By Glenda Gloria
Newsbreak

They are so alike in many ways. They belong to elite fighting units in the Armed Forces, their men look up to them, and they have scars to show-physical and psychological-for the cause they once fought for as leaders of the Young Officers Union. They're very good friends as well.

When Lim and Querubin led the December 1989 coup that came close to toppling the Aquino government, both were 33. Now 50 years old, they've come full circle, yet again mired in a rebellion that many thought they had shaken off from their system.

Government bullets pierced through Querubin's chest in his daring attack on Camp Aguinaldo on the first day of the failed 1989 coup. He survived, won an amnesty in 1995 under the Ramos administration, and went back to the Marines, embraced by the organization that he rebelled against. In 2000, he led his battalion in a ferocious fight against Muslim rebels in Lanao, for which he was awarded the coveted Medal of Valor.

Lim was not wounded in the 1989 coup, but had to carry the burden of leading his fellow Scout Rangers back to barracks after they gave up on their siege of Makati's financial district. His career took a backseat after, but he came back with a vengeance after the 1995 amnesty, returning to the Scout Rangers and getting his first star in 2003-the youngest general to be named and one who jumped over many heads in the hierarchy.

It was President Arroyo who gave Lim his first star-a move that critics say was the President's way of rewarding her "adopted" classmate in the Philippine Military Academy (1978). Lim belongs to Class 1978 because he spent his first year at the PMA with them before going to West Point. Querubin is likewise associated with Class 1978 because he spent years with them, too, before he was turned back and was made to graduate with Class 1979.

Ironically, Lim's career was resurrected under the Estrada administration when he was appointed to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) under then DILG Undersecretary Narciso Santiago, husband of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago. After Estrada's ouster, Lim went back to the Army and shortly before the 2003 Oakwood mutiny was appointed commander of the First Scout Ranger Regiment.

On the other hand, Querubin spent most of his post-1989 years fighting Muslim guerrillas in the South. He was the deputy of then Brig. Gen. Renato Miranda when the latter was brigade commander in Basilan in 2002. Miranda was commandant of the Marines until his relief last February 26.

Before his brigade assignment in Marawi, Querubin headed the training center of the Marines based in Fort Bonifacio. It was in Fort Bonifacio where Querubin got wind of the complaints of young Marine officers about the conduct of the 2004 presidential elections. One officer who complained bitterly to him was his former deputy in Lanao: Lt. Col. Alexander Balutan, who would later testify with retired Brig. Gen. Francisco Gudani about alleged anomalies in the 2004 polls.

Lim was caught in a similar situation. His operations officer at the Rangers, Maj. Jason Aquino, was relieved last year for distributing leaflets that called for a new political system. Aquino was sacked from the Rangers amid speculations that Lim was either to be transferred to another post or sent abroad.

Asked about this, Lim told NEWSBREAK then in a text message: "If they transfer me this time, I'm going to retire."

They didn't-and he went on to lead yet another failed coup.