Ex-officers behind oust-Aquino plot, says Trillanes

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The plot to oust President Benigno Aquino III is real and those behind it are using the criminal cases filed against erring military officers to convince recruits the current administration is antimilitary and procommunist.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said as much in a phone interview, adding that those attempting to recruit soldiers to their cause were also spreading the rumor that President Aquino had offered communist leader Jose Ma. Sison a Cabinet post.

Trillanes said some retired military officers were doing the recruiting of active Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel.

“They are using the same tactics and recruitment lines of the 1980s during the time of President Cory (Aquino),” the senator said.

Last week at the anniversary of the Presidential Security Group, President Aquino said there were people out to topple him.

While he did not identify those behind the supposed plot, Mr. Aquino described them as those whose illegal activities had been adversely affected by his anticorruption campaign.

“Concerned soldiers alerted me about this,” said Trillanes, no stranger to ouster plots himself following his leadership of two attempts to oust former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The senator said possible recruits are invited to dinner where their likelihood of joining a plot against the Aquino administration is gauged.

“The group that invites the soldiers floats ideas about an ouster plot. The soldiers who appear or sound like they have a grudge are identified. They are invited to another event where the conversation is taken to the next level,” Trillanes said.

He, however, said that “many of those invited are not biting. That’s how the information reached us. The soldiers would rather report the anti-administration efforts than join them.”

Recruiters would reportedly weave into their conversations with potential recruits the supposed harassment being heaped on Navy personnel accused in the death of Navy Ensign Philip Pestaño, the human rights case lodged against retired Major General Jovito Palparan and the plunder charge filed against former AFP comptroller Brigadier General Carlos Garcia.

“The recruiters are making it appear that military officers are being harassed by weaving together cases that are not related in any way. They also point out that the release of members of the Morong 43 should be seen as something objectionable,” Trillanes said.

The Morong 43 is the group of health workers who were arrested by the military in a resort in Morong, Rizal, for allegedly engaging in subversive activities.

Trillanes said those being targeted for recruitment belonged to different batches of the Philippine Military Academy. With Maila Ager, INQUIRER.net

Originally posted: 7:17 pm | Monday, March 5th, 2012