Modern soldiery interrogated: cataloguing the local military's tasks and their perception of local civilian actors

Abstract

The recent expansion of the Philippine military's tasks into areas not related to security and combat has had repercussions on their interface with local civilian actors. Through a survey of 93 soldiers from two communist front-line units in Western Visayas, the article examines the nature of tasks, civilian–military engagements and the soldiers' perception of local civilians. The soldiers perform predominantly non-combat tasks. They have more engagements with other local security forces and elected civilian authorities. These engagements are neither robust nor dense, with civilians providing material assistance to military-instigated activities. The soldiers have neutral views about elected authorities, civil society organizations and government agencies, and a moderately negative outlook towards the Commission on Human Rights, the media, the police and ex-rebels. The general skepticism over local government frameworks and capacity is tempered with the practical necessity of working with these local stru...