Cocktail Party Fails to Come to Life : Aquino Unable to Enlist Restive Officers’ Support

Philippine President Corazon Aquino was trying to mingle over cocktails with the middle-level command corps of her increasingly restive armed forces, but the evening was not going well.

For her social gathering at the Camp Aguinaldo officers’ club Wednesday evening, the Philippine commander in chief wore white--an elegant lace dress of Filipino design--and she did not drink. The officers wore battle fatigues, and each held a bottle of beer.

The cocktail party was aimed at promoting reconciliation between the president and the military, and it went on for more than an hour. But fewer than a dozen of the 500 or so officers present approached the president.

It was an awkward evening, underscoring the rift between the president and the armed forces and the all-out attempt she has made this week to reunite and motivate the servicemen as she ordered them back into battle.

Moments before the party, Aquino had stood before the same officers and officially proclaimed that the 60-day truce with the Communist rebels had ended.

“The new armed forces will resume operations against the insurgents,” she declared. “We shall have law and order throughout our country.”

But Aquino was equally firm in ordering “a new order” for the military, which has been accused of thousands of human rights abuses under deposed dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos--the military that Aquino herself once said she suspected in the slaying of her husband, former Sen. Benigno S. Aquino Jr., in 1983.

“Our soldiers are expected to conduct themselves with honor and humanity against the enemy and the utmost solicitude for the safety of the people,” Aquino said. “They must take care of the people, who will be their best security and friend.”

She added that the military chief of staff and his aides have assured her that “we can conduct a successful counterinsurgency without violating our principles.”

But events of the past few days called into question whether either of those presidential declarations are realistic. For the armed forces are more politicized than ever and facing the largest enemy force in the Philippines since the Japanese occupation of World War II.

Less than 24 hours before Aquino spoke, the military had fought its first major battle since the cease-fire with the rebels expired Sunday. An army patrol was attacked by about 40 rebels in a heavily populated area 90 miles north of Manila.

18 Killed in Battle

In the ensuing clash, 18 people were killed, 12 of them civilians who, according to the military, were “caught in the crossfire.”

That was only the beginning.

On Thursday, the military pursued the rebels into civilian barrios crowded with Communist sympathizers. As three helicopter gunships thundered overhead, troops combed through houses and rousted peasants, trampling their rice fields.

“We call that the cardinal sin,” a rebel commander was quoted as saying. “Never damage the farmers’ rice.”

In recent interviews, rebel leaders have said they deliberately bait the military into such “search and destroy missions” in an effort to turn public sentiment against the soldiers.

Police Stations Attacked

The military has taken a beating in half a dozen skirmishes around the country this week as the rebels put into action their strategy of intensified attacks on police stations and paramilitary units. More than a dozen policemen and soldiers were killed.

The renewed military activity took place against a backdrop of low morale and frustration throughout the military.

In casual conversations at several military camps this week, soldiers complained about everything from low pay and shabby uniforms to what they perceive as a leftist slant among key officials in the government.

An army colonel said angrily that Rodolfo Salas, who is said to be the overall commander of the Communist New People’s Army, has been comfortably ensconced in a huge jail cell equipped with television, air conditioning and 24-hour visiting rights. Meanwhile, Oscar Canlas, the colonel who led 160 government soldiers in a three-day takeover of a Manila broadcast center in what he called a protest against communism, is virtually in solitary confinement in a cell six feet square.

Chides Aquino

Another colonel chided Aquino for the government’s inability to obtain spare parts and communications equipment that the U.S. government is obligated to supply--but slow in delivering--to the Philippine military.

“For all Mrs. Aquino’s close friends in Washington,” said the colonel, who asked not to be named, “the tires are bald on our armored personnel carriers, and we have howitzers with no firing pins.”

A senior naval officer, who also asked not to be named for fear of retribution, spoke darkly about the military as a political force that has been keenly aware of its potential political power since the military rebellion a year ago that helped overthrow Marcos.

Referring to the uprising led by Canlas, which Aquino and her loyal generals blamed on pro-Marcos forces within the military, a colonel said: “There is so much discontentment now in the armed forces, you never know what is pro-Marcos and what is simply anger. Every time the president says, ‘I will punish soldiers,’ she sends a ripple of resentment down to the enlisted men.”

Letter Condemns Aquino

In a thinly veiled reference to that discontent, a core group of officers in the Reform the Armed Forces movement, which carried out the coup against Marcos, wrote a letter to Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, the chief of staff, condemning Aquino for her apparent inability to control the military.

The letter, dated Jan. 17, said in part: “The civilian political leadership must assert its guidance and direction over the military. It must not, wittingly or unwittingly, promote the perception that the civil government is apart from its military arm.”

The naval officer, going a step further, said, “If Aquino is weak, I’m afraid that what will happen is that the whole country will just break up into warlords and private armies.”

It was amid these developments that Ramos and Defense Minister Rafael Ileto arranged the cocktail party and “dialogue” for the president and the middle-level commanders. These colonels and majors are believed to be the most resentful.

Officers’ Complaints

Perhaps for the first time, Aquino was personally confronted by officers complaining that they cannot afford to send their children to college, officers angered about provisions in the new constitution--which the military as a whole rejected in last week’s otherwise successful referendum--and officers who feel that Aquino has not forgiven the military for its past abuses.

Throughout the meeting, Aquino’s tone was warm but firm. Conceding that “almost everybody in this room did work and serve under Marcos,” she tried to convince the officers that her policy of reconciliation is genuine.

But she quickly added: “You can forgive and forget if the other person is, first of all, willing to admit he or she has done wrong and is willing to reform. It is necessary for two parties to agree to reconciliation. . . . If the other party continues to fight me, there can be no reconciliation.”

On the issue of low military pay, Aquino said everyone in her government has been complaining about “meager salaries.” But she said nothing can be done until the battered national economy recovers.

Rights Abuse Panel

Finally, in an effort to appease one of the military’s longest-standing complaints against the government, she said she will set up a commission to investigate human rights abuses by non-military personnel, including Communist rebels.

Many officers had accused Aquino of having an anti-military bias when, soon after she came to power, she created a presidential commission to investigate and prosecute only military abuses.

When the meeting ended, most of the officers present gave the president a polite standing ovation. Ramos and Ileto beamed. They later told aides that they were pleased with the success of the meeting, in the course of which Aquino promised that there will be many more.

But when the party was over and Aquino returned to the presidential palace, one of the colonels remarked privately:

“I’m afraid it will take much more than a few beers, some nice words and chicken-wing hors d’oeuvres to win most of us over. Remember, we are the ones fighting the war in the countryside. And we’re tired of fighting the one here in Manila.”