What's interesting is why he felt he had to justify himself to the military. The rest of his remarks betrays his real concern: animosity between the military and police. People are missing out on the full implications of his having to go and make these remarks where/when he did.
Try this exercise and read his remarks as Tweeted, in reverse, since he indulges in stream-of-consciousness talking anyway. The main problem is this: he only has two years left. The clock runs out then resets for everyone: everyone who's done his bidding, everyone who's gained...
at the expense of others. Since 1986 only one president has has succeeded in getting a hand-picked successor elected so odds are against even this incumbent doing it. If he fails, then: the cops and officials who engaged in and supported liquidations can face charges, victims...
of political persecution will be released or actually find justice, the government protection for favored businessmen won't necessarily remain, etc., etc. Just when the last two years are counting down, aside from the economy being in worst state since WW2, you have problems...
in the military being furious at the police, for the killing of an ex soldier with PTSD and the liquidation of military intelligence agents, you have ambushes by the NPA when the President released the NPA leadership and made their aboveground allies part of his government...
you had the military establishment have to hold the line against nationwide martial law, hold the line against involving the armed forces in the so-called drug war, and clean up the mess caused by his flirting with Communists, and backing the corrupt, incompetent cops which...
the military have always actively despised. Then you had to have the military walk back the attempted dismantling of the whole alliance architecture of the country, including reinstating the VFA and resuming the upgrading of the armed forces, and walking back to lesser extent...
the slavish rhetoric about China, and you add to that tensions in Mindanao where the military has long wanted a peace agreement to last, and you understand why the President braved the veerus to talk to the military and find ways, any way, to convince them not to get angry.
As it is, the military have seen the limits of their own abilities even as the President tried to entice them to be implicated fully in his plans. Like many weak leaders he seems to believe military men are magical beings who can do what civilians can't: organize things. So...
he stuffed his government full of them, especially to compensate for initially putting much of the government's resources in the hands of his Communist allies. To a certain extent, it worked: drilled to obey, they became functioning subordinates in contrast to many of his...
civilian appointments. But both he and they discovered the difference, in logistics, policy, planning and most of all, execution, between having generals in military command and in civilian authority: in command, subordinates are soldiers trained to obey; in civilian life, it...
isn't automatic and requires political and administrative skill. So you have the beautiful and often sensible plans of the IATF and the non-performance of the DOH not to mention the helter-skelter nature of everything. But still, the military is also a simple-minded creature...
and needs red meat such as the anti-terror law, which however, will be left in the hands of civilians to implement on the whole and already one of its proponents had to remind the President he can't decree the abolition of entire movements. Which only goes to underscore a very...
curious development, which was the reluctance of the armed forces to take on even more power for itself (again, this is a reminder that the civilians were all for martial law but it was specific, public, moves of the armed forces which prevented a nationwide proclamation of...
martial law and, it may turn out with more investigation, a more ceremonial and not practical implementation of it in Mindanao). So the President was being spiteful when he said he didn't need martial law to take down the Lopezes --these are the instances when he can be tone-deaf
... So, what we had is: President is uneasy; military is sore; the civilian political class knows who holds the public purse, so they are going to be loyal to him until the campaign starts. And he still lacks a viable successor to anoint, also knowing anointing is of limited...
value. Still, when he appears, they stand and salute, and perhaps that is all the optics needed for now.
Addendum: Joel Rocamora focuses on the local dynamics, a very interesting POV. 
