By Fe Zamora
Inquirer
March 5, 2006

AS he lay dying in January last year, retired Commodore Domingo Calajate kept asking for Capt. Danilo Lim. When Lim finally showed up at the Cardinal Santos Hospital, the nurses heaved a sigh of relief and ushered him into a room.

“How can I refuse a dying man’s wish?” Lim would tell the Inquirer in May at the Club Filipino, where he was given a testimonial dinner for his promotion as brigadier general, and as chair of the Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa (RAM), which was Calajate’s dying wish.

In his speech, Lim dispelled doubts about possible conflict of interest that may arise from his positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and in RAM, which, despite a peace pact with the government, continues to be linked to destabilization plots. Lim emphasized that under his helm, RAM would become a civic group, even a cooperative for the welfare of retired and active military men.

Calajate’s final request highlighted his trust and confidence in Lim over the more senior former Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, who co-founded RAM, then known as Reform the Armed Forces Movement, in 1985. Honasan tried to wrest control of RAM by declaring himself chair of the steering committee. But majority of RAM’s some 4,000 membership agreed to honor Calajate’s choice.

Former rebel soldiers from RAM, Young Officers Union and the Soldiers of the Filipino People (SFP) speak highly of Lim’s role in the peace negotiations in 1993, which resulted in amnesty in 1995. Except for those who opted to retire with full benefits, the mutinous troops, including those convicted for the 1987 violent attack on Camp Aguinaldo, were reinstated and given back pay for years spent in the military stockade.

No work no pay

Lim, the defiant Army captain who led the march of fully armed Rangers back to Fort Bonifacio after a failed coup in December 1989, waived his back pay, invoking his personal creed of “no work, no pay.” But he would not impose his belief on others. That was one of the reasons he negotiated the back pay.

Close friends said that was typical Danny, whose military career had been described by his wife, Aloysia Tiongson-Lim, as an exhilarating “roller-coaster ride.”

“Danny’s military career can be described as a roller-coaster ride mainly due to his principles, advocacy and fight for ideals in the military organization and good governance for the country,” she wrote in the class roster.

West Point

A 1978 graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point and member of the same batch at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), Lim’s military career began as platoon leader of the all-Igorot Forward Recon Unit based in Jolo, a unique group organized and led by another controversial officer, then Lt. Ricardo “Dick” Morales.

But Lim’s career took a nosedive when rebel soldiers led by him occupied the Makati commercial district from Dec. 1 to 7, 1989 in an attempt to unseat President Corazon Aquino.

The Scout Rangers occupied Makati after other rebel attempts to seize military installations had failed, including the rebel Marines who rammed Gate 1 of Camp Aguinaldo with a Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT), leaving more than a dozen soldiers dead and wounded.

... Ariel Querubin’s escape

Among the ‘cadavers’ was the team leader—then Capt. Ariel Querubin. Querubin was bleeding profusely from wounds in the stomach. A doctor who checked the cadavers for identification, however, noticed a slight twitch on his finger.

Querubin was nursed back to life at the V. Luna Hospital where he would escape months later with the help of the doctor. Years after the incident, Querubin would tell the Inquirer that his getaway vehicle was driven by a businessman.

Wanted

He joined the underground rebel group when the military issued “wanted posters” with rewards for him and three other Marines who were branded “mad bombers and terrorists.” Then AFP chief of staff Gen. Renato de Villa even described Querubin as “psychotic.”

By that time, however, Querubin’s exploits at Gate 1 had already formed part of combat stories that soldiers love to talk about among themselves.

Even his classmates expressed awe at his exploits, but in typical PMA banter. “Whenever we hear rumors of a coup, we always ask, ‘On which side is Ariel?’ We don’t want to be on his side because he would surely survive, and we won’t,” a colonel from PMA Class 1979 said with a laugh.

Truancy

Even at the PMA, Querubin already led a charmed life, according to another classmate. Querubin was originally a member of class 1977, but was “turned back” twice for various infractions of PMA regulations, such as drinking alcohol, breaking curfew and even plain truancy. “But never on academic deficiencies,” Querubin once told the Inquirer.

That Lim and Querubin would find themselves on the same side during the 1989 coup was something that colleagues did not find surprising. But their amnesty and subsequent promotion were resented by officers who fought them during the coup. One officer said promoting Lim would send the wrong signal to younger officers that in the military “one can get away with murder.”

The rebellious past of Querubin was also the subject of discussion by the board that decided to award him the Medal of Valor. A source, who was privy to the discussion, said the issue also hinged on the “wrong signal” that could arise from giving the most prestigious medal to a former rebel.

That they would become “suspects” in fresh plots to unseat a President also did not surprise a police senior superintendent, who is close to both Lim and Querubin.

“They are not corrupt. They are both idealists and they have their own tales of heroism that would inspire soldiers to follow them,” the source, a 1978 PMA graduate who is involved in monitoring suspected coup plotters, told the Inquirer.