Last Friday: A Funny Thing Happened on the way to EDSA...

(or Making Sense of a lot of pre-emptive missteps)

Friday morning. A coup happened. And of all types of coups, this one was the worst kind. It was a scheduled coup. At the start of the day, Tatay sent me a text message informing me that there was going to be a coup. Everyone knew there was going to be a coup. And then Friday morning came, and first thing I heard on the TV was that classes were suspended. (At which my wife told my kids that they can undress from their school uniforms and go back to bed.) Next thing I heard was that a coup was aborted with the "arrest" of three senior officers. ("Arrest" being a conditional term as event unfolded during the weekend.)

There were scheduled anti-Gloria rallies. Not really anti-Government as the rallyists were mostly Government personalities and the main rally was to be at Makati with the appropriate permit from the City Government (and where the Mayor of Makati, Jejomar Binay was expected to attend.) There was a rally at the EDSA People Power Monument, and another rally at the EDSA Shrine. Watching TV last Friday, I can't help but note that there was a sense of "Three Stooges" meets "The Twilight Zone" masquerading as CNN breaking news.

Consider these:

1. Before noon, Friday, there were riot policemen at the EDSA Shrine, facing rallyists who were on the Shrine steps (just below the Mother Mary statue). This was planned and announced days in advance. One of the police officers was holding a water cannon, and water was already gushing out of the hose. And there was a guy in barong tagalog (or white long sleeves polo, tucked out) talking to one of the police officers discussing or negotiating the dispersal of the rallyists. First time I ever saw the water cannon hose spewing water while negotiations were ongoing just beside it. And then former VP Guingona goes up and joins the rallyists. The water cannon was not used at that time. I think it was used later in the afternoon.
2. Friday afternoon. News from Malacanang is that coup plotters have been tagged and the coup aborted. After lunch, a press conference with the Joint Chiefs of Staff have the top military brass winging their way out of the questions posted to them. Turns out that the coup plotters were relieved of duties and under custody, but not in the stockade, or have been charged with anything yet. Turns out that one of the suspected coup plotters, who was supposedly already under custody was in the Chief of Staff's office talking to him about joining the coup attempt. And then they arrested the guy. The Chief of Staff said so on national TV.
3. Government negotiators talk to Former President Ramos, asking him for support. He's holed up in Tagaytay, and the only thing he gave was "conditional support" for House Speaker de Venecia's statements to support the constitution and state, etc. As of Friday, FVR's position was that a statement will be released the following day, Saturday. Said statement in essence condemns the State of Emergency, suspension of habeas corpus, and other actions by PGMA. And now, Congressman Pichay (a pro-Gloria politician) taunts that FVR thinks he's still the President. Pro-Arroyo people ask for FVR support and when they don't get it, they turn against FVR.
4. If the coup plotters have been rounded up, why suspend the writ of habeas corpus? And why declare a state of emergency? No reason.
5. If this was a coup attempt, why are there (supposedly) a hundred suspected civilian supporters and another hundred military supporters to be invited for questioning for their possible involvement? This boggles the imagination. A coup attempt with that many supporters. Wow! No wonder everyone knew about it.
6. House Speaker de Venecia gives a statement that the coup attempt was an alliance of right-wing military elements with communist insurgents. I have no idea where he got that idea.
   
7. Live on national TV, UP Professor, sociologist, writer and political scientist Randy David got arrested. Insane!
8. One newspaper was shut down Saturday morning. And the TV stations had military personnel securing them for the safety of the press. What?
9. Sunday late afternoon. Remember the military brass who have been tagged as coup plotters? One of them, a marine, goes to the the Marine Headquarters and asks that he be charged and put imprisoned. This is a weird turn of events. I'd have thought that the coup plotters were already in jail. Now here he comes, asking to be imprisoned. And the Marines don't know what to do. The new Marine Commanding General even has to introduce himself as being in command because the marines don't know who's in command. Really, I thought they jailed these guys. And this Marine commander walks to Headquarters and asks to be imprisoned? WTF?

As an offshoot of all of these, there was hardly anyone out during the weekend. The EDSA celebration was still held at the EDSA Shrine, but not enough people in attendance.

All this because Madame President has the propensity to pre-empt all opposition. This will be the real beginning of her downfall. Funny thing is that I have no idea if the President really thinks that she can get away with this, or that she's outsmart the opposition, or that there's someone else out there pulling her strings.

Crazy.

--andoy
27 February 2006