazon wary of adopting politicians as honorary PMA members

Says practice helps politicize armed forces
By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 02:36pm (Mla time) 02/18/2007

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Senator Rodolfo Biazon has blamed the practice of adopting politicians as honorary members of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) as one of the causes of politicization in the armed forces.

Biazon, however, stopped short of discouraging PMA alumni from taking in politicians as "cavaliers."

"I would not endorse it, because as I said, the military must always be insulated from partisan politics and adoption of partisan politicians into the ranks is one [cause of politicization]," Biazon told reporters on the sidelines of the PMA alumni homecoming in Fort del Pilar here.

"I'm not questioning this--this is the decision of the class--but, somehow, this is indicative of the increased political role being played by soldiers," the senator, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff, added.

Biazon theorized that the trend of adopting politicians as PMA alumni or "mistah" picked up in the 1970s to the 1980s, when martial law and the first People Power uprising dragged soldiers into the political arena.

The same political developments also paved the way for military officers to run for elective posts, he said.

"The perception that the military has a political role to play because of those events in the past, martial law for example," Biazon said, when asked why more soldiers are joining politics.

Biazon said his election victories, as well as that of former president Fidel Ramos, a former Philippine Constabulary chief, "opened up some kind of a door."

Biazon said he was the third PMA alumnus to be elected to the Senate, followed by former senator Gregorio Honasan, who is seeking a Senate comeback from his detention cell while facing coup d'etat charges, and reelectionist senator Panfilo Lacson.

"Maybe, you will have a sixth one, Trillanes," Biazon said, referring to Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the alleged ringleaders of a short-lived mutiny in 2003, who is seeking a Senate seat in the May mid-term elections.

An adopted "mistah" of the PMA class 1977, Senate President Manuel Villar, was the keynote speaker during the homecoming rites last Saturday. The said class hosted the event.

While he did not campaign for his reelection, Villar took the opportunity to take a swipe at administration-backed efforts to amend the Constitution and Malacañang's interference in legislative inquiries into alleged anomalies in government.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is an adopted member of PMA Class 1998, which also adopted Army Brigadier General Danilo Lim, who is detained while facing court martial along with 27 other officers for allegedly plotting to unseat her in late February 2006.

Lim is a graduate of the US military academy in West Point.

First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, meanwhile, is an adopted member of the PMA Class 1974, which counts among its members Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Army chief Lieutenant General Romeo Tolentino, Navy chief Vice Admiral Rogelio Calunsag, and Air Force chief Lieutenant General Horacio Tolentino.

Ebdane classmate is DND spokesman

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