Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between President Gloria M. Arroyo and officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in order to consider the connection between the military and politics. During the Arroyo administration, some officers of the AFP staged several coup attempts. However, those attempts all failed to topple the administration, and no coup occurred in its final two and half years. On the contrary, in a last phase of the administration, there was speculation that President Arroyo was conspiring to declare martial law to extend her grip on power in collusion with AFP’s high-ranking officers.
Assuming that, despite the existence of discontent among officers, President Arroyo could win the support of generals and could build a relatively favorable relationship with the AFP, this paper examines what kind of and how the president build a relationship with the AFP. To examine these, this paper looks into the president’s manipulation of personnel affairs (appointments and promotions of AFP officers) and several factors which influenced her manipulation.
This paper demonstrates that by appointing AFP officers who were personally close to her and who were loyal to her, President Arroyo strengthened relationship with the AFP. Additionally, it will be pointed out that this kind of relationship which is based on personal closeness and loyalty is a general characteristic of civil-military relations in the Philippines.
