Three weeks to the end of his extended term, Gloria Arroyo’s favorite general, AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon, is still at it with his "divide and conquer" strategy on the 28 officers he imprisoned for refusing to allow themselves in to be used in thwarting the will of the people in the 2004 elections.

Last week, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and 20 other detained officers were brought back to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal more than two months after they were brought against their will to the ill-ventilated ISAFP detention quarters in Camp Aguinaldo. (Col. Ariel Querubin and Major Leomar Jose Doctolero are in Camp Aguinaldo hospital. Brig. Gen. Danny Lim is in Camp Crame with the Magdalo officers.)

Miranda is alone in a heavily secured facility for VIP detainees inside the camp. It’s the same place where former President Estrada was also confined before he was allowed to transfer to his private estate across the military camp before he was pardoned and set free.

The 20 other officers are back at their former detention quarters which was fortified when they were in Camp Aguinaldo. A relative of one of the officers said whereas before the setup was barracks style with all the officers in one big room, the officers are now in individual cells enclosed by steel bars. There’s a receiving room enclosed by chicken wire. There are six poorly ventilated conjugal rooms.

But four of the officers, Col. Orlando de Leon. Lt. Col. Achilles Segumalian, Lt. Col. Edmundo Malabanjot and Maj. Jason Aquino were left in the ISAFP compound. There were no orders to bring them to Tanay.

The changes in their detention conditions defy rhyme and reason. When they were brought to the ISAFP compound early February, Esperon said that it was being done to be near hospital facilities because a number of them required medical attention. But the facility lived up to the description of one lawyer as a "torture chamber" in this sweltering summer with its poor ventilation. More officers got sick.

With the return of majority of the officers to Camp Capinpin, Esperon’s justification of "to be near hospital facilities" has been exposed to be merely a cover-up for a more devious plan which is to soften the junior officers to plead guilty just like what former Magdalo officers Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo and seven others did in exchange for a pardon from Arroyo. A plea of guilty by some officers would give the prosecution something against the senior officers Esperon really wants to pin down.

Looking back at the persuasive visits of Maj. Cristobal JP "Tiny" Perez, administrative officer of Esperon, to the younger officers when they were still at the ISAFP compound, Trixie Angeles, lawyer of Capt. Ruben Guinolbay, said he (Perez) would have been hard put to pass them on as "casual" if the officers were in Tanay. Unfortunately for Esperon, none of the officers took the bait he dangled.

Angeles said the four remaining officers in ISAFP – De Leon, Segumalian, Malabanjot, Aquino – are considered the "hardliners" and Esperon may be thinking that Perez would have a better chance convincing the younger officers without the elders there to be confided in and consulted with.

The next hearing is scheduled on Friday, April 25, at the Daza Park in Camp Aguinaldo. The prosecution is expected to tell the court martial panel if they have determined basis for a "nolle prosequi" which is Latin for "we shall no longer prosecute" or "unwilling to pursue".

In the hearing last April 4, military defense lawyer Basilio Pooten entered an urgent manifestation for nolle prosequi. It will be recalled that a pre-trial investigation report on the Feb. 2006 alleged plan of the officer to withdraw support from Arroyo had recommended that the charge of mutiny be dismissed for "lack of legal and factual basis." The minor charges of conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman and disrespect towards the president have prescribed and are considered dropped.

If the prosecution finds basis for nolle prosequi, they will make their recommendation to the chief of staff. Hearings may be suspended while awaiting decision of the chief of staff.

If the prosecution finds no basis for a nolle prosequi, the court will proceed with the arraignment for the charge of mutiny.

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