DEFENSE SECRETARY NORBERTO GONZALES already gave the nation “Oplan Bantay Laya,” the administration’s master plan for liquidating leftists, unleashing Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan to do its dirty work. When domestic and international public opinion loudly condemned her administration, President Macapagal-Arroyo responded by decrying extrajudicial killings while hailing Palparan in her 2006 State of the Nation Address. To this day, the disappearance of Jonas Burgos exemplifies the essential indifference and impunity the administration demonstrates towards the issue of extrajudicial killings.

While Oplan Bantay Laya nominally began in 2002, when Angelo Reyes was secretary of national defense, it was during Norberto Gonzales Jr.’s stint as national security adviser beginning in 2004 that liquidation squads operating as some kind of parallel organization to the Armed Forces of the Philippines began to make their grisly presence felt in places like Central Luzon. Burgos was kidnapped during Hermogenes Ebdanes’ stint as defense secretary, but it was during Gonzales’ brief first tenure in the department (July to August 2007) that the AFP stopped going through the motions of appearing concerned over the case.

Fast forward to May 2009 when the President put forward during the Lakas-Kampi joint meeting her desire to put the “union” of local government units and the AFP as a major campaign plank going into the 2010 elections. No one in the new administration party registered an objection.

The plan was in place. The outgoing defense chief (and near-certain Lakas-Kampi presidential bet), Gilbert Teodoro, under whose watch the President proposed uniting the military and local governments so that “in 2010 [we will] have none of our LGUs flirting with the enemies of the state,” was blandly supportive of his successor, none other than the controversial Gonzales. “He is the choice of the President,” Teodoro said. “He had served as DND secretary before, a civilian. That is the choice of the President and we must support her choice.” In response to pesky human rights questions, Teodoro said, “We have human rights programs and enforcement. I think that will not change.”

Gonzales has now decided to further flesh out the administration plan by formally putting on the table an expanded role for the military in elections. He suggests that the AFP get involved in assigning security escorts to candidates, participating in the canvassing of votes, and transporting of ballot boxes. Under an existing agreement with the Commission on Elections, the military is limited to securing specific areas upon the Comelec’s request, operating checkpoints, and enforcing the gun ban during the election period.

Malacañang claims this is the Comelec’s idea, and that the President is only interested in principle while her defense secretary is still putting the proposal together.

Critics have expressed alarm over Gonzales’ latest brain child because it might reverse efforts to insulate the military from partisan politics and lead to a repeat of 2004, when partisan generals and other senior military officers engaged in electoral maneuvers on behalf of the administration. Gonzales for his part claims the Maguindanao Massacre lends urgency to his proposal.

The blunt reality is that Gonzales is merely implementing a policy the President herself laid out as a core strategy for her party retaining its clout beyond 2010. Partisanship is precisely what she wants, for both the military and her local allies: a partnership with specific political objectives in mind.

On the eve of Teodoro’s selection as administration standard bearer, former Rep. Prospero Pichay said Lakas-Kampi-CMD could count on a solid 33 percent of the votes, which its local allies would deliver for their presidential candidate. A public unaware of the President’s marching orders found this assertion crazy. Under the supervision of the military’s guns, upon the helpful urging of the Comelec, this disturbing possibility becomes more plausible.