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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Idealism For Rent By Antonio C. Abaya July 30, 2003 It was probably the most pre-publicized coup attempt in the sorry post-EDSA history of this bizarre country. It was all there on the front page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer of Sunday, July 27. The headline said: �There will be a coup attempt over the weekend.� Were it not on the front page, the headline could have been like any other in the inside pages, such as �There will be a garden club meeting this Sunday.� Or �World will end in 2004.� It sounded so banal and perfunctory as to be boring.. A headline like �Joyce to bare her tits tonite� would have turned more heads. But there it was, and the story read ��I want you to know that there will be a coup attempt over the weekend.� �It was no less than President Macapagal-Arroyo who first alerted the leaders of civil society groups about �troop movements� last Friday. �But it was the chief of military intelligence, Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, who filled in the startling details the following day.� According to the Inquirer story, President Arroyo and/or Gen. Corpus told everyone that the coup attempt was timed for Monday, July 28, that four company commanders of the Scout Rangers had gone AWOL and were believed to have gone underground, that supporters of former President Estrada were planning to converge at the EDSA Shrine for a march to Malacanang, that aside from Estrada two senators were involved, that the plan was apparently to restore Estrada to power, that three days later a second coup would be staged to remove Estrada from power and install Sen. Gregorio Honasan as head of government, that there would be an attempt to seize the House of Representative and an unnamed TV station, that Sen. Panfilo Lacson was also involved. And so it did happen in the wee hours of that very day, Sunday, July 27, a day ahead of schedule, that some 296 army and navy mutineers, of whom 70 were junior officers, seized the Oakwood luxury hotel and part of the adjoining commercial complex, wired C-4 explosives to traffic signs and traffic islands (one wonders what kind of damage they expected to inflict on anyone or anything), and announced that they just wanted to air their grievances against their military superiors and against the government of President Arroyo. My first reaction, when I turned on the TV, was why Oakwood? Usually coup plotters aim for centers of power such as the presidential palace, the parliament building, or army command, etc and venues of communication such as the post office or a radio-TV station. This was probably the first coup attempt that targeted a hotel and commercial complex as its first tactical objective. (OK, it was the second. In July 1986, soldiers loyal to Ferdinand Marcos seized the Manila Hotel and vowed to restore him to power). The reason became obvious on Wednesday, July 30 when it was reported in Today that sophisticated high-tech communications equipment had been seized in Room 1805 of Oakwood. Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc catalogued the equipment found and put price tags on them: 500 brand-new radio transceivers, at P10,000-P12,000 each; Motorola and Icom base equipment, P30,000 each; Camelback hydration backpacks, at P2,000 each; ten satellite phones, at P45,000 each. The total value of the equipment was placed at more than P30 million. According to shipping documents recovered in Room 1805, the equipment were shipped via LBC from the �National Recovery Program� which happens to be the name of the ideology as well as the political organization headed by Gringo Honasan At around six that Sunday morning, a group of some 30 individuals, carrying (obviously prepared earlier) streamers bandying the National Recovery Program of Honasan were shown on TV marching on EDSA towards the Oakwood area; they were wisely turned back by police. A larger group led by Erap rabble-rouser Ronald Lumbao and Erap Agrarian Reform Secretary (and now Ping Lacson�s campaign manager) Horacio �Boy� Morales was also turned back somewhere. The plot thickens. That Monday, police and loyal troops raided a three-door townhouse in Mandaluyong City, said to be owned by Erap�s favorite mistress, Laarni Enriquez, and found weapons and ammunition, black camouflage uniforms and red armbands with sunburst, exactly the type worn by the Oakwood mutineers. The next day Tuesday, police and troops raided a house on Paraiso St., Dasmarinas, Makati City, said to be owned by Ramon �Eki� Cardenas, a deputy executive secretary of Erap, and found more weapons and ammunition, more black camouflage uniforms and more red armbands with sunburst, again the type worn by the Oakwood mutineers. No doubt there will be more raids and more incriminating contraband seized in the coming days, but this early all signs already indicate that Honasan and Erap had major roles in this unfolding drama, either as inspirational godfather, mastermind or financier. The role, if any, of Panfilo Lacson in all this has not been established. Early in the Oakwood crisis, there was much palaver in media over the alleged idealism of the young officers led by Navy Lt. Sr Gr Antonio Trillanes. But given the growing evidence of involvement of politicians in the failed coup, there has to be serious doubts about idealistic motives in this enterprise. The mutineers had claimed at the start that they were not out to overthrow the government. Yet, almost in the same breath, they demanded that President Arroyo and her Cabinet all step down. They accused their superiors of corruption, yet were they not also guilty of corruption by accepting the substantial financial help proffered by politicians whose agenda, track records and unbridled lust for power are not as pure as the driven snow, but are in fact as dirty as slush in a swamp? By renting out their idealism to the corrupt elders who manipulated them, the mutineers, especially their leaders, showed that they were no better than mercenaries. How could they, especially their leaders, pontificate against corruption when one of their first strategic objectives seems to have been to free the discredited Joseph Estrada from jail (who stands accused of the non-bailable crime of economic plunder, the highest form of corruption) so that he could be restored as president, whereupon all suits against him would have to be dismissed since a sitting president is supposed to be immune from prosecution. That the plan was to later discard Erap after only three days (or is it two weeks?) to make way for a 15-man junta to be headed by The One and Only True Messiah, Gringo Honasan, does not make their apparent involvement in the mutiny, as proximate and ultimate beneficiaries, any less prominent. Erap is not interested in serving out his aborted term as president. All he wants is to be sprung from jail and be made immune from prosecution forever more. It is Gringo who is afflicted with a monumental messianic complex , who believes that only he can save this country, and who is eager to seize state power now because he is not sure he can win in the 2004 presidential elections, especially if Gloria Arroyo were to run for re-election. President Arroyo is correct in taking a hard line against the mutineers, especially the five ringleaders. We should not forget that the string of coup attempts after the seizure of the Manila Hotel in July 1986 by Marcos loyalist soldiers was a direct result of the wimpy �punishment� of 30 push-ups imposed by then AFP Chief-of-Staff Gen. Fidel V. Ramos on the leaders of that very first putsch. A wimpy response now by President Arroyo to the Oakwood mutineers and their political backers guarantees that a similar string of coup attempts will also be waged against her and one of them may finally succeed. After all, by sheer probability, even a perennial loser like Gringo is bound to win once. The Oakwood mutiny has clearly demonstrated again the truism that the worst enemies of the Filipinos are themselves, and that includes allegedly idealistic young officers who rent out their idealism to discredited trapos. ***** The bulk of this article appears in the August 9, 2003 issue of the Philippines Free Press. |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reations to "Idealism For Rent" MR ANTONIO DO YOU KNOW THAT THE NAME ANTHONY/ANTONIO MEANS MESSENGER? DO YOU SEE YOURSELF AS A MESSENGER? EVERYTIME SOMEONE CALLS YOUR NAME THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE SPEAKING. THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING TO THE BELOW EMAIL. MY WIFE AND I TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE PHILIPPINES. WE HAVE LIVE RADIO BROADCASTS EVERY WEEK IN THE PHILIPPINES ON THREE DIFFERENT STATIONS. WE ARE BROADCASTING IN BATANGAS, CEBU AND CAGAYAN DE ORO AS WELL AS IN THE CONTINENT OF AFRICA ON A 50,000 WATT SHORT WAVE STATION REACHING WEST CENTRAL AFRICA. ONE THING WE FIND HERE IN THE USA IS THAT MOST FILIPINOS THAT MOVE HERE BECOME DISTANCED FROM WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THEIR HOMELAND. THEY MOVE HERE AND GET CAUGHT UP IN THE AMERICAN DREAM OF MAKING LOTS OF MONEY. MANY ARE WORKING TWO AND SOMETIMES EVEN THREE JOBS. THEY BUY, BUY AND BUY THINGS AND STRIVE FOR MATERIALISM. YES, MANY SEND MONEY HOME TO THEIR FAMILIES BUT MANY DO NOT READ THE FILIPINO NEWS WEBSITES OR FOLLOW WHAT IS HAPPENING BACK HOME. SOME DO WATCH THE FILIPINO CABLE CHANNEL BUT MOST IS JUST NONSENSE PROGRAMMING AND SHOWS. FEW TAKE A SPIRITUAL INTEREST IN PRAYING FOR THEIR NATION. MOST JUST SEEM TO BE GLAD TO BE OUT OF THERE. MANY DO NOT RETURN HOME FOR VACATION OR TO SEE FAMILIES AND MAY GO 5 OR 10 OR MORE YEARS WITHOUT EVEN VISITING THEIR FORMER HOME COUNTRY. ONE REASON MANY DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK IS BECAUSE WHEN THEY RETURN HOME THEY ARE ASKED FOR MONEY FROM THEIR NEIGHBORS AND ALL THEIR RELATIVES. THEY ARE ALSO ASKED FOR GIFTS THAT ARE EXPENSIVE. SOME OF OUR FRIENDS WHEN THEY GO BACK END UP GIVING AWAY MAYBE 2 OR 3 THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF GIFTS OR CASH BECAUSE OF THE PRESSURE. NEW FOUND RELATIVES SHOW UP WHEN YOU ARRIVE, PEOPLE YOU DID NOT EVEN KNOW WERE RELATED TO YOU. WHETHER THIS IS THE REAL REASON THEY DO NOT RETURN IS TO SPECULATE. THE SITUATION WITH THE US MAIL BEING SENT TO THE PHILIPPINES IS BECOMING OUT OF HAND. WE SEND MAIL (WE HEAR THIS FROM MANY OTHERS) TO THE PHILIPPINES AND OFTEN IT IS STOLEN AS PEOPLE ARE LOOKING INSIDE TO SEE IF THERE IS MONEY IN THERE. SOMETIMES THEY TRY TO CASH THE CHECKS ENCLOSED AFTER THEY STEAL THE LETTER. EVEN MAIL SENT TO PO BOXES IS NOT SAFE ANYMORE. LETTERS ARE OFTEN RECEIVED OPENED BEFORE THEY ARRIVE AND THE SAME FOR PACKAGES. IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU CAN WRITE A COLUMN ON THE SAD STATE OF THE MAIL SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES? WHAT IS YOUR OPINION AS TO WHY THE FILIPINO WHEN HE LEAVES HIS HOMELAND LOSES HIS DESIRE TO COME BACK AND TO EVEN KEEP ABREAST OF WHAT IS HAPPENING IN HIS HOME COUNTRY? I READ THE FILIPINO NEWS ALMOST EVERY DAY. SINCERELY ANTHONY DANGELO, [email protected] August 18, 2003 MY REPLY: I do not agree that most Filipinos who move abroad cut their ties to their homeland and do not keep tab with that is happening here. There may be those who do, as you claim, but many more, I surmise, keep connected. The website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer-GMA 7 (www.Inq7.com) is one of the most viewed news websites in the world, drawing some 280,000 visitors per day. Filipino TV programs, especially TV Patrol of ABS-CBN, are very popular with Filipinos wired to cable in the US West Coast, Mid-West and East Coast, Hawaii, and the Middle East. Everyday, hundreds, even thousands, of balikbayan boxes arrive from Filipinos abroad laden with goodies for relatives here. There are many Filipino egroups on the Internet and their endless chatter shows a continuing interest in, and often a growing despair over, the situation here. �������������������������� |
| Mabuhay ka pare kong tocayo...oh I wish I could compile all your columns and have them as reference reading materials for ALL HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE FILIPINO SCHOOLS. Most of all, have copies distributed among congressmen and senators who � most likely do not understand your brand and quality of elegant English. Oh, and congratulations to your spouse and family...who are probably proud of having you as their in-house hero. Tony Joaquin, [email protected] Daly City, California, August 08. 2003 *I mean it. ���������������������������� Between the accounts/fact findings analyses of Jarius Bondoc (Phil Star GOTCHA) and Antonio C. Abaya - TAPATT, I believe they have captured THE FACTS OF THE ABORTED/FOILED COUP ATTEMPT, last July 27, 2003. If media can agree on using these facts laid out here and the three or four columns of Bondoc on the same subject...then we can have some really meaningful analyses and discussions ---WHAT TO DO WITH THE PERPETRATORS, WHERE TO GO FROM THERE. The words of Francis J. Ricciardone, Jr, Chief of Mission of the US, Ambassador of the United States to the Philippines, keep ringing in my ears: "CHANGE IS INEVITABLE. PROGRESS IS OPTIONAL." Why stand we here idle....hugging the delusions of phantom and hope....until our own self-indulgence shall have bound us hands and feet...is life so dear...and status quo so sweet...as to be exchanged for the price of....whaaaat....6 frigging lousy years...of coverups, and more of the same...what nots? How can we purge the system without purging and eliminating those who defy purging and CATHARSIS....? They are but a handful.....so quantifiable...so identifiable...so merchandiseable...ISANG LAPAD LANG, kung gugustuhin ang katotohanan. If Judas and cowards like him can betray and sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver....AND WE ARE TALKING JESUS CHRIST...... I have no qualms...these "toy soldiers" and feigning and fawning patriots, can be bought and had for less. What I am personally apprehensive about is what John Carroll, S.J. so eloquently warned...about "lawlessness with impunity" - the cancer that has been gnawing and eroding the Philippine judicial and social systems. Timing and timeliness. Action time is NOW. CLEAN UP TIME....PURGATION....CATHARSIS....LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW. Even Uncle George will go for it. I know. Otherwise, even the lowest kinds of mercenaries might themselves decide and adopt the attitude..."Naah. These clowns are not worth the effort. Not worth anything at all. Just let them die a natural death...Dios na ang bahala sa kanila..." This is the attitude that I fear most. Behold the fool. He ignored history. He repeated his mistake. And he blamed history. Pepeton, [email protected] August 08, 2003 ��������������������������� Dear Tony, Just one comment on this fine article of yours. Didn't the mutineers start to occupy Oakwood in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 27July? They returned to their barracks that same evening, around 10:30 pm. Archie Lacson, [email protected] August 08, 2003 MY REPLY. You�re absolutely right. I stand corrected, and the corrections have been incorporated into the final draft of the article as it appears in this website. Sorry about that. ������������������������������ MR ANTONIO I AM IMPRESSED WITH YOUR ARTICLE. I HAVE BEEN READING MUCH ON THE SITUATION THAT YOU ARE DISCUSSING. SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU. 1. DO YOU THINK THAT THE MILITARY PARTICIPANTS WILL REALLY BE SERIOUSLY PUNISHED? 2. CORPUS SAYS THAT THERE WERE MANY MORE READY TO PARTICIPATE AND HE SAYS THE DATE WAS TO BE AUGUST 2. WILL THEY PUNISH ALL OF THEM ALSO? 3. WILL ANYONE IN YOUR OPINION TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT THE PMA IS TEACHING THE CADETS AS THERE MUST SURELY BE DOCTRINE BEING TAUGHT THAT STIRS UP SUCH REBELLIOUS THOUGHTS. 4. ANY CHANCE OF COMPLICITY BETWEEN TOP BRASS AND REBEL SOLDIERS BEING ACTUALLY DEALT WITH OR WILL IT BE SWEPT UNDER THE CARPET VIA PAYOFFS OR THREATS? 5. WHY IS IT THAT THE FILIPINO MENTALITY IS SUCH THAT THEY FALL FOR PEOPLE SUCH AS ESTRADA? WILL THE NEXT PRESIDENT BE ANOTHER MOVIE ACTOR? THANK YOU FOR YOUR EMAIL Anthony Dangelo, [email protected] August 08, 2003 MY REPLY. I think the ringleaders will be punished to the full extent of the law, but the rank and file will most likely be let off lightly after a ceremonial pledging of allegiance to constitutional authority. President Arroyo should, however, be prepared to grant presidential pardon, after a decent interval in detention, even to ringleaders who show genuine remorse. Those who refuse to show remorse should be made to rot in jail to the full extent of the law. Those who were planning to join but failed to do so should be identified. Again, those who show remorse and pledge allegiance to constitutional authority should be let off lightly, while those who refuse to do so should be made to suffer the consequences, to the full extent of the law. It boils down to the messianic complex of Gringo Honasan. But the best way to fight his ideas is to offer a better idea. Unfortunately, no one in government seems capable of conceptualizing and articulating that better idea. As to why �the Filipino mentality is such that they all fall for people such as Estrada,� may I refer you to my other articles in this website, such as �No Soul,� �No Brains Either� and �And No Real Choices.� ���������������������������� Looooved your article on Idealism for Rent, Mr. Abaya! You showed everybody that the recent mutinee was some sort of a zarzuela or moro-moro. A puppet show, actually. And you wrote the article in a humorous way . . . . the way it should be treated! Thanks for the logic and the laughter! Romeo C. Farol, [email protected] Highlands Ranch, Colorado, August 10, 2003 ������������������������������� Tony: I forwarded your "Idealism for Rent" article to my PMA and Annapolis email group. I also borrowed your term "idealism for rent" during the show of Pinky Webb at ANC. Of course I mentioned your name and showed a copy of your article. I intend to again use the term when I make my presentation before the Feliciano Commission this Tuesday. I will be their first resource person/witness. Best regards. Roy Roilo Golez, [email protected] National Security Adviser Quezon City, August 10, 2003 ��������������������������� Hi Tony A, Am an expatriate residing in Australia and following developments in the Philippines. Came across your column(s) and liked what you have been writing about. Specifically, your thrust to reshape the mentality of our kababayans by your reportage towards more positive, more honest pursuit of life, may in fact give better dividends than more publicized programs in government. More power to you and your associates. Please include me in your 'send' list. Cheers, Tony Dedal, [email protected] Australia, August 10, 2003 ����������������������������� Tony: I used your article and title "idealism for Rent" again in my presentation to the Feliciano Commission. It came out in the Channel 2 news. Thanks again! Brilliant choice of words! Roy Roilo Golez, [email protected] Quezon City, August 12, 2003 |
| ����������������.. Dear Mr. Abaya, I read your column, "Idealism for Rent," just now as I am writing a paper for my Transitional Justice class at Columbia law school on the legacy of military adventurism after the EDSA revolt where the military played a significant role, at least, from the point of view of military politics. It is not the world's greatest secret that military officers have all to often been the linchpin of successful power grabs, quite naturally as the natural order of things in the modern state is that he who has the sword wields the greatest power, or as Napoleon said, God is on the side of those who have the most battalions, or something to that effect. Even the American Continental Congress elected George Washington, the revolutionary farmer-general who fought not only the British army and navy but his own pick ax and shovel army's ignorance and lack of discipline. The military will always be seduced, now more than ever, to participate in what some have rightly labeled as messianic adventures, given the presence of weaklings and vacillating government officials beginning at that stinking palace by the stinking Pasig River. And not a few of the Filipino people actually think it is quite right to wage stupid little wars against an inept government. Which probably explains why the surveys after the Oakwood mutiny ,and at the very least, the respondents sympathized with the mutineers. More than a menace, the sense that the likes of Honasan have of themselves is a point that urgently needs the government's best, if most radical efforts, in order to turn around the prostituted culture of the officer corps. It will be long and arduous, this undertaking. This problem includes not just the messianic types, but also those officers who are sleeping with enemies as terrorist-kidnappers in Mindanao, those who partner with illegal loggers and smugglers, drug dealers and thieves, and those who kowtow to politicians in mutually rewarding relationships. The military has no business riding roughshod over citizens and constitutional institutions but a weak government is a perennial invitation to disaster, and yes, to the likes of putschists who were given 30 push ups before going back to barracks. G. Exiomo, [email protected] January 09, 2004 MY REPLY: My sense is that, out of exasperation with the politics and the politicians of the moment, many in the middle class are ready to welcome a civilian-military junta to take over the running of this country. The only problem is that no one in the military has emerged as the selfless, unsullied, disinterested liberator that they want. The flaw of Gringo and his Oakwood mutineers was that they allowed themselves to be the pawns of Joseph Estrada in his attempt to escape from detention and the plunder charge. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |