Prologue and Epilogue of the Magdalo Group

On April 08, 2008, Tuesday, Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 handed down the court’s verdict on Captains Milo Maestrocampo and Gerardo Gambala who were identified as prime-movers of the Oakwood mutiny on July 27, 2003. Both rogue soldiers were sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. On the other hand, the court also imposed a 6 to 12 years imprisonment on seven other officers identified as Captains Albert Baloloy, John Andres and Alvin Ebreo, Lieutenants Lawrence Luis Somera, Florentino Somera, Christopher Brian Yasay and Cleo-Dongga-As, for participating in the attempted mutiny. Justice has been served. Perhaps at this point, nobody would want to contest the court’s decision on the fate of these junior officers, except, for their lawyers of course. Since the Magdalo Group has evidently placed the whole country in troubles and their agenda was brought about with the wrong kind of approach, it’s about time for them to face the consequences. Several military careers have been trashed, several families have been affected, but these soldiers have to accept it no matter how bitter it is. For these soldiers, idealism should have been the way of life, but little did they know that being idealistic is prone to being exploited. Too bad, these soldiers are not that familiar with the realities of life… much more, the system. The Armed Forces of the Philippines may be riddled with corruption, irregularities and scoundrels but an ideal system simply does not exist. A total reform cannot be done overnight. It will take years and such reform may have started with these soldiers if they have not been taken advantaged by politicians, power grabbers and opportunists. It was quite obvious that unscrupulous groups or individuals are behind the mutiny, much more, for the destabilization attempt to bring down the President, so that they can take over juicy positions for their own good. Magdalo members has already been convicted and Sen Antonio Trillanes is not far from having the same fate, but destabilizers, power grabbers and opportunists remains scot-free. These people with their own personal ambitions will never cease until they get what they want. The bad thing is that some of them belong to the opposition groups, the Senate, the Lower House, the local communists and the business sectors. Who knows? Some of them, at this point in time, may be brewing some nasty things against the present administration since they are far from giving up. Destabilizers just lost their pawns, which are the Magdalo Group, but they still have the money and alternatives to go on with their crooked plans against the leadership…