AMONG THE groups calling for the resignation of President Benigno S. Aquino III in the wake of the Mamasapano incident is one that is attracting attention for the wrong reasons. In fact, the National Transformation Council (NTC), has even been accused of attempting to destabilize the government and plotting a coup d’etat to oust the President.
One of the group’s more prominent members, former defense secretary and national security adviser Norberto B. Gonzales, has denied the NTC’s involvement in any plot to overthrow the President through a coup.
Suspicions persist about the group’s intentions, however, largely because of the links of several of its members to President Aquino’s immediate predecessor, who has been under hospital arrest in the last four years, first for charges of electoral fraud, and then for the alleged misuse of billions of pesos of state lottery funds.
The NTC first came out in public in February 2015, days before the 29th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolt.
It claims to have farmers and fisherfolk among its supporters, but its media outings have had religious leaders and political figures at the forefront. Primarily, it says a “systems change” is necessary to address and reverse the path to failure of the Philippine government and to make it “strong and effective in promoting the common good of the people.”
If realized, assisting in the “systems change” would be NTC’s two sectors. The first is the moral-spiritual sector, composed of religious leaders who will provide moral guidance “over the theory and practice of systems change and national transformation.” The second is the political governance sector, composed of former public officials and officials from the field of business and academe who are “untainted by corruption” and who will “govern the country during the revolutionary transition to authentic politics.”
Those privy to the discussions say that the anti-PNoy forces are looking at the scheduled release of the PNP Board of Inquiry’s report on the Mamasapano incident tomorrow, March 12, as a watershed event to shore up support for their still scattered, puny campaign.
Apart from Mamasapano, two others have supposedly galvanized unity among those opposed to Aquino – the controversial contract to purchase PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machines for the May 2016 elections, and “pork barrel payoffs” allegedly received by Aquino’s Liberal Party in May 2010.
In his column in The Manila Times newspaper, yet another NTC member, former Senator Francisco S. Tatad, said that the group wants “the entire Aquino administration out.” He said that NTC would then form a multisectoral council to run the government instead of a single political leader. Tatad added that the multisectoral council’s task would be to “fix the broken constitutional system, notably the thoroughly corrupted electoral system, in order to normalize the political order.”
Unfortunately for the NTC, the Arroyo connection of some of its more recognizable members and supporters is not helping inspire confidence in its ability to “fix” anything. After all, the previous administration had been one that was frequently accused of corruption, as well as of poll cheating.
Among the NTC names with links to the past administration is Gonzales, who served as Defense Secretary under Arroyo and was also her National Security Adviser at one point. Another is former Biliran representative Glenn A. Chong, who bolted from the Liberal Party in 2009 and joined the Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition under Arroyo. Chong’s district was reportedly one of the recipient of Arroyo’s P69.7-billion congressional insertions in the 2010 budget appropriations. The lone district of Biliran reportedly received P570 million funds for infrastructure and river de-silting projects. The funds were disbursed less than three months before the 2010 polls.
There is also Greco B. Belgica, a former councilor in the sixth district of Manila from 2004 to 2007, and who ran and lost in the 2013 senatorial race. His father, Grepor “Butch” Belgica, was appointed by Arroyo in 2004 as the head of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).
Another NTC member with Arroyo links is Lipa Archbishop Arguelles. He has reportedly appealed to the Sandiganbayan to free Arroyo from her hospital detention and to speed up the resolution of the case filed against the ex-president for allegedly conspiring to pocket funds from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). The archbishop is also said to have visited Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center, where she is being detained.
Then there is former Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona, who was spotted at the NTC’s media briefing in Lipa, Batangas last February 26. Arroyo had appointed Corona as chief justice in May 2010, a move that was described by many as being a “midnight appointment.” While the Supreme Court has ruled that the election ban on midnight appointment under Article VII Section 15 does not cover the appointment of Chief Justice, Corona’s ascent as Chief Justice remained controversial due to his association with Arroyo.
Prior to his appointment, Corona had been Arroyo’s chief of staff, spokesman, and acting executive secretary. In 2012, the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, found Corona guilty of not declaring all of his assets in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth, and stripped him of his Supreme Court position.
Tatad, by contrast, has no known links to Arroyo. Indeed, Tatad was part of the governing board of the United Opposition under ousted President Joseph Estrada and former Makati City Mayor and now Vice President Jejomar C. Binay. The United Opposition is a political party whose members are critics of the Arroyo administration. Tatad, however, resigned from the United Opposition in 2007 as a protest for the selection of the party’s senatorial candidates with relatives in the Senate.
At the Senate impeachment trial of then President Estrada in 2001, Tatad was one of the 11 senators who voted against the opening of an envelope allegedly containing incriminating evidence against then Estrada. The Senate’s decision not to open the envelope caused public outrage and triggered the EDSA Revolution in 2001, which led to Estrada’s ouster and Arroyo becoming president.
Tatad, though, is most known for being the Minister of Public Information of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos. Then in 1978, Tatad was elected as an assemblyman to the Batasang Pambansa. In 1992, he ran as senator and won under the Nationalist People’s Coalition of Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr., a known Marcos ally.
After his three-year stint as senator under the 1987 Constitution’s transitory provision ended, Tatad ran again as senator in 1995 under the Lakas-Laban Coalition of former President Fidel V. Ramos and was reelected.
One other “usual suspect” in some episodes of hatched and botched coups in recent decades – Pastor “Boy” Saycon, described to be “a political strategist” but also formally known as the secretary-general of the Council of Philippine Affairs or COPA.
On Feb; 14, a report on GMANews Online had quoted Saycon as saying that a former Arroyo administration official “had met with members of the police Special Action Force to try to convince them to withdraw support for President Benigno Aquino III.”
He did not name the official, however.
Saycon said he was “invited to the meeting” by former Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco – President Aquino’s aunt-in-law and wife of his uncle Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. The caveat, Saycon added, is that neither he nor Mrs Cojuangco is “part of a rumored destabilization plot against Aquino.”
“Marami daw nag-iimbita…na mag-withdraw ng support. Sabi ko nga sa kanila, remain in the chain of command. Do not be enticed,” the report quoted Saycon as saying.
Yet still, Saycon said, “lahat lahat na, sama sama na lahat ng against kay PNoy.”
As COPA secretary-general, Saycon had participated in the efforts to oust then President Joseph Estrada in 2001, and in his stead, install then Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as chief executive.
In March 2013, Saycon had also admitted that he had served as an adviser to Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Kiram III on the Sabah claim, but added that this was “on his personal capacity and not as secretary general of COPA,” according to a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.
But in 2001, the late columnist Hilarion M. Henares Jr. on his Philippine Folio website, described COPA to be “the support group behind the Chavit Singson Juetengate expose, and the organizer of the street rallies against Erap Estrada.” Henares eschewed suggestions that “COPA is a secret subversive grioup.”
Henares and an Aquino supporter, the late columnist Billy Esposo, were COPA members. Esposo, in a statement, had revealed then that the ranks of COPA, “a ragtag group,” included among others, “Teddy Benigno, Boy Saycon, Peping and Tingting Cojuangco, Boy and Maria Montelibano, Amaury Guttierez, Ching Montinola, Michael Mastura, Tony Oppen.”
Henares wrote: “Take it from me, COPA is primarily a discussion group whose motto is ‘to be informed, to be concerned and to be involved in the affairs of the nation.’”
“It has taken the acronym COPA, which means cup or chalice, bringing to mind the quest for the cup from which the Lord drunk in the Last Supper, Holy Grail. In the case of COPA, the Holy Grail is the quest for truth, justice and service to the nation,” Henares wrote.
Finally, there is Rafael M. Alunan III, former Tourism secretary under Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon C. Aquino; former Interior and Local Government secretary under former President Fidel V. Ramos, and “an honorary member” of the PNP Special Action Force.
Alunan had voiced a film documentary on the PNP SAF titled Tagaligtas that was supposedly produced by the PNP and Ramos.
Erstwhile known as “a Cory Aquino loyalist,” in the May 2010 elections, however, Alunan spurned Noynoy Aquino and opted to vote for a rival candidate, Gilbert M. Teodoro.
In a public statement back then, Alunan explained his choice:
“The presidential candidate I will vote for:
* articulates a vision, a sense of mission and a sensible action agenda;
* has a good grasp of complex issues, and explains them simply and clearly;
* maintains equanimity despite the rigors of the campaign and the adversities of political battle;
* avoids personality politics; stays focused on the issues;
* avoids negative campaigning to give the voters the opportunity to understand his platform and how he intends to govern and serve;
* remains cool under fire, takes tough stands, makes hard decisions, sticks to his convictions especially in the most difficult circumstances;
* is a good listener and integrator of good ideas;
* is a proven negotiator and will be able to hold his own in the competitive arena of geopolitics and international relations;
* is genuinely presidential, a natural leader;
* is comfortable with outliers.”
In boldface print, Alunan wrote: “My presidential candidate… is his own man and cannot be controlled to do their bidding, meaning, protect them for their past wrongdoings once he’s president. This should dispel presumptions or fears of coddling.”
“After months of keen observation,” he wrote, “Win or lose, it will not be a wasted vote. Mine will be an informed vote on May 10. I choose Gilbert Teodoro for President.
A fortnight ago, Alunan had openly criticized Aquino’s handling of the Mamasapano incident of Jan. 25, 2015 that led to the death of 44 SAF troopers to be “a case of bad leadership and bad management.” – Fernando Cabigao Jr. and Malou Mangahas, PCIJ, March 2015
