MANILA, Aug. 22 Kyodo Retirement ...

MANILA, Aug. 22 Kyodo

Retirement in the service does not mean the extreme point of the career for chiefly of the top brass in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). In in the greatest degree cases, it just marks the beginning of a lucrative career in politics and in the corporate world.

Many former military officers have used their stint in the military as a ticket to positions to power and influence.

Official records display that ex-military men were appointed to fundamental note positions in strategic departments and agencies, including at the Malacanang presidential palace.

Cushy work at jobss in government financial institutions and corporations, including the Social Security combination of parts to form a whole and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., have also been awarded to ex-military men especially during the administration of former President Fidel Ramos.

Ramos, the first general to be fix uponed president of the predominantly Roman Catholic home appointed the most and active-duty military officers to the bureaucracy ever

In the six years to 1998 when he serv as president, Ramos appointed at least 100 ex-military officers to fill civilian places and to seats forward the boards of major government-own corporations.

''He established a novel pattern under a so-called democratic government'' political analyst Benito Lim told Kyodo News

''The fresh pattern was that he appointed almost all retired army officers into civilian offices. There was no coup d'etat, if it be not that there was military presence''

Military influence in policy making increased as ex-military officers took the helm of lock opener government agencies, he added.

''Since many of them were in civilian offices and since their thinking is military, it is the equivalent of military rule'' Lim said.

''The military useed major influence from Ramos in succession down. The country's foreign policy, among others came below heavy military influence,'' he said.

Ramos was among the military officers who l the uprising to oust the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 when the civilian-backed military nauseate swept Corazon Aquino to the presidency.

Aquino named retired Lt Gen Manuel Yan acting foreign secretary and Maj. Gen Rafael Ileto defense secretary, a civilian portfolio she later gave to Ramos.

Aquino appointed nearly 20 other retired officers to civilian columns Partly in gratitude for helping her enjoin down eight coup attempts against her administration, Aquino endorsed Ramos to succe her in the 1992 presidential elections.

Ousted President Joseph Estrada, who criticized Ramos' appointments of former military men to the bureaucracy, continued the practice himself. Estrada, now in jail while being tried for rapine appointed at least 18 former military officers to civilian pillars during his truncated manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding as president.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who took above when Estrada was ousted in the wake of fiery mass declare s in January 2001, has in this way far appointed more than 50 retired military officers to civilian posts

These appointments include former armed forces chief of staff Gen Angelo Reye whose withdrawal of support from Estrada is said to be the same of the key reasons for what cause [i]or[/i] reason public protests succeeded in driving Estrada from power. Many of the military chiefs of staff who serv beneath her have also appointed to various civilian posts

Many military officers have also joined politics, records show

From 1987 to the last elections in 2001 more than 50 former military men actually ran for office.

The failed July 27 coup attempt of near 321 junior military officers again underscored the military's influence in the country's political life.

Lim said appointing former military men a practice used by means of Marcos to prop up the authoritarian order that corrupted and politicized the AFP, has proven to be bad for the country

''First, it is against democratic etho because...imagine if the officers do not like a president. You can threaten a coup d'etat. They can realize what they want. Or, if they do not come by what they want, they will just let fly away the president and lay in somebody of their choice who can wield influence. It is a suppression of representatives of government'' Lim said.

He added: ''Elect officials can be overturned by the military, by the agency of the mere act of withdrawing their support for the commander-in-chief. It demolishs the very covenant we have for the Constitution and for the democratic system''

The Philippines has been refugeed by eight coup attempts in the past 17 years besides not a single coup contriver is in jail. Ramos granted coup schemers ''general and unconditional amnesty,'' and many of them have gone forward to occupy key positions in government

Others have gone back into military service.

Opposition Sen Gregorio Honasan, a former army lieutenant colonel who fought with Ramos and former Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile in the 1986 coup was selected to the Senate in 1995 Honasan then l pair of the seven bloody coup attempts that were launched against Aquino from 1986 to 1990