Oakwood Mutiny - Background

Background

According to the Fact Finding Commission created by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the incidents leading to the mutiny were not spontaneous, but a mere alternative plan to an overarching plot to overthrow the government.

Contrary to the statement made by Trillanes before the Fact Finding Commission that the takeover of Oakwood by the Magdalo Group was unplanned and spontaneous, the facts gathered by the Commission show that extensive planning and preparations for several months had preceded the events of July 27. There was the holding of gripe sessions among soldiers sought to be recruited, the distribution and discussion of copies of the "National Recovery Program" (NRP) of Senator Gregorio Honasan and a document entitled “The Last Revolution”, bloodletting meetings and taking of an oath of loyalty by the recruits, the purchase of flags, armbands, uniforms, backpacks, and other rebel paraphernalia, and telecommunications equipment and vehicles, and so on.

From July to December 2002, rumors had been spreading that some military personnel were inquiring about the grievances of members of the armed forces. Talks about recruitment from the ranks of the discontented and potential rebels in the military were heard from former members of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) and junior officers in the military. These reports were relayed to BGen. Victor Corpus. It was later verified that a series of secret meetings among junior officers in the military had taken place in various parts of the country, in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Mindanao.

A bloodletting ritual took place on June 4, 2003 in a house in San Juan, Metro Manila. Honasan allegedly presided over this occasion with junior officers of the AFP. At this meeting, Honasan discussed the NRP which sets forth his platform of Government, and the document entitled “The Last Revolution” which emphasizes that the only means to achieve that platform or vision is through the use of force, violence, or armed struggle because incumbent officials will not give up their positions voluntarily. The bloodletting rite was administered to those who agreed to be part of the Magdalo group. To carry out the bloodletting rite, he provided special knives and showed the participants how to inscribe the letter “ I” (or “K” in the old Tagalog alphabet) under their left upper arms. It was during this meeting that Major Perfecto A. Ragil, a member of the AFP Communications Electronics Information Service detailed in Malacañang Palace was tasked by Alejano, a member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) ’ 95, to switch off the Malacañang Palace’s telephone system on “D-day.”

The gripe sessions progressed to a recruitment process. Two meetings were held in Metro Manila, one in Robinson’ s Galleria Suites in Mandaluyong City on June 4, 2003 and another in an old house in San Juan on June 12, 2003. A photograph taken in one of these meetings, which was released to the press by the Presidential Security Group (PSG), shows Trillanes and a person who appears to be Honasan standing before the Philippine flag and a flag or streamer with the Magdalo countersign.

In the June 12 meeting in San Juan, the following topics were discussed: the peace and order situation, the national economy, the alleged illegitimacy of the Arroyo administration, the Estrada plunder case, the NRP, the need to rectify the errors brought about by EDSA 2, and the contents of a document entitled “The Last Revolution” . To implement “The Last Revolution” the junior officers took their oath of loyalty as “New Filipino Heroes” in this and other similar meetings.

Based on intelligence reports, two documents of dubious origin were distributed during the meeting in San Juan. These documents were “designed to pollute the minds of the junior officers.” The first is a supposed Memorandum of Instructions addressed to the Secretary of National Defense dated February 11, 2003, directing the full implementation of “Oplan Greenbase.” The document, purportedly signed by the President, contains a plan to capture Hashim Salamat dead or alive and to occupy the Buliok Complex at the Liguasan Marsh area in North Cotabato. Secretary Eduardo Ermita of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) purportedly signed the other document entitled “The President’ s Four-Point Policy Framework in Addressing the Southern Philippines Secessionist/MILF Problem," allegedly pursuant to the February 11 Presidential Memorandum of Instructions. This latter document purports to show that "there is apparently a plan by the government to hold the MILF responsible for AFP-backed bombings in urban areas in Mindanao." President Arroyo denied having issued the first memorandum, and Ermita denounced the second document as being spurious and fabricated.

The meeting on the night of June 12 was reportedly attended by top RAM officers including Honasan and retired Navy Capt. Felix Turingan, and the rebel leaders Trillanes, Gambala, and other junior officers. The group planned to attack high impact targets such as Malacañang Palace, Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Fort Bonifacio, Camp Crame, Villamor Air Base, Camp Aguinaldo, and all television and radio stations in Metro Manila.

The plotters underwent the ritual earlier described as bloodletting, which they termed “dinuguan.” Apart from the gripe sessions and bloodletting rites, the Magdalo group’s preparations included the acquisition of rebel paraphernalia. On June 4, 2003, a male customer went to the International Flag House (IFH) in Manila and placed a job order for one hundred (100) pieces each of Philippine flags and Bonifacio flags (i.e., displaying the Magdalo symbol). He deposited one thousand pesos (P1,000.00) for the job order, the total cost of which was twenty-four thousand pesos (P24,000.00). The customer wrote his name on Job Order 2186 as Armand Pontejos and his telephone number as 456-3222. Subsequent additional orders were placed for more flags, which orders raised the total cost to forty-five thousand pesos (P45,000.00). The customer was later identified as Navy Ensign Armand Pontejos, PMA ‘00, one of the rebel soldiers who went to Oakwood.

Another rebel soldier who went to Oakwood was Navy Lt Manuel Cabochan, of PMA ‘95 who bought forty-nine (49) sets of battle dress attire (BDA) uniforms, t-shirts, and combat boots worth one hundred eight thousand seven hundred and eighty pesos (P108,780.00) on June 30, 2003.

There is evidence the Magdalo group also acquired vehicles apparently to transport troops to target areas. On July 23, five (presumably second hand) Hyundai Aero buses were purchased for two million one hundred thousand pesos (P2.10 million) in cash by Francisco Dimaculangan and Isidro Samaco from a company named Car Option Sales, Inc. One bus was later found in Oakwood while another was abandoned in Binakayan, Cavite. There is also evidence that some communications equipment used by the rebel soldiers were of the same specifications as those proposed to be acquired under the AFP Modernization Plan. It was established that such equipment was not taken from any known or existing inventory of the AFP.

The Magdalo group, it appears, targeted Oakwood as the site for the execution of "Plan Charlie." On July 19, Gambala checked in at Oakwood under the name of George Uy, coincidentally the same name as Southcom Admiral George Uy. A cash deposit of forty-eight thousand eight hundred pesos (P48,800.00) for room rental from July 19 to 28, 2003 was paid by a certain Tina Uy Angeles who made the reservation.