All four of them – as representatives from the Philippine Navy, the Philippine Army, the Philippine Air Force and the Philippine National Police stood no less than eight hours in “attention” while the hearse of the late President Corazon Aquino is being carried on board a makeshift 10-wheeler truck covered with a huge bed of flowers (largely distinctively yellow) along the main highway to the Manila Memorial Cemetery. And TV outfits have honored them with interviews on primetime shows to the point that influential TV hosts and anchors do in fact suggest that each one of them should receive meritorious promotion for a job well done.
Plainly speaking, this is crazy.
From an ordinary military perspective, this runs against the grain of well-revered customs and traditions of the service. No officer or enlisted personnel should get promoted to his next higher rank or grade, as the case may be, all in a day’s work, which is primarily an assigned task or duty from an immediate superior. And neither is really there any threat to life or limb just to stand vigil over a former president of the Republic. There was no extraordinary job or mission to accomplish than just be posted as “Honor Guards” and as such must just don their prescribed gala uniforms and stand as true military ‘manequins’ as called for by the solemn ritual.
No need to honor them, too.
In every branch of service in the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the customs and traditions of the service are uniform for all officers and enlisted personnel across the military system. That goes as well with the members of the Philippine National Police. Further, there are well-established systems, approaches, and practices that are being followed not just to their intent but more so to the letter. This makes the military as one of two classic management models in every civilized society, the Church being the other. There is a rigid tradition of seniority that in principle cannot, as it should not, be violated. And promotion that goes out of the military norm is simply a work in madness.
And the Fourth Estate, inasmuch as it influences public minds, has gone mad in this regard. No well-meaning editor or columnist, TV anchor or host, broadcast or radio commentator, and blogger should ever attempt to suggest that these Honor Guards should each receive promotion for a feat that is now being played up or sensationalized in mainstream media as if it were anything from the ordinary duty that every soldier does as a faithful sentinel. The promotion route cannot take exception to a petty even rather trivial performance of such an ordinary task. Military camps are guarded 24 hours a day by the same men in uniform as these Honor Guards. In short, it goes with the territory that an ordinary soldier or commanding general should not leave the post he is assigned until permission is granted.
Promoting the Honor Guards at the expense of the rest of their comrades in arms will destroy the esprit d corps. It will be a dangerous military precedent. No one gets promoted outside of well-established doctrinal frameworks that the whole Philippine military system adheres to – just nothing. To do so would be tantamount to subverting the great norm that has been the mute witness to the success of the military as the most viable institution in every given society. Put simply, no one should mess up with this highly monolithic organization that is the armed services.
The best that can be done is for their respective units to give them a Letter of Commendation in a scheduled ‘Flag Raising Ceremony’ for in truth, the one honored is not so much as that it was Cory but fundamentally because she is the former president. In other words, the military honors institutions rather than it honors persons, per se. When an ordinary soldier salutes an officer, it is not so much as the person is being honored any more than the rank in the uniform that the officer wears. The military life is one of traditions that should not be broken on mere whim or fancy.
Let not the Fourth Estate writes prescriptions nor goes overboard on their petty liberties.
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To me, Primer’s blog submission reminds me of that theme of
Primer’s blog submission of course, is more than just two sentences, and Primer did write:
Primer’s blogsubmission reminds me of Bayani Fernando, who, I know, has said that he/Bayani Fernando should be the presidential standard-bearer of his party because he has seniority based on number of years of service.
A Letter of Commendation from a Higher Authority will do the job
of honoring them. They did a good job…
In ROTC cadets are taught to stand at attention for hours. Now since President Arroyo for all intents and purposes killed ROTC with cooperation from a reactionary Congress and a complacent AFP, the whole idea for people standing for hours is superhuman! Puhleeeze! Arroyo is the President that undid what Quezon did and resulting in an AFP short of officers that ROTC used to provide. This is because young people and have NO IDEA THAT THE FLAG AND COUNTRY ARE WORTH DEFENDING!
Those of us who learned to stand at attention for hours in ROTC say what is the big deal? Standing for hours is part of the job as honor guards. Besides its no feat of superhuman endurance. Your NCO teaches techniques on how to deal with this.
Now even doing honor guard duty deserves a cash reward and media hypes that these soldiers get a promotion or even a decoration. These men were not exposed to the enemy and standing for hours does not constitute acts beyond the call of duty.
A letter of commendation is enough from the commanding officer and a boodle fight.
Now with regards to the cash gift, the COs of these men should have ordered the men to turn this over to their units.
blackshama: So is it a flawed educational educational system that your sentence alludes to:
is why Pinas still unable to prove consistently these Manuel Quezon words:
For some odd reason, I sense that somehow embedded in Pinas formal and informal educational systems is this sentence :
True!
i am not sure am ready to defend a country that keeps on giving its citizens a bum deal – where the landless have to die for the landlords – dang, let the landlords do the dying for a change!
I have met FilAms who say they won’t die for the Stars and Stripes! With that they want to eat apple pie without paying the price.
Filams who speak with more clarity and less ooomph-bravado would say:
where XYZ is Stars/Stripes or even CHURCH.
Similar thematically to a rifle-shooting schooled military-age university lecturer not exactly first in line to volunteer to fight against terrorists or bank-robbers.
You forget that the military has always been one of the, if not THE, most corrupt institution in the Republic of the Philippines, and that proponents of it had time and again made it a point to try and cow Mrs. Aquino and her family, among other people (like the late Mark Chua of UST, whose exposes of the corruption among the ranks of the ROTC – yes, folks, start ‘em young! – resulted in him being killed and thrown unceremoniously at Pasig River, and a dear friend of mine losing her beloved). Of course, the Aquinos being what they are, they had none of it, and just as well. The praises for the Philippine military in this article are most galling! Mahiya ka naman!
Of course, this argument I just posited can also be used to actually discredit the honours given to the Honour Guards.
Sharing this…
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090810-219499/They-also-serve-who-only-stand-and-wait
The cat is out of the bag, the PNP Honor Guard who stood at attention in a 20-kilometer funeral procession that took all of 8 to 9 hours has been promoted to the next higher grade or rank that normally takes 3 years to earn.
Also, he was given cash of P10,000 and health insurance by the PNP plus a personal gun of Cal. 45.
Compared to his counterparts in the Philippine Army, Philippine Navy and Philipine Air Force – there was no such promotion to the next higher grade or rank. That is more HONORABLE of these three institutions.
What do you expect from PNP? From DILG for that matter?
Ours is a damaged psyche.
We promote people whom we should not promote at all for having done so trivial a thing.
Imagine moving him the corporate ladder to the next higher rank when such feat requires 3 years to earn in accordance with career path and seniority?
No wonder, we want to turn Cory, not just a hero but a saint.
No wonder, we want to turn Noynoy into a president.
No wonder, GMA might just become Prime Minister, who can tell?