The top guns in the Philippine military hierarchy have been heard to open recruitment to gays or those with a different sexual orientation – if official pronouncement were to be believed. And this seems first time or was never heard before. Something ought to be happening in the AFP today more than a changing attitude to “democratize”, as if it were, entry to the corps of applicants from across the gender spectrum. If this happens, even lesbians must have the same rights. Let us see. Offhand, it can be called to mind that a study in the US has been conducted sometime in July 2008 which yields this result – “Evidence shows that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is unlikely to pose any significant risk to morale, good order, discipline or cohesion.”
The move alone to allow the recruitment of gays to include waivers to felons is for the military to fill its ranks due to the strain in the war in Iraq. This study initiated by retired high military officials did not fail to cite the military effectiveness of the British and Israeli armed forces in which openly enough, both gays and lesbians are allowed to serve. In fact, this study should have been done earlier since the last study done by the Rand (a US think-tank) some 15 years ago.
Now the top brass in the AFP wants to follow suit. Could they be for real?
Be that as it may, militaries around the world are replete with facts, stories, and accounts of military leaders who are in fact made up of a different sexual orientation but who nonetheless have proven themselves in every field of military life, not least among them did heroic exploits in military wars.
Now apparently, the AFP will recruit some 6,700 more troops that filling this shortage is even taking a hard time. There are no takers, most possibly so – hence even gays or maybe lesbians are welcome to apply. We heard it said officially by the public information officer or let me quote – “We believe that gays and lesbians fit into the military and serve with great distinction. The creativity, talent and cultural force of the “third sex” could serve the nation on the battlefield and in the other areas of public service.”
So then, the AFP copies the US in abandoning or lifting the ban of so-called, “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue law”. Openly and officially enough, military service is open to all gays and lesbians since such sexual orientation is not shown to have negatively impacted on the role of the military in most societies. This new mood from the AFP might even indicate its patronizing advocacy for gay rights or third sex rights, as the case may be. Or so be it.
Defense secretary Teodoro laments the fact that there had been a radical drop in the number of interested applicants for admission to the Philippine Military Academy from a high of 21,051 in 1997 to a low of 7,739 in 2007 over a 10 year gap. Thus they thought that what explains this is preference for high paying jobs, perceived erosion of patriotism, and higher academic requirements, true or not.
More importantly, good secretary Teodoro may have more reason to worry since the average age of troops today stands at 40 and therefore, within the AFP, there is a local problem of a graying population that should be replaced with new recruits or so-called – youngblood. He can then only further lament the abolition of the mandatory ROTC for all college students which was replaced with the National Service Training Program and which was found to be a dismal failure.
Thus, there is an itch to revive the old ROTC law since it serves as a ready pool for its citizen armies as what also happens in modern democracies like Singapore, Taiwan, Israel and Switzerland. Problem is, should it really have to be revived after it has already been ‘outlawed’.
While it is true that ROTC has also been a major source of officers recruited into the major branches of the military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Constabulary [now the PNP]), it is even disconcerting to note that those who are sourced from the Philippine Military Academy or other foreign academies are the very ones who constitute the so-called ‘ruling military elites’ in the entire military corps despite the fact that they only represent the minority in terms of population.
One can say this is absurd, totally lopsided. But it is a military given. Officers who are just ROTC graduates or did not graduate from the Philippine Military Academy have become ‘second class officers’ in the corps with them getting slower promotion, less sensitive positions, and even lower slots in foreign schooling. This is really a situation that should have been addressed 20 years ago except that the so-called “mistah culture” is the culprit for this vicious and still happening discrimination against non-peemayers.
As long as there is this “Baguio Mafia” in the military organizations, even gays or lesbians may have to be discriminated against. There is reason to inquire why the top brass of the AFP has not completely addressed this nagging problem that has existed since time immemorial.
It is high time to put all officers in the military in the same class level in terms of seniority and lineal listing. AFP should now do away with the self-deprecating Orwellian tradition. There is no such thing as – “some officers are more equal than others”. This is a misconception. Since all officers – be them peemayers or non-peemayers – pass through the same set of qualification or quality standards, that henceforth, the AFP leadership itself has no right to discriminate against those the PMA did not produce but who may well be graduates of UP, Ateneo, La Salle and honor graduates of other institutions of higher learning. From where I stand, to hell with this scheme and scene in the damned AFP!
It should be immoral for the AFP to perpetuate this racist mentality of patronizing their own kind at the expense of the other segments in the officer corps. It should be immoral for the AFP to violate the promotion cycle by making 100% guarantees of timely promotion only to peemayers than to non-peemayers. I hate to say this but when UP students have to throw rotten eggs to then AFP Chief of Staff, in means simply that there was really something wrong with the AFP.
There is still time left to save the pond, matter-of-factly. Will the officialdom in the AFP please do something about such chronic ills? Not to do so may soon amount to AFP’s – boon or bane.
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Philippine society is largely considered to be martriarchal.
While husbands, henpecked or otherwise are teased even by close friends as ‘under the saya or TAKUSA, short for takot sa asawa.
But in truth Filipino men nurture their ‘macho image and could be described as ‘closet’ homophobics.
So me thinks your unattributed reference to the admit-gays policy’ could at best be trial balloons.
Nowhere in police or military applications is there a slote allocated for ‘sexual inclination’
While same sex marriages are being pushed in Proposition 8 in the US,we may be light years away from this to gain currency in the Philippine context.
The Catholic Church and its hardline dogma against gays of either gender is another hurdle in itself.
Pinas is s-o-o-o-o behind, wala pang divorce sa Pilipinas, ano ba naman iyan????
How can a policy of this kind be implemented? Is it by asking direct question if she or he is a gay, or, by visual inspection of the movements of his fingers or her macho air, all of which can be camouflaged.
It’s not as if, admitting I’m gay, I’m good for enlistment already, no sir.
I think that the recruitment process will still subscribe to that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue’ law – at least in theory, not in praxis.
This means if you are gay, lesbian, or whatever – just keep it to your chest.
Let us just see how well the AFP will run a genderless military. Who knows a good lot of them are already occupying top posts at the moment, reason for this seeming open-mindedness?
Ding,
Is it the case that the Catholic church is against the gays?
I thought most priests are gays anyway? I stand corrected.
hehehe.
havent you guys seen that video released years back about a military major who used his rank to abuse lower ranking military men? I think that was an army detachment in tarlac…
If high ranking military men (not gays) can abuse the lower ranking militay men…i think high ranking military gays can also abuse those in the lower ranks..in a gayish way (if you know what i mean)…
then the military organization…will have another breed of abusers…hahahahahahaha
Gays are people. They eat, they earn money, they
pay taxes like you and me. Why would we prevent
them from serving our country?
In the U.S., the former U.S. Gen. Collin Powell had the: “no ask, no tell policy.” As long as you dont flaunt your being Gay. Nobody will ask. You dont need to tell anybody. Then, you can serve.
They can be subject to Sexual Harrasment also, if
they sexually harrass people for sexual favors,
like anybody else.
We are not Homophobic. They have the right to be
here on earth also, like you and me.And, be a part
of our society.
The military camp is a life of seclusion much like the seminarians in a seminary.
In the hierarchy, officers have privileges largely dependent upon their ranks or so too with priests among priests in an organization that are in fact management models.
With seniority as an honored tradition, all officers below say a General, must have to obey orders accordingly.
Gays, at this point in its infancy, cannot expect to rule over the entire corps except if the gays are in fact already the old generals we have at the topmost ranks of the hierarchy.
Still, there are prescribed norms of conduct to be followed.
In the U.S., the former U.S. Gen. Collin Powell had the: “no ask, no tell policy.” As long as you dont flaunt your being Gay. Nobody will ask. You dont need to tell anybody. Then, you can serve.¨
Di mo yata nabasa kung ano ang gusto nila (gay activists) maliban sa pagsali sa militar…gusto nila na payagan din silang gumamit ng uniform ng kung anong uniform ang preferred nila…example: a military man wearing a military womans uniform…this should be very elegant at astig..right?
if you’re gay and you dont tell anyone about it..thats fine, I agree with you. And Im sure there are already gays right now in the military..even in the PNP. SO ano pa ba ang issue? ang issue ay gusto nila ng mas pa na freedom of expression…meron bang ganun sa militar? siguro dapat baguhin ang policy sa militar..tulad ng ¨kung gay ka, pwede kang magpakita ngiyong pagkagay at magdamit ng uniform ng babaeng militar kung gugustuhin mo¨
ayos yun…
There have been gay officers in the AFP on both sides; however, a few years ago, one was discharged for sexual harassment after he was caught en flagrant délit, he could have gone on being an officer.
I also knew a commodore who, in my opinion, was an excellent officer; he was taunted by many junior officers behind his back so I asked his PMA classmates whether there was any truth in the taunt – they confirmed their classmate was absolutely but not openly gay; overall, he showed he was in command and military life under his command went on as usual…he retired without any problems.
as you say, the military is replete with stories….
So, nothing new there; openly recruiting them is merely officialising the move.
In the final analysis me thinks its not about gender preferences or kung miemnro ka ng ‘federasyon’.
Ang pagsapi sa Hukbong Samdatahan ay tungkol saintegridad, katapatan sa watawat, at kahandaan ibuwis ang bawan para sa Inang Bayan.
There were good military commanders who were
Gays. Alexander the Great was Gay. Can you
question his military leadeship ? He led an
army from various nationalities. Conquered
almost half of the world.
why not create GMA? Gays Military Academy…thre they can enforce anything gays would want to have in a military service.
GMA sound good…
sorry, leadship should be leadership…I am not
Gay. I am married to a pretty girl, totally straight. I just want to inform everybody, that Gay people are people like you and me. They have only different sexual preferences…
gay and lesbian can be a liability in a sense that opponents will use it against them. it can also be a moral issue. If they can perform their job descriptions, why not? besides we all need sex at the end or at the start of the day :) A mere flirting at place of work is a liability. if one mixes his/her sexuality at work and use his/her position to satisfy one’s needs DURING WORK then HE/SHE BECOMES INAPROPRIATE. in bisaya ” ilansang sila sa krus” :)
if you are gay..and you wanna be gay…dont join in the military..and if you are gay but you wanna be a soldier..then be a soldier first before being gay.
” ilansang sila sa krus” …managan ta!!!!!
ug pagapurong purungan sa mahait nga “toot”…mamalik ta!!!!
:)
hahaha, juwan D bisaya diay ka? yeah pag purong purongan gyud sa mahait na tunok . LOL
if you all want to experiment your sexuality, do it with care and have fun with it. Mixing work and sexuality will cause you your career , your life , your happiness and your significant others. If I were you, be smart, kay na malansang gyud ka sa krus :) but i’m not here to judge. Living in hell is not after we die. Living in hell applies to everyone. It is like the night and day of the living dead brought by the suffering from economic distress that our leaders have done for this country. To me, the pinoys are almost living in hell. No prayers will move the mountains of mount APO. No good gay and lesbian military officers will do it.
I will always blame officialdom therefore “sila ang ilansang sa Krus” ..
ang mga politiko ilansang sa krus!!!…managan ta!!!
ug pagapurong-purungan sa kwartang perteng daghana…mamalik ta!!!!
hahahaha…bisaya kaayo ni uy!!!!
This is not about “gay rights” or equality. This is all about trying to force a lifestyle down everybody’s throats. Soldiers do not and have never cared, if a fellow Soldier in his unit might be gay. Nobody cares and it was never an issue, as long as everybody does their jobs. It will become an issue if homosexual Soldiers start announcing their sexual preference. Why? because nobody wants to know. Nobody wants to know who’s gay when your in an open bay shower. Nobody wants to know who’s gay when conducting combatives training. Nobody wants to know who’s gay when your living with a bunch of guys in close quarters. Those Idiots conducting and stating “studies” that an openly gay Military is a good thing, are probably the same morons preoccupied with uniform designs and slogans.
Politics is like a posterior or a behind of a big elephant or a mule each one has it’s own. The big picture here is wether an individual, an officer or not, could function, coordinate or carry on a job in a military setting. I think it requires more of a character and intelligence. Most people associate gay to cross-dresser,transexual,transvestite and different
sexual practices. They don’t have to be all rolled into one to be considered as gay. There are some straight people who practices any one or two things that I’ve mentioned but they’re not gay. You call it a lifestyle or however, but if you look or know some history in the past, wars were led and won by great men who happened to be gay. Kingdoms, nations, civilizations were led by gays. People became homophobic when HIV and AIDS came to be and the rest is history. Military is not perfect or it’s ever about perfection otherwise we’ll just depend on the Boys scouts to do the job. I don’t think that the Almighty’s mentality is black and white. After all good and evil, straight and non , ugly and beautifull, and all the yin-yang are all created by him.
I have pointed out that Alexander the Great of
Macedonia, Greece was Gay.
He had no problem leading a good Army, formulating
strategies to win wars and conquering half of the
world.
Why all the shouting about Gays in the Military ?
Are you all homophobics ?
Bottomline, at the moment, two systemic problems in the AFP ought to be confronted with some solutions, namely:
1. shortage of personnel of some 7,000 slots unfilled
2. a graying population with average age of personnel at 40 (too old)
To solve these, AFP relaxes the screening process as not minding whether applicant is noticeable gay or lesbian as the case may be.
To solve these, they might even have to recruit “felons” or lower the bar in their IQ requirements just so to capture the out of school youth who can meet the physical requirements.
A lot more can be experimented on – not just being second rate copy cat of US.
Is the Philippines Ready for a Gay President???
Yes! Yes! Yes!
Once upon a time when there was ROTC, gays were lumped into one company. One of the famous TV anchors today and a prominent UP Diliman student politician during his student days was a member of that company. :-) Guess who?!?
I don’t have a problem with gays in the armed services if their rights can be guaranteed. First of all gays and non-gays should realize that sexual harassment is an offence. The problem is that in most armies, gender sensitivity is something yet to be achieved.
I can understand. The classic statement of soldiers that they have “no problem with gays if they don’t share the shower with me” still rings true.
It is a good thing that females have been given combat roles and this breaks down gender stereotypes.
But the problem of the AFP is getting good men and women to join. The perceived corruption of the AFP doesn’t help at all. Civvies like me believe that the reason why the AFP has no fighters or blue water warships is because of corruption.
ROTC should be strengthened. ROTC should be voluntary and should be a scholarship program.
And the PMA should be abolished and replaced by a National Defence University. During the time of the Great Apo, an idea was floated that the University of the Philippines can serve as the national defence university. In fact a defence campus in the UP System was contemplated. This was during the time of Emmanuel Soriano as UP prez. But then of course the Apo was a Vanguard, Fabian Ver was a Vanguard and the Vanguards were on top then!
Back then peemayers can’t hold a candle to Vanguards (don’t know in military tactics but I know that the UP Rayadillo can easily best the mistahs on the parade ground!)
NSTP is a flop and a joke at UP. After all, how can you serve the nation if you just fold origami paper!?!
ROTC should be made a required subject for the first year and the students can opt to continue on to a defence track or a civilian oriented service track for the second year and beyond for the advanced course both civilian and military. This is the voluntary part. ROTC subjects can be designed to remove the negative connotations it had in the past.
However the drilling and the marching are still needed! I miss the Saturday pastime of counting Rayadillo cadets that collapse! (FA kasi ako!)
Also I want to see female cadets drilling in the Sunken Garden! :-)
It is good to be a nationalist. But, the reality
of our times is we are in the Globalization Age.
We are all citizens of the world. Any person from
any country formulate good ideas, invent new
technologies, discover new discoveries…mankind
shares it.
The wheel had been invented many centuries ago.
Why would anyone with a carabao sense try to
reinvent the Philippine version of the wheel ?
If it works,tested, gives good results.
Use it.
I disagree with some of the comments. I don’t think this is a gay issue, rather, an acceptance of some very, very harsh reality. Of course, it was bound to happen. And it’s happening now. Like you what you said:
To me, the Secretary is wrong. I believe some very, very bad decisions were made in the past that is now haunting them. Worse, bad eggs in their camp painted a truly bad picture of everyone in the military.
ROTC – when they abolished ROTC, they abolished the “being in the military” from the minds of students, because now, they don’t have any clue since it’s the ROTC that offers a glimpse or a window of opportunity of how to be in the military. Instead, students minds were now into something else, like, Friendster?! or Internet gambling?
PMA – this is similar to the mentality and/or jokes that there are only two graduates in the Philippines. UP or “others”. Essentially, PMA killed every competitor out there. Meaning, if you are a graduate of this school, you have certain preferred status. It’s discrimination versus everyone else. Why not accept everyone who applies to PMA or why not open it up to anyone who wants to be in the military? Better else, like you said, dissolve it. It’s only serving a few.
Corruption and untrustworthiness of certain people in the military – need we all debate this?
Military as paramilitary or security guards of some politicians – to a certain extent they’ve been reduced as security guards of “select” people, especially during elections. Need we explain further? Am sure you’ve seen and/or heard incidents of these types in so many elections in the past.
Military seen by majority of the public as not serving them – and this is a very sad factor. It’s very disheartening, especially if you live in the barrio, that people thinks very differently of the military. This is the challenge for the military, on how to reverse people’s mindset. But how can you do that? When you see on the headlines, the very people who were supposed to protect are involved in all kinds of controversy?
And to think that we’re not even talking about the budget in the military! Are they still using tirador? Do you know? If our neighbors have MIG-29s of F16s, we have the entire province of Aklan. Hahaha! But even if you give them budget and they look up to Malacanang who are also mired themselves in corruption allegations – geez! Ano ba?! Anyway, here are my thoughts!
First, there are members of the military who are honest and are truly in the military to serve the country. It’s not fair that they suffer the negativities. They have a lot of cleaning up to do, as far as their image is concerned.
Next, they should consider offering incentives to would-be recruits. I know that in the US, they visit high schools and openly recruit students. Sometimes, I even saw them in the mall. They convince kids that if they join the military, they could see the world for free, get free education and get x amount of dollars in salary and retirement. Obviously, it has worked for the US Military.
Third, bring back ROTC and Citizens Training in High School.
Fourth, what do you do with corrupt people in the military? Baby sit? I don’t know. I’m still tuned-in to so many of these corruption drama going on.
Obviously, in problem resolution, first, you must understand what the problem is. Then you can go into the solution phase. What I mean is that, recruiting gays to join the military does not solve the problem of the drop in military recruits. Eh baka mas lalong lumayas ang mga deretso nito?! Di kaya? Although, I would love to see pink military uniforms at kung pano rumampa ang mga sundalo. Hahaha! One thing I know, baka mawala ang mga Abu Sayaf pag sinugod sila nang mga bakla.
me….hahaha…
as long as gay and lesbians and etc. can use rifles and the can do their job there is nothing wrong with that gays in military