The court martial hearing of marines and scout rangers put on trial for mutiny in the Philippines a couple of months back is nothing but a simple gesture of the government’s recognition of the established due process accorded to any soldier found to have disobeyed or violated lawful military orders.
The mutiny is a testament of the soldiers’ sentiments on how the government does its role in keeping the soldiers’ loyalty to the country. But if the soldiers, most of them only getting low salaries and demoralized due to graft and corruption and the seeping in of politics in the military, the ntural tendency is for them to seek redress through force as they see no real hope in ventilating their grievances through the proper channels, which are normally staffed by ranking military officers, who are "mistahs." Hence, the creation of the "Guardian Brotherhood", whose members comprise mostly of young military and police officers and enlisted personnel.
For example, the recent massacre that killed at least 14 marines in Basilan could have been an operation whose pitfalls were known to the higher ups prior to the dispatch of the soldiers in an area that is more or less controlled by Muslim rebels. Necessary precautions should have been made and proper strategies put in place before sending the soldiers to the field. One of the problems that is normally experienced by the soldiers was the lack of ground and air combat support while the heavy fighting between the rebels and the soldiers progressed. Where are the helicopter gunships that are supposed to provide air support to the hapless soldiers caught in an awkward situation, not to mention the rugged terrrains only familiar to the rebels themselves. Surprisingly, the military higher ups are not aware of what’s going to happen in the field? Or, perhaps, the just want to make it appear that terrorism is getting a big problem in Mindanao as a means of enticing foreign military assistance from coming in. Or it could be that the military has no other option but to justify the military budget which the generals had polished to continue getting the much larger pie of the general appropriations.
What is frustraring is that even if the bigger pie is approved by Congress, the benefits do not trickle down to the needs of the ordinary soldiers. Suspicions are ripe that only ranking military officers are feasting on the rest of the budget through commissions or sometimes, sub-standard deliveries of military supplies, thus resulting to sub-standard field operations due to lack of proper equipment while the soldiers are the in the thick of war with the enemies, whose weapons and equipment are much more advanced than those being used by the soldiers. Hence, lives are lost due to the government’s imcompetence and ineptitude in correcting this dilemma. But what happens is that inefficiency of the generals appears to be reciprocated by loyalty to the Commander-in-Chief.