Photo courtesy: AP
“Sworn to Protect, Yet Serving the Corrupt”
It is clearly mandated under Section 3 of the Constitution that civilian authority is, at all times, supreme over the military, and that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) shall be the “protector of the people and the State”. This is not a mere statement of duty but a constitutional commandment. Yet, the troubling question remains: when leaders abuse their authority—pillaging public funds, pocketing the hard-earned taxes of citizens, and betraying the people they swore to serve—should not the AFP live up to its sworn duty to protect the Filipino people from such betrayal?
By choosing silence, the AFP fails to uphold its very mandate. Instead of standing as guardians of the people, they bow to and salute the very leaders who exploit and enslave the nation through negligence, corruption, and greed. This inaction becomes a dangerous form of complicity. The oath to protect the people is not fulfilled by blind obedience to corrupt authority, but by defending the people’s welfare against those who plunder it.
If the AFP continues to turn a blind eye, it reduces itself to a mere instrument of abusive leaders, rather than the protector of the people and the State. True loyalty is not to corrupt officials, but to the Constitution and to the Filipino people whose trust they are sworn to uphold.
