Obscure Group Claims to Target Philippines : Revolution: The Young Officers Union says it leads an underground organization to overthrow the Aquino regime. But its existence is doubted.

A shadowy group of young military officers, using anti-American rhetoric, claims to lead an underground movement to overthrow President Corazon Aquino and the social system she represents.

The Young Officers Union, or YOU, appeared last year as yet another clique in the factionalized Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The extent of YOU’s membership within the 15,000-member officer corps--or even whether the organization exists at all beyond press releases--is the subject of considerable speculation among government officials, the press and foreign diplomats.

Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos dismisses YOU as a public relations creation of the better-known Reform the Armed Forces Movement, whose image has been tarnished because of links to discredited politicians.

But some officials apparently take the group seriously; the military has offered a total of $77,000 in rewards for the arrest of seven renegade officers identified as YOU leaders.

Some military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, estimate that up to half the lieutenants and captains in field units are either members or supporters of YOU.

Those estimates, if true, raise the specter of continued political instability in the Philippines even after Aquino leaves office in 1992.

YOU’s origins are as obscure as the organization itself. Sources said it emerged as a separate faction after renegade Lt. Col. Gregorio (Gringo) Honasan failed in an attempt to overthrow Aquino in August, 1987.

Some officers claim YOU also played a major role in last December’s bloody coup attempt, along with Honasan’s Reform the Armed Forces Movement.

Sources said the younger officers broke with Honasan because they felt he and other movement leaders were indecisive and too closely allied to opposition politicians.

Military sources both inside and outside YOU said the new organization was also born of frustration among junior officers with fighting the 21-year war against communist rebels.

A colonel, speaking on condition of anonymity, said combat experience has persuaded many young officers that the real enemy is not the Communist New People’s Army, but poverty, social oppression, corruption and the government’s failure to deliver basic services.

“These idealist guys who are out in the field see the difficulties in fighting the communist insurgents with very little help from the government and corruption in their military leaders,” said a general, who also insisted on anonymity.

The colonel said charter members of YOU included intelligence officers who became sympathetic with some goals of the communists because of their exposure to rebel propaganda and deplorable conditions in the countryside.

Like the communists, YOU uses nationalistic, anti-American rhetoric. It calls for sweeping social, economic and political change and an end to “American interference” in this former U.S. colony.

YOU leaders include Capt. Washington Javier, Capt. Rafael Cardeno and Lt. Diosdado Valeroso--all former members of the Philippine Constabulary’s special anti-communist intelligence command. All are now underground.

According to sources, YOU also has adopted the organizational structure of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines.

One YOU member, who uses the alias 1st Lt. Ruben Sanggalang, said the leadership is divided into nine cells of about six members each.

Each cell is led by a political officer who conducts “teach-ins” and is responsible for a specific task, such as propaganda or communications, he said.

As in the communist underground, members of one cell usually know only one member of any other cell. This enables cells to maintain contact without fear that a single arrest could compromise an entire group, he said.

Sources say YOU sponsors Marxist-style political discussions among combat units and is trying to establish “support groups” among civilians to broaden its base.

YOU statements are replete with the same references to “American imperialism” and the Aquino “puppet regime” as those of the communists.

“A considerable number of young military officers have come to realize that their supreme loyalty is to uphold the dignity, freedom and social justice that the Filipino people rightfully deserve,” YOU said in a recent statement.

“We vow Cory will not finish her term as an illegitimate president,” the statement added. “For as long as the majority of our beloved countrymen have to suffer the indignity of living in a prostituted sovereignty and sham democracy, we vow to continue the struggle that we hope and pray will finally free our beloved countrymen from the clutches of the imperialist U.S. government.”

Much of the anti-Americanism appears linked to U.S. intervention in the December coup attempt, when U.S. F-4 Phantom jets flew air cover for government forces.

“We are warning them (Americans) that the next time they meddle, they will find themselves trapped in another Vietnam,” Sanggalang said.