PGMA's Speech during the Military Overseas Press Club (MOPC) President's Night

Grand Ballroom, Hotel Inter-Continental Manila, Makati City, (31July 2003)

I'd like to greet Mr. Yabut, Chairman Emeritus; Tony Seva, Vice-President; and of course, I have here already mentioned several Cabinet members with me; I would also like to greet the Board of Governors of the MOPC; the members of the Diplomatic Corps and, of course, the members of the MOPC.

Congratulations on your theme: "58th years of press freedom." I believe in press freedom. I also believe in the younger generation. I want them to speak up and challenge the system if they see injustice. But taking up arms against your nation is the ultimate injustice a patriot can undertake. And the action of a few makes a mockery of the young soldiers who play by the rules in the military and do the country proud with their service to the nation.

Officers are leaders. And last weekend, a few bad shepherds led their flock astray, endangering their subordinates and the nation.

I thank the renegades' classmates including my... Coincidentally, my aide on duty tonight, Chris Magdangal, for entering their stronghold to reason with them to give themselves up. And then upon my direction, Roy Cimatu dealt with them from a position of strength. Cimatu had my authority, and he used it successfully.

We made it through this recent incident quickly, calmly, professionally. This is no time for hysteria. What is needed is a sober review of what happened and an iron determination to ensure it doesn't happen again.

General corpus is an officer and a gentleman. If all others in uniform had his noble values, this country could be the safest in the world. It's true that the plot is far from over, but it's being contained and will soon be completely under control. We're engaged in preemptive measures administratively, operationally and politically. Junior officers are being engaged in close contact dialogue to obviate the spread of adverse psychological intrusions. Intelligence has its ears on the ground and monitoring suspicious movements. We have the assurances of political leaders from congress to the local governments of unswerving loyalty to the constitution. We will rapidly consolidate as the mutiny commission begins its work and the civilian judicial process gets on the track.

The Makati crisis was solved in a day. In fact, it was solved in 19 hours. This whole thing won't last long. It was solved in less than 20 hours, it was solved without bloodshed, it was solved without damage to property, it was solved without sacrificing our rule of law. I think the Philippines deserves congratulations for that. Our democratic institutions are strong and invincible.

Sunshine is a great disinfectant, and the more light that is shed on this tawdry incident, the better off the nation will be. I believe the Feliciano commission will provide a thorough, unbiased, and non-political examination of the situation and make strong recommendations. I similarly hope congress can shed light on the subject, free from politics.

We all have many questions and not enough answers on how this incident came about. Rather than indulge in mindless speculation and rumor, we must get at the facts. The Feliciano commission will get to the bottom of this.

We must air this incident to full public scrutiny in order to cleanse the nation once and for all of these petty but deeply troubling political incidents that do terrible damage to the nation.

The state of rebellion will continue to be in force but this does not mean that we are in a state of siege. Our people and our international affairs are on the normal course of business, protected by an umbrella of sustained vigilance by the state. I am maintaining the state of rebellion as a warning and caution to the enemies of the constitution who are still unaccounted for. There are plotters, operators, financiers and backers, both in and out of government, who are still in the cold. We will expose them and bring them to justice. This is not a stage for martial law or its repressive implications. It is a plain pursuit of criminal justice.

The mutineers will undergo court martial and be meted out proper punishment, without prejudice to other charges that will be filed against them before the courts. I pity them. Some of them are angry, misled young men. We will treat them compassionately, but they will have to face the full consequences of their acts.

People make choices and must live with the consequences. We cannot have the most trusted defenders of our freedom, the military, arbitrarily taking the law into our own hands. That will set us on a collision course with history.

There are several issues at work here that need to be separately addressed:

First and foremost, I will not stand for mutiny of any kind by soldiers for any reason. Democracy in the Philippines will not be held hostage by lawlessness in any form.

Second, legitimate grievances of these officers, if proven true, are unconscionable. They are being investigated. A report will be made and actions taken. In the meantime, I have just talked to secretary Emi Boncodin. I just ordered her for the immediate release of an initial 100 million pesos for on-the-ground needs of the AFP like boots and field equipment. I've also just talked to General Abaya. I have told him to purchase these boots and field equipment following the civilian rules of bidding. I am ordering also the public information agency to spotlight the ongoing progress. Progress we had started way before this mutiny, right after I became president, in areas such as housing for the troops, pay increase, and procurement reforms.

Pay increase -- you know, it was I who increase the pay of our soldiers to make it equal to the police. In fact, the policemen tell me the soldiers are lucky because the policemen's pay to make it equal to the teachers was legislated way back in 1992. It took me in 2002 to implement it fully. And when I implemented it fully, it was Secretary Angelo Reyes, -- yes, the much maligned Secretary Angelo Reyes -- who pointed out to me, now that the police have the same pay as the teachers, now its the soldiers who were left behind.

Now, a police master sergeant gets more pay than a brigadier general. And so, upon his recommendation, drafted by him, by Angelo Reyes whom these rouges are now asking to resign, I sent to congress a bill to make their pay equal to the teachers and the soldiers. That bill was passed and the first phase of the implementation done long before this mutiny. And that's why the policemen say: the soldiers are lucky, they're getting their full implementation in two years, starting from the year when it was enacted, fully for next year, when it took the policemen ten years before they got their implementation. And the P.I.A. must make this known to all the troops.

Housing. We now have housing for the soldiers where the monthly installment goes all the way down to 350 -- yeah, 350 pesos a month -- and that was way before this mutiny and upon my instructions to also contract it according to the civilian rules of bidding.

Lastly, I hope that I'm wrong, that no unscrupulous politicians would attempt to turn back the clock by manipulating this kind of renegade operation. Such actions are selfish and the antithesis of patriotism.

The truth will set us free. I will withhold public judgment until the facts are clear. In the meantime, I have a country to run.

In the near term, markets will be jittery because of these political incidents. But I believe, and standard and poor believes, and ADB believes, and many other credible institutions believe that long-term effects of my economic reforms will be more lasting than the near-term effects of the rebellion. I have been putting in place economic reforms that are slowly turning around the long-term prospects for the Philippines: lower inflation, fiscal restraint, increased tax collections, corrupt officials being haled to court, strong growth. I will not lose sight of those fundamentals, and I don't think the marketplace will either.

The talks with the MILF will start in a week, and we hope to finish these in a few months. Of course, we don't count our blessings before they're hatched. Our country will be honored to have Prime Minister Mahathir witness the signing of the accord. We will also be honored to have president bush witness it -- at least on live video. I thank the united states for its commitment to help the peace process in a... As part of a process that has been led by Malaysia and the u.s. is especially helping in the rehabilitation of conflict-affected areas. But I would like to emphasize -- it is Malaysia who is facilitating and hosting the talks, and any matter about how the ceremonies for the signing of the final peace agreement would have to be discussed in tripartite consultations in the spirit of friendship and goodwill.

Again, I said: "let us not count our blessings before they are hatched." I'm willing to take the risks necessary for peace so that our nation can once again be united. The diversion of resources and the impact on the people of the nation, particularly in Mindanao, is devastating in human and economic terms. We can't go on this way. I believe peace is within our grasp, but it will not be achieved at any cost. Terrorism must be wiped out; arms must be laid down; swords must be made into plow shears.

The Philippine people have a greater awareness of the role of the Philippines in the world in which we live. This includes making tough decisions to support the war against terrorism. My support wasn't popular, but it was right. I believe our people understand that it's our moral responsibility and the only practical way to deal with terrorism here on our own soil.

I remain appalled by what happened with the recent escape of Al-Ghozi. Yet, the most important task is to find him and the other terrorists before they strike again. That is my first priority and I will deal with the PNP in good time, I assure you.

It's a game of cat and mouse. We are the cat, he is the mouse. The cat must be patient, but in the end, he will get his quarry. We owe it to ourselves and to the international community to relentlessly seek him out and destroy his ability to strike again in the name of terrorism.

The controversies of the day must never place in doubt our historical capacity to prevail and to win the struggle, whether it is against poverty or against despotism.

In fact, the controversies of Sunday must, as Dong Puno pointed out, "dramatized indeed that we have it in ourselves to face down a crisis, stare it in the face and come out triumphant in the shortest period of time with our democratic institutions intac." and that is what we must celebrate tonight.

Tonight, therefore, let's celebrate our partnership in the preservation of freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and the constitution.

Thank you.

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