This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 29, August 28-September 3, 2005
Rene Jarque: A
Filipino of Courage and Conviction
Rene Jarque’s legacy to the
struggle to bring about an armed forces that will truly serve the interests of
the people and the country is surely enshrined in the hearts and minds of the
patriotic men and women in uniform. Indeed, he has served his people and his
country well and we are all very proud of him.
By
Carol Pagaduan-Araullo Former army captain and
West Pointer Rene Jarque, eloquent and outspoken advocate of reforms in the
military establishment, is dead at age 40. In his abbreviated life, Rene had
metamorphosed from being a young, idealistic officer aiming to follow the
footsteps of his father, General Raymundo Jarque, in a distinguished military
career, to that of a crusader, seeking an end to the scandalously corrupt,
shamefully inept and intolerably abusive armed forces which he had been a part
of and gotten to know and understand well. It is one of the ironies of
life that Rene Jarque’s path and mine should cross in a rather unique and
non-adversarial context. I first met Rene in 1995 as he dutifully accompanied
his father, General Jarque who, after having defected to the New People’s Army,
came down from the hills of Negros to face the criminal charges leveled against
him by feuding landowners and then Public Prosecutor Aniano Desierto. I was
part of a party of lawyers and activists that met the General and provided him
moral, legal and political support as he faced an uncertain and risky future. I must admit a measure of
wariness when I met this army officer; my activist instincts told me that
despite his natural sympathy to his father’s plight, it could not be assumed
that he had become open, much less sympathetic, to the Left as well. Our
conversations were light but guarded; he struck me as an intelligent,
soft-spoken, respectful and non-confrontational person but I reminded myself
that I was talking to a dedicated and loyal military officer. I would hear about his
military career suffering in the years to come; he had been quietly placed in
the freezer. Perhaps it had something to do with his father’s spectacular
defection to “The Enemy” that had indelibly marked Rene as a non-conformist and
potential troublemaker. Certainly, his critical views about corruption, lack of
professionalism and mismanagement in the AFP that he wrote about unabashedly in
military publications sealed his fate. It came to the point that copies of a
military journal that he edited, was embargoed and set to the torch because it
contained an article exposing corruption in the military and calling for
reforms. After Rene had prematurely
been forced to retire from the military in 1998 and had started a new career as
a business executive, I ran into him again and learned that his passion for
advocating wide-ranging reforms in the military had not waned. Thereafter he
would be tapped as a resource person by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, In
Peace- Mindanao and other progressive groups especially after the so-called
“Oakwood Mutiny” in July 2003 to explain what was going on in the military. In November 2003, Rene
helped convene the Action Against Corruption and Tyranny Now or ACT NOW!, an
alliance of personages and groups that was appalled at the corruption during the
incumbency of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and vowed to animate a
citizens’ movement against government misrule, abuse and corruption.
Upon the initiative of
Rene, the newly-formed anti-corruption network wrote an open letter to the
officers and men of the AFP calling on them to put a stop to the practice of
“conversion”, literally converting public funds into private monies by a series
of criminal acts that involved the collusion of military officials and private
supply contractors and appropriating said funds to enrich themselves. This was
long before the scandal over the billions of money allegedly siphoned off by
General Carlos Garcia and his cohorts using the strategic office of the military
comptroller. Rene had hoped it would send even a small ripple of appeal to the
remaining decent elements in the military establishment. He also brought up a
proposal to hold small forums inviting enlisted servicemen and not just officers
“to serve as an outlet for soldier's grievances besides the PMAAA and the AGFO”
and to provide a venue for the men in uniform to meet with leaders of
cause-oriented groups and exchange views. He had hoped such efforts would help
lift the veil of misconception and prejudice that beclouded the mindset of each
side. I learned that Rene had
resigned from his executive position in a Manila-based firm and had accepted
instead a job that required him to be based for the most part in the Indonesian
capital of Jakarta. In the time that he was back home, we had an opportunity to
speak at the same forum on corruption in the military in the wake of the case of
Gen. Carlos Garcia and other implicated officers. We also attended the first
hearing of the military tribunal trying Gen. Garcia’s case. I could feel the
questioning looks of military men as they saw me enter the courtroom with the
famous or notorious Captain Rene Jarque, depending on one’s point of view. In February of this year,
ACT NOW! invited Rene to deliver a paper on corruption in the military at a
National Study Conference on Corruption held at the University of the
Philippines. He graciously agreed and since he was abroad at the time, he was
hooked up via long distance to answer questions raised during the open forum.
Bishop Julio Labayen was at the conference and asked Rene how he explained the
phenomenon of reform-minded officers in the AFP as dramatically revealed in the
recent “Oakwood Mutiny”. Rene’s insights impressed the good bishop who remarked
that he was hopeful for change in the AFP with advocates such as Rene persisting
in his awareness raising efforts. Captain Rene Jarque
certainly belongs to a distinguished breed of Filipinos because he had the
courage of his convictions, a moral courage displayed in the risky but
principled choices that he made that affected adversely “success” in his chosen
career and even his personal fortunes. Moreover, he persisted in his crusade
while he could have quietly faded away from the controversial limelight when he
was effectively forced to resign from the institution he loved and served to the
best of his ability and with his integrity intact. He was able to maintain his
links and command the respect of his peers and other active and retired military
officers precisely because, even when they disagreed with his views, they could
not doubt his moral integrity, intellectual honesty and willingness to make the
necessary sacrifice to advance his convictions. Rene was a rare kind of
intellectual: he was a critical thinker who could not be satisfied with what has
been ingrained in him but was open to the truths that he learned as he matured,
from his experiences as a young officer fighting a counter-insurgency war in the
hinterlands of Isabela province to his stint as a staff officer with a promising
career in the AFP headquarters to his “downfall” as a maverick soldier railing
against an institution that had gone terribly awry. Rene was broadminded enough
to respect the views of those in the revolutionary movement whose ideology and
politics were diametrically opposed to what he had been molded to believe but
whose basic values and concrete practice he had grown to admire. Captain Rene Jarque
remained a soldier at heart which is why he never gave up writing and talking
about what he felt was wrong in the military. He also never gave up on the
decent people he knew remained in the AFP.
In the last essay that he wrote, “What’s with
the Armed Forces?” dated 25 July, he came up with some very radical proposals:
“There is indeed a dilemma. Military
intervention can restore order but… if the intervention is by the generals, no
real change in politics and society will happen. In fact, it could be worse if a
military or military-controlled government takes over… If the young officers
intervene without the blessing of the chain of command, it will be a bloody
confrontation with the “pro-government” forces. I think the best combination for
a military intervention, if ever it happens or when it becomes “final solution”
or “fait accompli”, would be the younger generation of the Officer Corps
supported by broad popular support, including the progressive elements of the
left. Perhaps then, we can expect real change in government.”
Rene Jarque’s legacy to the struggle to bring
about an armed forces that will truly serve the interests of the people and the
country is surely enshrined in the hearts and minds of the patriotic men and
women in uniform. Indeed, he has served his people and his country well and we
are all very proud of him.#
*Published in Business
World, 26-27 August 2005 © 2004 Bulatlat
■
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