Dad always said that PMA or the Philippine Military Academy really stands for Philippine Magnanakaw Academy. The academy has bred and continues to breed the military kleptocracy that pervades the Armed Forces of the Philippines (the “AFP”) in the guise of a perverted camaraderie known as “mista” — best exemplified by the blanket denial of the former chiefs of staff (like a choir in perfect harmony) regarding receiving any misappropriated government funds. Of course, Angelo Reyes subsequently denied receiving any ‘pabaon“ after he gave himself away with his initial rhetorics. It appears the passive acceptance (versus the active pursuit) of bribes is the prevailing standard of honesty and integrity in the AFP.
I had the opportunity to talk with a couple of retired staff sergeants (while lounging at the hot springs of Mount Balungao, Pangasinan), who served high-ranking generals in the Mindanao conflict with Muslim insurgents and terrorists. I asked them point-blank if there was any truth to the story that these generals were selling arms and ammunition to the enemy for their own profit and, as such, were not motivated to crush these bothersome elements once and for all. Their response was as honest as it was surreal.
In a matter-of-fact tone, they explained how much (I mean HOW MUCH) money (kickback) and “fringe benefits” (like the many all-expenses paid overseas trips of Angelo Reyes’ wife) these generals, among other high-ranking officers of the Philippine military establishment, received on a regular basis from all the suppliers and contractors of the Philippine military, that there is absolutely no reason for any general to sell arms and ammunition to the enemy for profit. The certainty of their answer was both comforting and damning at the same time, with absolutely no qualms in divulging the systemic kickback system that pervaded the entire Philippine military kleptocracy. So there you have it. Our generals are not traitors to their soldiers, they are merely in violation of “conflict of interest” in the parlance of corporate governance.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
I just read the following article regarding a rapist in China:
A court in central China has sentenced to death a 40-year-old man who kidnapped two teenage girls, beating and raping them for months while they were held in an underground cell, according to state media.
Zeng Qiangbao, who worked in a steel factory in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, was convicted on Sunday of rape, illegal imprisonment, robbery and forcible seizure, the China Daily reported.
One girl, who was 16 when she was abducted, was held for nearly two years, while the other, 19 at the time, was imprisoned for 10 months, the report said.
“Zeng, who devastated the physical and psychological health of the girls and exerted an extremely negative influence on society, should be severely punished,” the court said in its verdict.
Zeng has vowed to appeal against the death sentence and said he would ask for a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he could be held responsible for his actions.
Fat chance! I am confident Mother China will execute Zeng soon. I am equally confident that the Filipinos will have no such luck with General Carlos Garcia and General Angelo Reyes. Death to both Carlos Garcia and Angelo Reyes . . . in our dreams.
On the suicide of Angelo Reyes (on February 8, 2011)
Angelo Reyes committed suicide because he could not live with himself denying the truth being constantly rubbed into his face in full view of the public. Although corrupted, the guy wanted a semblance of dignity. He may be guilty but he and his family did not have to be insulted for the rest of his life. Rabusa may have squealed on him but he sure as hell would not squeal on his Philippine Maknanakaw Academy Mistah. No Sir! A criminal of the old-school, who had some residual integrity, would never allow the authorities to catch him alive. The fact that the authorities after Angelo are crooks themselves merely added insult to injury. And so, he pulled the trigger, which broadcasts a message — I’m guilty but you can’t touch me. It’s a pity Angelo Reyes’s family harps on the “fabrications” of Rabusa et al in an apparent effort to save face. The lady doth protest too much! Angelo Reyes was a crook and he was man enough to admit it. His family should grant him the little honor he had left in killing himself. I wonder if there are any other generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines with enough honor left to do the same . . . in our dreams.
And those weapons being sold are the same weapons who take away the lives of their fellow soldiers? Enemies suppliers of enemies, traitorship turned karma.
Benign0 did write that there was no truth to the weapon sales:
“…there is absolutely no reason for any general to sell arms and ammunition to the enemy for profit. …Our generals are not traitors to their soldiers, they are merely in violation of “conflict of interest†in the parlance of corporate governance.
What I read before was that Trillanes claimed generals and officers were selling guns to the insurgents. It was run as a PCIJ “report.” Perhaps Trillanes was part of propaganda during this time.
I will argue that Trillanes’ motivation back then for rebellious acts, as it is now, was not to fix the AFP, but his own personal ambition and impatience. Now that his hands are deep in some other racket, pork barrel, he has gone mainstream.
“Despite their rhetoic of reform, RAM’s leaders prospered from their alliance with Marcos’s defense minister. Enrile used his authority as martial-law ‘sequestrator’ of the assets confiscated from the old oligarchy to reward RAM followers with corporate sinecures: Gringo Honasan, president of Beatriz Marketing; Colonel Hector Tarrazona, general manager of Rajah Broadcasting; and Lieutenant Colonel Red Kapunan, senior investigator for Philippine Coconut Authority. The RAM leaders spent a decade in Manila under privileged circumstanes while their peers rotated through remote combat posts.”
“These origins were the source of an unresoled contradiction. Though advocates of military professionalism, the RAM leaders seemed, at times, to embody martial rule. Almost all were staff officers assigned to political operations – interrogation, intimidation, torture, disinformatnion, and penetrations. As covert operatives close to the seat of power, RAM leaders were rewarded with special privileges such as graduate study, foreign training, and corporate salaries. Though they became the instruments of Enrile’s bid for power, they denied his involvement in RAM to brother officers – a duplicity alien to the PMA honor code. Despite a public committment to democracy, the RAM boys, shaped by the martial-law experience, fought to strengthen military control through coup d’etat.” (Closer Than Brothers, Alfred W. McCoy, p. 231).
Again corruption is a free-will of those on top, it is conscience based but it is a part of a more corrupt system.
excerpts from an article: Yes, there is a shameful culture of corruption of unimaginable magnitude in the military, which was especially strengthened upon the assumption of office of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. It began when the Chief of Staff General Angelo Reyes committed mutiny after he refused to follow the order of his legitimate Commander in Chief, the then President Estrada, and rushed to the side of an illegally sworn president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Starting on that fateful day, the military have become so debased it had lost its “balls†and became the lapdog of the occupants in Malacañang. Since then, it was a “give and take.†…….. the reason why almost all ordinary soldiers going after the MILF during President Estrada’s All Out War ended up dead – they were “sold†by their own officers. It was only when Estrada relieved all current commanders to be replaced by reserves and special forces from various reserve camps in Luzon and Visayas, that the AFP started winning the battle highlighted by its capture of MILF’s Abu Bakar headquarters. Survivors say the bullets that killed them were the same bullets supplied by the General Headquarters in Manila but were sold by their officers, most of them PMA’ers.” …..
There had been cases of graft and corruption during the tenures of Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos, and Joseph Estrada, but those cases pale in comparison to the corruption of GMA military. In her tenure, it became standard to reward generals with lucrative offices in exchange for silence and expediency. Many were appointed to sensitive positions to protect GMA whose government is jittery about coup plots, mass demonstrations and public outrage. GMA maintained the practice of appointing temporary chiefs-of-staff knowing full well that a long-serving chief-of-staff might endear himself to side with his men and leave her hanging; preventing a repeat of the ‘Angelo Reyes Mutiny.’ Known as the revolving door policy, GMA perfected the art by appointing “2-6-months termers†as AFP chief of staff and PNP chief to assure that she keep them on the leash. ……
Some observers say the BIGGEST SYNDICATE GROUP IN THE PHILIPPINES IS THE “PHILIPPINE MILITARY ACADEMY – most of them are “death dealers,†cheats, criminals, manipulators and oppressors of the people.. . .
In comparison, it is natural for politicians to act and do as they are doing because it’s the nature of their chosen career. A politician may ask for “an allocation of pork†from the projects he proposed so that he have funds to dispense once his constituents come and “beg.†(It is Filipino culture to beg for money from a politician for anything from baptism, to medicine, to burial. Imagine the number of financial requests a politician receive everyday? Request which he is not supposed to refuse, otherwise, he will lose support in the coming election)[I SAY THIS IS WRONG AND IT SHOULD STOP]. But for a military personnel, it is shameless and disgusting. Shameless because the soldier have to use force in fleecing out money, turning him to a thug or a mugger. Instead of protecting helpless people, the soldier use threats, force and abuse of authority to rip off money. Disgusting because the soldier, especially high ranking ones, made money out of his comrades’ misery, needs and ‘even THEIR lives.’ Many of the ordinary soldiers died because of shadowy deals by unscrupulous officials [MOST OF THEM “PMA’ers] and with the enemy, especially with MNLF, Abu Sayyaf and MILF.
what article are you referring to? Do you really think that you could just spew out your data and say “from an article”? You think everybody will believe what you say, hook, line and sinker? Problem with guys like you is that you’ll believe any $hit they give you and worse you spread it other people who have the same mentality as you. Why don’t you for once, get your info straight and raw and make the analysis from there yourself. Even after which, you couldn’t state it as a fact but a mere, speculation or opinion. Unless you have a gift of telling if the person is lying or honest. So what is the point of your comment?
Get rid of the double standard. Corruption from politicians and corruption from the military are both evil.
two thumbs up Benign0! this is the reason why i haven’t give up on you despite our occasional antagonistic views. i continue to read your articles — because despite our differing views, i see in your articles unbridled honesty.
i mean, i haven’t given up on you.. 🙂
I’m sure Al Qaida is a better supplier to our insurgents than that supposed sale by generals.
And when the military backs a coup against BS Aquino, will you praise them as heroes?
Only if they have the moral fiber of Colonel-Count von Stauffenberg. Yes, he of Valkyrie fame, if you were wondering.
“The Mijares memo then tells how Marcos’ military regime has gone absolutely corrupt. The dictator parelled out to his cronies the licenses to smuggle in luxury goods and to smuggle out sugar, copra, lumber and cement, charges Mijares. Military supporters have been given fabulously lucrative rackets in Manila torun as they please, he adds.” (Ex-Aide Reveals Marcos’ Corruption, Washington Post, July 3, 1975).
You and your desperate, bitter father are justthat, desperate bovines and canines. You better desist from writing if you cannotwrite with quality son of a royal canine.
Your canine parents did not teach yougoid manners because you are a family ofroyal canines. You do not accuse an institution just because of a few misfits. Its the same way I do not condemn all the chekwas like you because you chinamen eat like pigs and live like rats. That is wrong. No all chekwas eat fetuses and rats. That is why youcannot condemn china.
Hahaha ang bobobo ng mga tao dito.
Komunista kaya ang china.
Ang nagsulat nito kulang sa research.
Bobo din hahaha. Hahaha
Kung ayaw mo sa pilipinas e di lumayas ka!
Gago tang ina mo!
PMA principal’s office, I submit to you my designs! By the way, I’m Catholic. Baptized,holy communed, and confirmed and i am in religious life! I have two wives kristy and wilhelmina Layug; both catholic and we have kids! You know what to do; thank you! Our family is Catholic not born again christian My church in the Philippines is sta. ana church and i’m residing in l.a. temporarily! My church is here is st. basils church and st. Brendans and our Lady of Angels! My diploma is just high school approved by Philippines! I have a sister with two babies also Catholic and he has two husbands! She’s considered citizen but my grandma ,mom and i is considered illegal aliens! Even though help us please with dividends! Tell the president to send dollar money based on my research! Thankyou! Amen. Those are memorandum since matrimonial government! Keep up the good work! We love you and God bless! Our land is the glory of Ysrael. I hope the president will divide the money in the highest praise! By the way the president is catholic so be it!Brother in christ, lee warren Lim…Give me premises if its my work or prognosis or absolutions! If you think i am a priest then support me! Basic food is smoke and soda! And also beware of rehabs and surgical tables and cremation inquiries! That’s a killing machine! I hope you did not get offended with my plea! Signing off Lee.