Election fever cooling off coup fervor - AFP

Barely a week before the first anniversary of the failed attempt by dozens of military officers to grab power, Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he sees no threat of another coup so far. In a press briefing Thursday, Esperon said the situation leading to the February 24 plan by the group of Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, commander of the elite First Scout Ranger Regiment, does not exist in the current developments. “I have not received a report (about another coup), there is none…It seems that the situation is far from that of last year. There is a big improvement," said Esperon, who was the Army chief when the plot was aborted. Esperon said officers and men of the Armed Forces are preoccupied with the ongoing operations against the New People’s Army rebels and the al-Qaeda linked Abu Sayyaf and its Jema’ah Islamiyah accomplices in Sulu. “Why do you have to launch a coup d’etat? We have been saying that the military should not be taking power into its own hands and that’s very clear. What is the [reason] the military should launch a coup d’etat?" said Esperon. “Do you (public) want that the salaries you give to the military go to this (coup)? We have other jobs to do. We have insurgency (to address)…We have more important mission to do. We don’t want coup d'etat so that our country could move on," he added. The February 24 coup plot followed the July 27, 2003 Oakwood mutiny staged by more than 300 junior officers and soldiers. The country was also besieged by a number of failed coups in the late 1980s led by then Army colonel Gregorio Honasan. “What happened to us after 89 and onwards?" said Esperon, referring to the 1989 coup that was the power grab attempt so far in the history. He said the country cannot afford another coup so as not to hamper development efforts. When asked if the absence of a coup threat is due to the conduct of the upcoming national and local elections this May, Esperon replied: “Partly." Lim and 27 other Marine officers were detained in various military jail facilities, facing charges of mutiny, conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman and disrespect toward the President, among others. Apart from Lim, the other prominent officers involved in the alleged plot were former Marine commander Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and bemedalled Marine colonels Ariel Querubin and Custodio Parcon, both recipient of the highest military decoration Medal of Valor. The group of Lim planned to join an anti-government protest at the Edsa Shrine and subsequently withdraw support from the President. The plot was aborted when the military detained Lim hours after the plan was to be launched.-GMANews.TV