BY VICTOR REYES

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga. – Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Army chief Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano on Monday rejected the call of NBN-ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada for the military and the PNP to make a stand on the issue of corruption in the Arroyo government.

The corruption allegations are fuelling calls for President Arroyo’s resignation or removal from office.

"We are making a stand that the military should not be drawn into this... It would be better for us to stick to our mandate... We have been clear about it. There have been calls for our elements to join the fray. Our stand is we’d rather remain a constitutional organization following the chain of command, obeying the duly constituted authorities," Esperon said after the closing ceremonies for a three-week Balikatan exercise with US forces.

"Our stand is that the more that the military intervenes into such political exercises, the more that we weaken democracy that we regained, which we gained for ourselves in 1986," he added.

Lozada, who exposed alleged anomalies like payoffs in government’s national broadband network project with the Chinese firm ZTE Corp., said Sunday it was time for upright members of the AFP and the PNP to make a stand on the issue as the people are already "stirring."

Yano said the military’s stand is very clear.

"We have a mandate to perform and we are pursuing that mandate. We follow the chain of command, the duly constituted authority… We cannot afford to have extra-constitutional processes… We cannot afford to do short cuts," he said.

Yano said the military will not allow itself to be used "by any group" for extra-constitutional purposes.

Yano is succeeding Esperon as AFP chief when the latter finishes his extended tour of duty on May 9.

"There are many urgings for us to act but on what basis? On perceptions of individuals, on perception of groups?" he asked.

Yano said there will be "chaos" if the military and the PNP intervene in a political crisis.

Esperon disclosed fresh "attempts" by retired military officers to recruit active soldiers for a destabilization move against the Arroyo government "but they have not been successful in that."

He did not give names but implied the retirees were the same personalities involved in the supposed recruitment efforts for the November 29 standoff at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City.

Asked what the recruiters are telling the soldiers, Esperon said: "The same things, like coming out for the truth."

Text messages spread over a week ago, asking officers and men to come out in the open and expose anomalies in government.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he would still prefer a civilian-led over a military or police move to remove Arroyo from her post.

But he said a helping hand from the military and the police would be welcome, "on condition that there be no violence and much less bloodshed."

Cruz, a vocal Arroyo critic, said it is the people who have the sole right to remove their leader.

"The ideal remains that a civilian authority, including Arroyo, better be made to resign by a communal civilian action because it was the civilian Filipino majority that presumably put her in power – so they have the right of asking her to resign from office," said Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

He reiterated that the call for "people power" should be led by the public.

"The civilians are the supreme sovereign authority in the country and not Arroyo, the AFP and the PNP combined," he said. – With Gerard Naval