Opinion/Parlade: Que horror! The corps is sick

Opinion piece posted to the Manila Times (Sep 10, 2021): Que horror! The corps is sick (By (Ret.) Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr.)

A FEW articles ago I wrote about horror vacui, that fear of emptiness as I face this canvas called retirement after spending 38 years and three months in government service, most of it in the military.

As I look back and reflect though, I realize that there is more to this space than meets the eye. The more I dig deeper into things, the more I get this feeling that I have not really known or understood fully the organization that I have grown with in the last 38 years. Lately, what I discovered was so shocking that I don't know where to start. Indeed, there is much to write if my intention is to roast the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that I am still part of. Yes, as I was sworn in as a reservist immediately upon retirement; I am very much still a member of it.

As I meet other colleagues who have retired before me as well as those who are still in active service, I learn of more serious problems that beset the organization. And then I pause. Should I stop short of washing dirty linen in public? What then can be done to correct these problems? Who shall initiate reforms if we want them? At this critical juncture in this administration, are we ready to even hear about this? From the secretary of National Defense to the lowest mammal in the foxhole?

I remember that there is unfinished business that I need to write about this institution. I get that. But can I handle this, knowing fully well that this organization has been very protective of its own, to the point of virtually being complicit to much wrongdoing? Let me ponder deeply on that but let me share some vignettes that I hope will give a glimpse of how big or small these problems could be.

When I was still a brigade commander, I easily noticed how different junior officers would practically deal with challenges in the pursuit of our tactical mission. On one occasion I was forced by circumstance to take the role of the brigade main effort (ME) with my 27 men in the tactical command post (TCP). This was because the five platoons I sent out, all officer-led, bivouacked to cook their meal less than two clicks (kilometers) from the objective area where a group of 100 or so Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army (CPP-NPA) terrorists were last seen. In infantry operations, locating the enemy's position is the most difficult. To waste an opportunity for you to corner and fix the enemy is therefore a staggering 'no' to us. But there they were at 0530 cooking their breakfast, instead of finishing off the mission as directed.

What have these officers become?

Confronted with more than a hundred CPP-NPA terrorists just below where our TCP was located, I was therefore forced to rush and flank them from a vantage position with only a handful of men. I remember throwing my coffee in disgust, reorganizing my men for an offense rather than directing it and designating my signal officer, a captain, to be the lead scout as we occupy our planned position. I also remember my former Southern Luzon Command commander asking me: "What are you doing in the frontline? You are a brigade commander, not a company commander anymore." He then ordered me to conduct a court martial of the officers for acts of cowardice. Easier said than done, I said. But to me, what was clear was that there is certainly some lapses in the kind of training that these young officers went through. I have to go back to where they all started - Fort del Pilar.

To be sure, the Cadet Corps is not the AFP. PMAyers, or graduates of the Philippine Military Academy, are but a representation of the officer corps of the AFP. But it is supposed to be the embodiment of the professional core leadership. PMA prides itself as the premier military institution that hones the character of young boys and girls to become the future leaders of this country. For good measure, it does, and it is. It has produced great leaders, not only in the military but also in the corporate world, the bureaucracy, the legislative as well as the diplomatic arena. It has produced senators, some not as honorable as they should be.

In this instant case I began to question: What happened to those values of courage, integrity and loyalty? Were they aberration or the norm now?

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Did the corrupt system in our society compromise the overall development of these graduates as they tread those dangerous paths in their careers? We've heard of many PMA graduates who were involved in big-time corruption scandals - in big-time rice smuggling, cement smuggling and all kinds of syndicated crimes. They are very few, compared to the many who choose to serve with dignity. Yet it pains us no less.

So many questions beg answers. But this one has to be asked: why are we not even talking about it? Because we call ourselves cavaliers? Touché.

Hold on. That's exactly the problem. We refuse to talk about a lot of these things because we don't want to tarnish the image of our institutions. We don't want to raise these issues because we don't want to open a can of worms. We don't want to smear the names of those who went ahead of us. How long shall we endure all of these internal problems?

Last weekend I had a chance to have a heart-to-heart talk with those in the know about recent developments in the academy. I was saddened to hear about their honest assessment of things, and it scared me.

'Horror vacui'

The Long Gray Line is very sick. And mind you, it's not Covid.

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/09/10/opinion/columns/que-horror-the-corps-is-sick/1814135