Arroyo vows to crack down on corruption in the military

Arroyo vows to crack down on corruption in the military

Associated Press, Manila

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pledged Tuesday to crack down
on military corruption -- an endemic problem cited by renegade
soldiers who staged a dramatic mutiny two weeks ago.

Arroyo said checks would be made on the lifestyles of
generals, compared with the purchasing power of their paychecks.
And she promised state protection for middle-ranking officers who
tell prosecutors about scams by their superiors.

She announced the appointment of a Defense Department task
force to investigate the problem and another to study how to
eliminate graft from military purchases and fund disbursements.

"There will be no whitewash or looking the other way," Arroyo
said in a speech before students of a state-run national defense
college.

"If there is evidence, there will be prosecution. If guilt is
proven, people will go to jail, whatever the rank or command,"
she said.

More than 300 soldiers, led by junior officers, took over a
ritzy apartment building and mall complex in Manila's financial
district last month. They said their 19-hour siege was meant to
highlight government inaction over military corruption,
incompetence and the travails of poorly equipped combat soldiers.

They also demanded the resignation of Arroyo and her top
security officials, who they accused of covertly plotting bomb
attacks that were blamed on Muslim guerrillas in the country's
volatile south to justify the imposition of martial rule.

Arroyo strongly denied the accusations but pledged to look
into the soldiers' gripes over corruption. Government
investigators said the mutiny was part of a larger plot by some
opposition politicians and followers to grab power.

The soldiers backed down in talks with government negotiators.
They were charged with attempting a coup.

Also charged is an opposition senator as well as the mistress
and an aide of former president Joseph Estrada, who was ousted in
2001 and is now in jail facing trial for corruption.

Arroyo's tough stance on military corruption came a day after
a marine captain disclosed that he was ordered by his superiors
in December 1997 to escort two truckloads of assorted military
ammunition to a former Muslim guerrilla on southern Jolo island.

The marine officer said he reported the apparently illegal
sale but nothing came of it.

The underfunded Philippine military, which is battling Marxist
and Muslim insurgents, has also struggled against a serious
shortage of modern weapons, equipment and training that has made
it one of Asia's weakest.

Also on Tuesday, a top security official told investigators
that renegade soldiers would have temporarily reinstalled
disgraced former president Estrada, if their uprising last month
hadn't failed,

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told an independent
fact-finding commission that the mutineers had planned to spring
Estrada from the custody of a military hospital. Three days
later, opposition Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, was to take
over from him.

He said Arroyo might have been assassinated in the putsch.