Letter From Philippine Renegade Colonel Decries Corruption : Honasan Vows to ‘Act Boldly’ Against Aquino

The renegade Philippine army colonel who led last year’s coup attempt against President Corazon Aquino vowed Tuesday “to act and act boldly” against her government and implied that he and his supporters will use violence.

In a letter addressed to “my countrymen” and delivered to The Times, Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan also said he decided to escape Saturday from a prison ship in Manila Bay rather than face court-martial because “the Aquino government has convicted me without trial.”

Honasan denied a government allegation that he bribed his guards into joining in the escape, and he called on rank-and-file soldiers to join him in fighting the Aquino administration.

Government ‘Condescending’

“Even in explaining my escape,” he said, “(the government) exposed its condescending attitude toward its very own soldiers by insinuating that bribery was involved.”

Honasan’s letter appeared to be the opening salvo in an anti-government propaganda campaign, and it was expected to fuel the controversy raging here in the wake of his escape.

The letter was Honasan’s first detailed statement of his plans since he and 13 guards, members of the elite navy special warfare group, fled in two rubber boats and disappeared into the countryside.

Honasan’s escape has touched off widespread concern in the Aquino government, which has ordered a nationwide search for the man whose abortive coup last Aug. 28 left more than 50 people dead and hundreds wounded.

Fearing a repetition of the propaganda campaign that Honasan carried out last year before he was captured in December, the government Monday barred all radio and television stations and all print media from airing any statement from Honasan, who became a folk hero in the three months that he eluded government forces.

A taped interview that Honasan allegedly gave to a Manila radio station eight hours after his escape has yet to be broadcast. Secretary of Justice Sedfrey Ordonez threatened to close the station if it aired the interview and made it clear that his order applied to the news media in general.

Applies to Foreign Media

“The airing of the views of Honasan clearly presents a clear and present danger to our government,” Ordonez said. “The government is duty bound to prevent the broadcast because, unless prevented, (Honasan’s) unlawful act will be glamorized and exploited by persons who desire to destroy the government.” Ordonez indicated that his order also applies to the foreign news media.

In the letter, Honasan says Aquino has failed to eliminate government corruption and to improve the lot of peasants and soldiers, despite her personal campaign for large pay increases for soldiers and a harder government line against the nation’s Communist insurgency.

He also says Aquino has failed to keep promises she made in a speech last Oct. 20, ranging from cracking down on leftist labor unrest and the insurgency to filling potholes and collecting garbage.

“Since November, when we issued a unilateral declaration not to engage in any hostile acts against the present order in order to give time for the president to make good on her promises in her Oct. 20 speech, we have been true to our word,” he says, adding: “We are now withdrawing that declaration. It has become obvious by its own actions that the Aquino administration is incapable of ensuring the very survival of this nation over the next few years. We have to act and act boldly.”

Considerable Support

Honasan, whose campaign for military and political reforms has considerable support among the lower ranks of the armed forces, provides no details of what he plans to do. But an officer affiliated with Honasan’s Reform the Armed Forces Movement called the document “a declaration of war,” and added, “I think there will be some action soon.”

The letter also says Honasan took the guards with him “precisely to delimit responsibility and to forestall any attempt of the civilian leadership to again harass and sacrifice innocent military professionals as scapegoats.”

In lashing out at the president, who personally insisted that Honasan be held on the prison ship in the hope of preventing an escape, Honasan said: “The Aquino government . . . has called me names. It has attempted to link me and other officers to other despicable crimes. It has insisted on personalities rather than issues. It has failed to identify the real enemies of the people. Apparently this administration has no intentions of effecting genuine reconciliation in our fragmented society.”

Honasan’s attempted coup and his subsequent crusade for reforms has had an effect on Aquino’s policies. She not only has increased the pay and benefits of rank-and-file soldiers but also dismissed several controversial Cabinet ministers whom Honasan and his supporters had labled either corrupt or leftist.

Defense Secretary Fidel V. Ramos, who as armed forces chief of staff was instrumental in crushing Honasan’s coup attempt, has cited those reforms and a continuing reorganization of the armed forces as proof that Honasan no longer has significant support within the military.

Reassure Public

Ramos, Aquino and several other Cabinet members have appeared in public since the escape in an effort to reassure the public that Honasan poses no threat to the government. They have also taken pains to remind a nation that has come to respect and admire defiant anti-heroes of the bloodshed and destruction that Honasan caused last August.

The Philippine press which had been threatened by harsh censorship laws during nearly two decades of dictatorship under Ferdinand E. Marcos, has reacted strongly to the ban on reporting Honasan’s statements.

The Philippine National Press Club issued a statement Tuesday declaring that government officials and the media “have been led into arriving at conclusions that do not at all bode well on the government’s respect for press freedom.”