 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Coup Plot It Wasn�t By Antonio C. Abaya Written May 03, 2005 For the Manila Standard Today May 05 issue Former defense secretary, former ambassador to China, and former AFP major general Fortunato U. Abat has been publicly calling for a transitional revolutionary government for more than a year � I wrote about it in my column titled �Provisional Government� (Jan. 28, 2004) � so if he is indeed guilty of inciting to sedition now, he should have been arrested for it more than a year ago. The difference seems to be that he has actually taken the extra step of convening an assembly in Club Filipino last Saturday, April 30, of like-minded critics where he repeated his call for the replacement of the Arroyo Government with a revolutionary council (or junta, let�s not be coy about this), to be headed by himself, if nobody else wanted the job. (In 2003-04, he had proposed Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. as head of junta, which Davide declined to even consider.) In his defense, Abat says that he does not and did not call for the overthrow of the Arroyo Government, only for the resignation of President Arroyo. But this is hair-splitting worthy only of shampoo commercials. In the 1986 EDSA People Power uprising, would President Marcos and his family have fled from Malacanang to Hawaii on board US aircraft if the repeated calls for his resignation had not been accompanied by rampaging mobs out to scale the walls of the presidential palace? Similarly, in the January 2001 EDSA uprising, would President Estrada have taken that fateful final boat ride down the Pasig from Malacanang with his tearful family, if the many demands for his resignation at the EDSA Shrine had not been given immediacy by a force of 50,000 marchers heading for Malacanang? In the faux EDSA counter-uprising of May 1, 2001, a mob of creatures from the blue lagoon actually descended on the presidential palace calling on President Arroyo to resign, egged on by the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor Santiago, but I do not recall their being slapped with charges of inciting to sedition or rebellion. On the other hand, if Fortunato Abat is guilty of sedition, or inciting to sedition, in 2005 (even if no one has bothered to march to Mendiola), then so were the shock troops of the middle-class in EDSA 1 and EDSA 2. And so were the intellectuals and the firebrands who led the American Revolution of 1776, the French Revolution of 1789 and the Philippine Revolution of 1896. Were angry mobs required to produce a permit when they massed at the Bastille? Sedition, like history, is written and defined by the victors. But unfortunately for Abat, he did not come out the victor in this fray. Far from being a coup plot, that meeting in Club Filipino was an opera comique, with a cast of 300 malcontents who apparently hardly knew each other. Having gathered such a motley crew of mostly unknowns, Abat walked out of his own meeting when some of the attendees demanded that he, Abat, lead them to join in the May Day demos the next day. According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (May 1), the 300 attendees �came from some 20 organizations, a number of them previously unheard of.� The paper did not even bother to name those �unheard of� organizations, other than that evangelist Eddie Villanueva sent a representative (Luis Sison), and that Linda Montayre of the Philippine Consultative Assembly of Two came but left immediately, perhaps because the other One did not show up. Calling this gathering a coup plot just because they all want to demand the resignation of President Arroyo is like calling, say, the daily mob scene at Pier 2 an invasion plot just because they all want to go to Bacolod. Just as Gringo Honasan had his Program for National Recovery (or something like that), Abat had his Program for National Salvation, with its 64 �must-do� programs of governance, a copy of which he sent me some three weeks ago. The difference, of course, is that Honasan had 300 military mutineers, armed with high-powered rifles and C4 plastique explosives who actually took over Makati�s Oakwood Hotel in July 2003 and threatened to blow it up if their objectives were not realized. Among those objectives were the overthrow of the Arroyo Government and the setting up of a military junta, to be led by their Kuya (plus, incidentally, the restoration of their apparent financier Joseph Estrada to the presidency, even for only three days, enough time for Erap to unilaterally cancel the plunder charges pending against him, after which he couldn�t care less what happens to this country.) Abat, of course, had no armed group with him, only a bevy of geriatric generals and admirals. And if his aim was, as some allege, to restore Fidel Ramos to power (with what? Viagra pills?), then picture this: an 80-year old �coup-plotter� attempting (kuno) to restore a 76-year old ex to the throne. Indeed, an opera comique set in Ruritania, with music by Johann Strauss Jr. But, to his credit, Abat voiced the sentiments of many concerned Filipinos, including this writer, that the Philippine political system is morally and functionally bankrupt. It is in terminal decline, and is not capable of cleansing and regenerating itself. Why so? The seeds of its own corruption are planted every time we hold an election. It costs so much money to run for public office, even for mayor of a third class town, that it becomes a business investment that has to be recovered many times over, by hook or by crook (mostly by crook) when that office is won, even if it takes electoral fraud on a massive scale and/or the murder of political opponents to win it. And not just an ordinary business, but a family business, far more lucrative than practicing a profession or engaging in commerce or industry. So Papa is senator, Mama is governor, Kuya is congressman, Ate is mayor, and even the family idiot is a municipal councilor, with everyone and his duly appointed spouses, lovers and relatives rent-seeking all the way to the bank. The communists claim we are all victims of neo-colonialism for being lapdogs of US imperialism. I say, rather, that we are victims of what I call neo-feudalism, a condition in which political power emanates, not from land-holdings, but from the control of elective and appointive public offices. The political dynasties who now monopolize our politics will never agree to reforms that will dilute their power or curtail the spread of their tentacles. Even constitutional amendments to be engineered by trapos will be meant to benefit only the trapos. Only a revolutionary government not beholden to any trapo or dynasty can exterminate this giant octopus that grows ever more humongous and ever more corrupt with each (fraudulent) election. Abat may have misjudged the time for a revolutionary government. To succeed, a revolutionary change-over needs a trigger event or a tipping point. In May 2005, there is no such trigger event or tipping point. But, given the widening anger and disenchantment of the middle class, that time will surely come. And if there are still those who shake in their boots whenever they hear or read the �R� word, let them be reminded that the saintly Cory Aquino was a revolutionary president at the head of a revolutionary government from February 1986 to September 1987. That nothing revolutionary transpired then or since is just another example of the many missed opportunities of the Filipino nation. So, arrest me. Reactions to [email protected] or fax 824-7642. Other articles in www.tapatt.org. |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Coup Plot It Wasn�t� Dear Tony---Just read your column �Coup Plot It Wasn�t.� It�s one of your masterpieces. Just arrived yesterday and in 2 hours I started to cough so badly and incessantly that I rushed to my pulmonologist before her clinic closed. I was fine until I stepped on Philippine soil . My doctor said it�s the severe pollution in Metro Manila . For the first time she prescribed a steroid medicine . Aside from the medicine, it�s your article that�s making me feel better, but I have to stay put in my home until I see her again on Monday. Thank you for giving me some good moments reading a great article and speaking like a legal expert with political offenses as your field of expertise. Best regards. Josie T. Lichauco, [email protected] May 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. To Mr. Abaya Tama po kayo. Maganda. Sana magresign na lang si GMA. Wala paring gloria, arroy(o) ko po lang. All the best. And thank you for sending me your email. Oscar Landicho, [email protected] Sydney, Australia, 6 May 05 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mr. Abaya, For some of us who are outside of the country and are desperately trying to understand the situation in the Philippines, your piece is very enlightening. It rounds up what Joma et al have been sharing with us, i.e., that the armed struggle is intensifying that it won't be long now when the Philippines shall become a national democratic socialist republic, Walden Bello's ideas and his fears that he might be stabbed to death to save on bullets, the publications of Bulatlat, those emanating from our Muslim brothers and sisters on their situation, the manifestos of some religious leaders, that famous CD of the military categorizing some enemies of some groups and some people, a peep into the mind of a very famous general through his scary pronouncements shared with the people of Samar and the world, the killings of the journalists and some Filipinos associated with Bayan Muna, reading the major online publications, the incessant e-mails of some colleagues in the Internet for the President to resign, the corruption among the generals, and the official pronouncements of Malacanang. The latest "data" that we are getting from the Philippines is the resignation of Gen. Victor Corpuz because of his reported differences with Mr. Defensor on some numbers. It seems Mr. Defensor is one of the owners of the Philippines. There are so many of them. Thank you, Mr. Abaya. Cesar Torres, [email protected] May 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, I have to admire Ret.Gen. Abat for trying. However, I can't see him, as he went through his organizing effort, as a good leader, good enough to be the president of his proposed transitional provisionary government. Why did he do it and only to fail? What a sham he made of his pretensions to the throne! I think the well-intentioned but poor leader Ret.Gen. Abat should slip back to his retirement and let someone else take up his idea, if ever it is good for the country. Was he really a failure? Or, did he do it for something he had been asking GMA to provide his retired co-military personnel and he finally got what he wanted by agreeing to fail? Hmmm... I may have underestimated the man. Ogie Reyes, [email protected] May 06, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww My dear Abaya, You are very accurate in your assesments. If the people would only read you, and take it all more seriously, we would be in better shape. Abat is an intersting diversion. I think the two Generals and a Colonel are the main reason he is needing to get a change of government. With a little conviction I am sure the State could find some very interesting skeletons in his cupboard. He is trying to protect the military before the witch-hunt goes too far. I am sure he is also backed by others in the ruling class who are likely to have their wealth affected by the present regime. Estrada by necessity has to finance and back any group agitating because he is becoming a spent force now and has to have some action soon or loose his power base, who are slowly moving on. Sedition and Treason are more simple to define in real democracies. In my opinion based on only what I read about "what he has said" I tend to think he has crossed the line of Sedition. In a real democracy talking or asking for anything other than a new election, and especially proposing any other form of government or "ruling council" or whatever. This is Sedition. The moment one convenes any gathering or even discusses the furthering of any other form of government, this is treason. If he was using the language of Tagalog, he may have used certain phrases which could maybe skate clear of what was being said. If he was using English, I think an analysis of what the words and phrases he used, mean in real English, he may not have skated as far from trouble as he thinks. There is also the typical smoke-screen motive here. They have to get Gloria to back off from too many changes before it is too late. Holding lots of revolutionary meetings, is probably trying to scare her into backing off. Abat and his ex-military are not the problem. The problem goes into the repercussions of the witch-hunt getting into the real power, to a point where it can not be controlled. Abat is the first round of action, just to shake things loose. We are still far from the "crowd for hire" stage. My suspicion is that the assorted delegates who attended the meeting were just checking out the"power available factor". Your assesment, that the Philippine political system is morally bankrupt is correct. It has been correct for many decades. Nobody seems to understand that the Marcos era Dynasty has never changed. It is alive and well and living in Malacanang. You have touched on the Dynastic realities when you discuss the fact that "Whole families" have been and still are in control of all the powers; from Governor down to Barangay Captain. A few interbred or financially inter-twined Presidents have changed over the last 50 years, but in reality nothing has changed at all. The Dynasty is doing well, and when Gloria goes it will do better. The Communist claim that we are victims of Neo-colonialism is accurate, what they don't say is that we are far more than victims. We are permanently attached to the money teat, and when the teat dries up we will fall to the ground. The ruling-class and the land owners are only able to keep going because the US and Japan are financing the Philippines. If they pulled the plug the ruling-class would not last through the night. Although they call Cory a revolutionary President, she was the last train leaving the Philippines. She single handedly destroyed the Philippines, and will go down in history as the only one who had any possibility of changing course, but failed. The Philippines is so far behind, it thinks its ahead. The last train has truly left. We don't even have any credible Revolutionaries available. Graham Reinders, [email protected] Vancouver, Canada, May 07, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Re: Huk Supremo Luis Taruc Dear Mr. Abaya, It would be nice to read A REQUIEM written by men closely associated with Supremo Luis Taruc mourning his death. Is there any "condolence" or Obituary from the Maoist group headed by JOMA Sison who i suspect entertained ideological difference with late Huk chieftain? Maraming salamat. Jose Sison Luzadas, [email protected] May 07, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Mr. Abaya, Warm greetings from Riyadh, KSA! We could not agree more with your very comprehensive and analytical view of our home situation. The OFWs have been willing victims of all inequities that happened back home For decades we have been the goose that lays the golden eggs keeping the economy afloat for three decades. Whoever sits in Malacanang, we have been consistent, always complaining but never heard of until the day we became critics of our own and started demanding what is due for us and our families. More power! Ka Rashid Fabricante, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 07, 2005 filcom leader, action officer - PMTF eLagda/ICOFVR Kilusang 6713 +966 509 823 303 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |