DOWN SOUTH
The lonely top
“…77, 78,” the teller at the bank called out as the person transacting at her window moved to leave.
I was number 90 and peering over the shoulder of a waiting client to read the headlines on the day’s major daily. It said “General hurt over bypass” and the accompanying article talked not about a botched cardiac operation but about 77 and 78. As in, years graduated from the Philippine Military Academy.
The article talked about two generals who, by my count, are the most frequent denizens of this column. In the last year, I had been privileged to work on some shared concerns with Lt. Gen. Raymundo B. Ferrer, member of PMA Class 77, and Lt. Gen. Reynaldo B. Mapagu, member of PMA Class 78, now Commanding General of the Philippine Army (CGPA). In fact, my just-concluded dissertation at the 10th Infantry Division was done with the approval of Mapagu, who was its Commander from February to November last year, upon the endorsement of Ferrer, who was then–and still is–the Commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command.
I call Ferrer the vanguard of the future AFP. To be honest, I had expected him to take the top Army post when it became vacant. It wouldn’t have surprised me. In the same manner that it wouldn’t have surprised me if he had gotten the top AFP position upon Victor S. Ibrado’s retirement some days earlier. He would eventually make it there, I know. Hello? – that’s what vanguard of the AFP means. Just right now, I also understand that Ferrer is needed in Mindanao.
No, I’m not second-guessing the President on that one. Last month I had floated that question to some members of civil society groups in Mindanao. I asked how they would feel if Ferrer would be made CGPA or CSAFP (Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines) come March. My question was met with dismay. “Not yet,” they said. “There is still stuff for him to address here.” There’s nothing here that he wouldn’t be able to address were he to move up. Still, that wasn’t very reassuring for some. There are people here who do agree with the President’s judgment about where Ferrer should be at the moment.
There is a reason why I write about Mapagu and Ferrer in this column. In their individual ways, they epitomize for me the professional soldier. I have written more about Ferrer because I can honestly say that I could be more objective about him and the work he does. While he had always been candid and cordial with me – and never mind if I am coming to him as an academic, a helping professional, a media practitioner, or as another Filipino on a social call – I do not really know Ferrer on a personal basis. That hasn’t stood in the way of him earning my professional respect and my personal admiration. His work speaks for itself.
Mapagu, on the other hand, is someone I refer to as Papa Rey. And while he had long ago earned my respect for his professional competence and integrity, we have progressed to a personal closeness that is almost like family. Papa Rey would not find it awkward to tell me he refuses to argue with me and admonish me to disagree without being disagreeable. Ho would encourage me to bury the hatchet and stay to watch me do it. Such personal closeness does not leave me room to be objective about analyzing his views on the public issues we talk about, and so I have desisted in the last year to comment on what he says and does on matters involving his work. It goes without saying that I trust him to do his job and to do it well.
It is perhaps Papa Rey’s ability to communicate that there is no need for argument when real work is waiting to get done that had resolved the decision on the CGPA appointment. I wouldn’t know. I do know that while it was a surprise to a lot of people, nobody is contesting it for the mere fact that Mapagu is qualified, just as the other candidates – Ferrer included – are similarly qualified.
In fact, Ferrer said as much in that article. So obviously, Ferrer has no beef with Mapagu’s qualification. I wonder why the major daily would headline such an intriguing interpretation of Ferrer’s candid statement and why PMA Class 78 is implied to be a cabal with members who would move according to a purported August Moon agenda.
I can only imagine that Ferrer regrets providing the fodder on which specter-hunting ghouls could keep the August Moon shining. That article was not about a hurt general. Rather, it pictured a general to be hurt over something he shouldn’t be. The Ferrer I know is indeed candid to the point of trusting the good sense of any person he talks to. He is the epitome of an officer and a gentleman, and the way that article depicted him to be less than that is why I am moved to write this article.
It is beyond me why we send people to PMA and expect them to be less than honorable when they occupy sensitive positions that demand much responsibility. So, okay, there have been precedents. But events in the last three years also tell us that the Army organization has professionalized its ranks. That we have a Ferrer who can give us a reinterpretation of martial law ought to convince us of that. Mapagu, for his part, had been known to cooperate with investigating bodies that provide the legitimate fora for inquiry on his soldiers’ conduct.
I went to the Army turnover last 12 March 2010 as a gesture of friendship to Mapagu. I thought he would need a friend. I was happy and proud that he was considered deserving to be CGPA. Now that he is there it makes sense to me why he is there. As an informed citizen of my country, I want him there because he can be there for some time – two years at least. Enough time for him to do what I have seen him do best: Clean up and put things in order.
But as a social scientist studying the military, I also knew at that time that Mapagu would have to eventually deal with the confusion his appointment had caused. The power bases in the Army had, at that point, aligned according to their sentiments as to their favored candidate for the CGPA post. I went to the Ft. Bonifacio Grandstand thinking I would entertain myself with the spectacle of how Rey’s surprise appointment would set off panicked realignment among the uniformed set and their retinue. I did not figure in Papa Rey’s surprised delight to see me there that he had to acknowledge my presence in his inaugural speech. So again, I couldn’t write about him then or what I thought about August Moon. I would be biased. I had to content myself to keep private my speculations and observations.
So why am I writing now? Well, because I really hate it when a major daily headlines something worthy of Boy Abunda. In any case, I asked both gentlemen yesterday to comment on the headline for this article. True to form, they both felt it did not deserve comment. So, there.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this would be the end to the attempt by some quarters at intriguing on either gentleman’s honor. Ah, well. I know my soldiers. They would soldier on, whatever the rest of us think.
