Dug-in Rebel Officers Play ‘a Poker Game’

For the past 15 years, Col. Gregorio Honasan has fought and killed for his president and country.

He won more than a half dozen medals for bravery as a commando leader in the Philippine jungles battling separatist Muslims and a burgeoning Communist insurgency. So loyal was Honasan that he was appointed chief security officer for Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile.

Just after noon Saturday, Honasan got a call from the defense minister, kissed his wife goodby and went out to help lead a rebellion against the government of President Ferdinand E. Marcos.

Proud of Uniform

Early today, after he and hundreds of heavily armed fellow military officers had taken control of the Defense Ministry building and its surrounding military camp in a mutiny against a weakening ruler, Honasan grinned broadly and said, “This is one of the very rare occasions when I am proud to be wearing this uniform.”

So it was for the other ranking military officers who slipped on flak vests, strapped grenades to their chests, slung Uzi submachine guns over their shoulders, stuffed pistols and ammunition magazines into their pockets and joined the once fervently loyal Enrile in leading a rebellion against a president they no longer recognize as the constitutionally elected leader of the Philippines.

Thousands of civilians gathered around the base, Camp Aguinaldo, through the night to show their support. They offered the soldiers food and other supplies, and some parked trucks and bulldozers around the Defense Ministry to help blunt a feared tank assault by Marcos loyalists.

Feb. 7 Election

The men inside the camp said they had firmly decided to die rather than surrender to Marcos. For Honasan, who is in charge of strategy for the operation, the crucial moment came during the Feb. 7 presidential election.

“I personally know Marcos does not have the mandate of the people,” the colonel said during a quiet moment in the long standoff that began at 4 p.m. Saturday and continued today at the four-story Defense Ministry building.

“I witnessed how the military intelligence wing manipulated the results on the tally board. And I was there when they tried to get the minister (Enrile) to inject false ballots.

“He just wouldn’t do it. I mean, the minister had legitimately given the president a 90% victory margin in his province, and the president was telling the minister that was not enough. For me, that was the final straw.”

Asked what his strategy was to maintain his group’s position inside the camp, Honasan said, “It’s really not a tactical problem any longer. It’s going to be a poker game.”

‘People Have the Aces’

Reminded of Marcos’ reputation as a shrewd poker player, the colonel added: “Yes, but the people outside have all the aces. Mr. Marcos will not open fire on his people right now if there are too many of them. And, if we’ve miscalculated, I am risking only my life and the lives of my men.”

As the sun rose today, thousands of cars, jeeps, trucks and people filled the main roads around the sprawling camp. It was a demonstration of what one of Honasan’s fellow colonels in the operation called “a strategy of using civilians as a shield, the people protecting the military. Not even Marcos will send a tank through them.”

To maintain morale through the night, both Enrile and deputy armed forces chief of staff Fidel V. Ramos alternated broadcasts over the Roman Catholic Church-backed station, Radio Veritas.

Dozens of priests and nuns, many of whom had served as independent poll watchers during the election, camped outside the heavily fortified ministry building, praying, reciting the Rosary and singing patriotic hymns.

Some Armed Civilians

Even some civilians who were long-time Marcos loyalists picked up their personal weapons and came to the camp to stand beside the mutinous officers.

Albert Villalon, an influential timber merchant from Marcos’ home region of Ilocos del Norte, said he had campaigned for Marcos throughout the president’s 20 years in office out of personal loyalty.

Saturday night, when Villalon heard that Enrile had broken the ancient Filipino loyalty bond, the beefy, 37-year-old father of three, strapped two .45-caliber pistols to his chest, picked up his M-16 assault rifle and raced to the ministry building to “finally stand up for the Filipino people.”

“I’ve been with Marcos all my life, but in this election, I know his supporters killed people and stole a victory,” Villalon said. “I’ve been loyal to him in politics for 20 years, but now, I think that’s enough. I can no longer stomach what he’s doing.”

Embarrassed Vote

Enrile made the same point himself, saying that he was embarrassed last weekend when, as a member of the National Assembly, he voted to certify Marcos as the victor, although he knew the president had stolen the election. “I had to raise my hand to show I voted for him,” Enrile said. “But it rankled inside.”

Most of the soldiers inside the ministry complex had been working up to this for years. Dug in behind makeshift machine-gun nests behind decorative rocks in the courtyard garden, the rebel officers said they were all part of the once-shadowy reformist movement within the military commonly called “We Belong.”

Before Saturday, the movement had been ill-defined, but, during his press conference, Enrile explained that he himself created the We Belong group after an attempt was made to assassinate him in 1982.

The movement quietly had been working behind the scenes as a pressure group, pushing for reforms within a military establishment widely criticized for massive corruption and abuses that included torture and murder.

Past Uncertainty

While the reform group’s existence was widely known, not even top aides of opposition presidential candidate Corazon Aquino could be certain whether it was genuine or merely a sanctioned ploy by Marcos to appease American pressure for reforms in the armed forces.

In the days before the election, the reform movement showed genuine concern that Marcos would fix the results or try to use the military to secure a victory by force. The group issued a circular telling the Filipino people it meant to ensure military impartiality during the vote, in addition to its stated goals of improving morale, training and integrity within the armed forces. Mostly, though, it stressed that it was seeking “reform through peaceful and legal means.”

That final goal was dropped suddenly Saturday, Honasan said, when a group already angry about the election intercepted intelligence reports that its members, including Enrile, would be arrested by troops loyal to Marcos.

“We were telling the people that this election was our last chance for peaceful change--a peaceful transition of power,” Honasan said just before 3 a.m. today, as Enrile held his third press conference of the night. “Now it is something like war. Now we will fight and maybe die for the lives of the Filipino people.”

Feeling of Relief

For most of the rebel officers, Honasan said, the moment they brought in two helicopter loads of combat arms and stockpiles of ammunition and dug in for what appeared today may be a long siege, there was a feeling of celebration and relief.

During Enrile’s press conference, most of the men hugged each other. They traded congratulations and pledges of solidarity. And when dawn broke to news of huge civilian crowds outside, there was applause and cheers from the men.

“It makes us feel very secure, and very welcome again,” Honasan said, quickly adding, “but if we succeed, we’re going back to the barracks again as soon as it’s over.”

Honasan added that for him, surrender is impossible. During a televised address to the nation late Saturday night, Marcos named Honasan as the mastermind of the rebellion, which the president said was a plot by Enrile and Ramos to use three battalions to storm his palace, kill him and his wife and take over the government.

“Surrender?” Honasan said. “That’s an old record, and everybody he has convinced should negotiate with him is six feet under.”

By midday today, it began to appear that Marcos did not plan to use force immediately to put down the uprising, a decision Enrile said was grounded in Marcos’ fears that even the man he considers most loyal in his Presidential Security Command would not obey him. And it seemed the rebels’ seizure of the military camp would continue.

“We are going to last here indefinitely,” Honasan said. “As long as the Filipino people keep giving us food, water and their support, we will hold out.”