New year chaos

visit first. He honored tradition by visiting Asean first, picking Indonesia and Singapore as his first stop. This was followed by a quick trip to New York City to address the UN General Assembly, to introduce himself to the international community. Then he turned to visit China and President Xi Jinping upon the advent of the new year, when the latter was significantly being battered by a galloping Covid crisis.

Then presidential focus turned to selling the nation on the idea of creating a sovereign wealth fund, which the government tried once before, with the Malampaya Fund, but which unfortunately was feasted on and looted by the powers that be at the start of the new century.

Rumors of destabilization

And now the attention has turned to the military and the police, which have landed together on the President’s plate for serious study and attention. While the secretary of interior and local government was named early in the person of Benhur Abalos, the challenge of leading the Defense department has been held in abeyance, leaving the task to the ministration of an acting secretary and junior officials in the department.

During the weekend, both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) took the unusual tack of dispelling wild rumors of a destabilization plot against the government. At the same time, the PNP announced that it was going on full alert.

While the nation has had no whiff of a coup aborning for some time, the twin moves of the AFP and PNP had the effect of confirming for many that there is restiveness and disgruntlement in the armed services today, and that the threat of destabilization cannot be dismissed lightly.

Ironically, the jittery situation followed a bewildering move by Interior Secretary Abalos to “request” all police colonels and generals to tender their courtesy resignations, to facilitate an ongoing investigation of ranking PNP officers for possible involvement in the illegal drug trade.

The resignation call quickly generated front-page stories as the police top brass, beginning with the PNP chief, filed one after the other their courtesy resignations.

The PNP chief, Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., on Thursday submitted his courtesy resignation and urged the rest of the police leadership to follow his lead as the “cleansing” of the force begins.

In turn, the AFP was wracked by talk about mass resignations from military service, as officials and personnel of the Department of National Defense were said to have submitted their resignations out of disappointment over the designation for a second time of Gen. Andres Centino as the new AFP chief, succeeding Lt. Gen. Vicente Bartolome Bacarro who held the top post for barely five months. Centino was Bacarro’s predecessor. has to step up to the plate and up its game because China and even Russia are using economic interests to influence the foreign policy decisions of nations.

Acting Defense Secretary Jose Faustino Jr. and three other undersecretaries were also said to have resigned from their posts, but these could not be confirmed.

It was in this light that rumors started flying fast and loose in Camps Crame and Aguinaldo about a destabilization plot brewing.

Both the AFP and the PNP dutifully tried to talk down the rumors and gloss over the impact on officer morale by the demanded courtesy resignations of top police officials and the sudden replacement of the military chief.

Col. Jorry Baclor and Col. Medel Aguilar, AFP public affairs office chief and PNP spokesman, respectively, denied there was such talk about destabilization plots as they claimed that the situation at the Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in Quezon City was normal.

They declared that there was no truth to rumors of mass resignations from the AFP, as well as officials and personnel from the Department of National Defense due to their disappointment over the reappointment of Centino as AFP chief.

Take India, for instance, that has become the biggest buyer of Russian oil after European countries have stopped buying as part of the sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine. For India, it’s really simple: they need oil, Russia is selling at very cheap prices and there is nothing anybody can do about it.

While the threat of global recession looms, there is optimism that the Southeast Asian region will fare better with solid growth expected due to the resilient performance of ASEAN economies. As I’ve pointed out, opportunities are there if we play our cards right – let’s just not drop the ball this time around. (Philstar.com)

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A Medal of Valor awardee, Bacarro was said to have been well-accepted and wellrespected by the military and DND personnel and his “arbitrary replacement” has demoralized the military organization and defense department staff.

They claimed that Centino took advantage of his connections with people close to the President, hence his return as the top military official.

Col. Redrico Maranan, PNP public information officer, described as fake news a memorandum circulating that the PNP was on full alert due to the alleged AFP destabilization plot.

“It’s not true, but we are on heightened alert status because of the Feast of the Black Nazarene,” Maranan said.

Abalos said the submission of courtesy resignation is a “quick way” of dealing with the suspected involvement of PNP personnel in the illegal drug trade, in contrast with the lengthy process of disciplining rogue officers.

Maranan said 956 ranking officers are expected to submit their courtesy resignation.

The highest ranking official is a police general.

There are 812 police colonels.

Azurin said 22 names were submitted to President Marcos for vetting, which will be reduced to five.