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Changing of the guard for Philippine church and military
Jakarta Globe - December 13, 2011
The church and the armed forces are the two most influential bodies in a fervently religious country and played important roles in the 1986 overthrow of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the 2001 ouster of President Joseph Estrada.
The church named Antonio Tagle, a charismatic and media-savvy 54-year-old priest, as Manila's new archbishop in a sign it was stepping up the defense of its faith.
President Benigno Aquino, whose government is testing the church's power by proposing to liberalize laws on contraception and divorce, also installed a longtime family ally as head of the 130,000-member military.
Aquino is locked in a battle with the country's top judge, whom he accuses of hindering his anti-corruption drive, over efforts to investigate his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Jesuit-educated Tagle became only the fifth Filipino head of the Archdiocese of Manila in its more than 400-year history, replacing the retired Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales.
Joselito Zulueta, an analyst on church affairs, said Tagle would be a weapon against government plans to legalize divorce and improve access to contraception through his close links with the Catholic middle class and civil society groups.
Tagle is also expected to be at the forefront of efforts to keep the Philippines, the only country in the world without a divorce law, as one of the strongest bastions of Catholicism. The church there equates contraception with abortion.
Zulueta said Tagle may also emulate the political role of revered former Cardinal Jaime Sin. "Tagle will be political like Sin in the sense that he will continue to make the church's voice heard on political issues," Zulueta said. "Historically, the church in the Philippines is activist and interventionist."
Sin, a Manila archbishop from 1974 to 2003, was popularly known as the "divine commander in chief" after he called on Filipinos to support a group of soldiers, led by Gen. Fidel Ramos, who rebelled against Marcos in 1986.
The same two men also shored up the presidency of Corazon Aquino, the current president's mother, against coup attempts while the country struggled to restore democracy. Ramos succeeded her as president in 1992. In 2001, he again teamed up with Sin to oust Estrada over corruption allegations.
Army Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa, who took over the military leadership in austere ceremonies led by Aquino on Monday, said recent developments in the South China Sea have made upgrading external defenses inevitable for the Philippines.
"It compels us to look into our maritime security deeply," Dellosa said. "Development of navy and air force bases and facilities to efficiently respond to untoward incidents is something we can no longer ignore."
Dellosa was a member of Aquino's mother's presidential guard. Aquino ordered the military to step up external defenses and said he was confident it could also defeat threats from within.
He promised to provide funds to modernize equipment and improve the military's capability to defend maritime borders against outside powers claiming parts of the country, a reference to territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Aquino has been critical of the Supreme Court and its chief justice, whom he accuses of protecting Arroyo from investigation into electoral fraud and graft charges.
Dellosa replaced Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr., who focused on battling graft and military corruption during his stint. Dellosa said he would also wage "an all-out-war" against corruption in the military. (Reuters, AP)
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