Rush on Seven Darn Episodes

I refer to the likes of Cory Aquino, Ping Lacson, Teofisto
Guingona, Imee Marcos, that irredeemably angry head of the La Salle
brothers, that group of resigned Cabinet officials that has become so
nondescript they continue to be named after a hotel and the
limelight-hungry lawyers from a minuscule leftist faction. Obsessed
with re-creating the 1986 Edsa Uprising, they convinced themselves that
a minor spat at the Philippine Marines was the beginning of yet another
pointless upheaval.

When the Marines sorted out the misunderstanding late Sunday
night, the washed-out political personalities who gathered at Fort
Bonifacio – always within tight camera range – quietly slithered into
the darkness, hoping the public would soon forget the great farce that
just happened.

They had, plainly and simply, made complete fools of themselves in their gallant effort to make fools of us all.

Sunday’s drama was a useless expenditure of time, energy and passion.

From what could be gathered as of this writing, the tiring
drama last Sunday began when the Navy Flag Officer in Command relieved
the Marine Commandant, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda. That was, from the
looks of it, a prudent move. The information gathered about the quashed
coup attempt, it appears that a group of soldiers were supposed to have
made an appearance before the gathered horde at Edsa. Their withdrawal
of support from government was supposed to be announced by a Marine
general.

The relief would have been a routine administrative act.
Miranda’s deputy, Brig. Gen. Nelson Allaga, was initially issued orders
to assume the post of commandant in an acting capacity – probably an
indication that Miranda could be returned to his post after he was
cleared of the derogatory information against him.

The trouble began when a bad-tempered and severely voluble
Marine colonel, Ariel Querubin, began publicly denouncing the
replacement of his commandant. That attracted media attention – as well
as the flies who began hovering around Marine headquarters.

Out of nowhere, Sanlakas lawyers Argee Guevarra and JV
Bautista emerged, announcing themselves "volunteer lawyers" for the
hopping mad colonel. The two leftists then began trailing Querubin
around the camp, forming a funny human chain around him, sticking their
faces into camera range to make sure history will record their heroism,
and probably convincing the colonel, during a moment of temporary
insanity, that he was more important than he actually was.

Soon enough, the angry colonel piped down. His ruffled wife
later admitted they did not know the two leftist lawyers, Guevarra and
Bautista.

While he was hopping mad, encircled by the Sanlakas lawyers,
Querubin (who had a rebellious history as co-founder of the Young
officers Union) admitted to being part of the plan for soldiers to make
an appearance before the mammoth anti-government rally planned for last
Friday (and dispersed by the timely proclamation of a state of
emergency). That seems to be a career-ending admission.

It was an admission that raises so many questions.

Why was Cory Aquino aligned with the very same officers who
mounted bloody coup attempts against her presidency – coup attempts
that led her down the same path of proclaiming a state of emergency?

Why was her son, Noynoy, who was nearly killed during the
1989 coup attempt, now supporting the exact same sort of military
adventurism?

Why was Imee Marcos now allied with the same forces that overthrew her late father and terminated a hated dictatorship?

Why were the leftist groups, in effect, supporting the
projected establishment of a military junta that would, in all
possibility, shoot them down more readily than the democratically
accountable government we now have in place?

Why are the members of the so-called Hyatt 10, instigators of
what is so ingloriously called Edsa Dos, now aligned with the generally
rented pro-Estrada mob?

I have difficulty answering all such queries posed by foreign observers. My standard reply consists of only two words: despair and opportunism.

Sunday’s farce unraveled as soon as it began – but not
evidently enough for the worn-out political personages gathered at Fort
Bonifacio to avert making fools of themselves.

In the end, the only question left badgering the public mind was: What was that all about?

I have a flood of e-mails from friends abroad who are
reacting to the unavoidably over-dramatized television footages from
Manila. They, by and large, pose that same question in a more painful
way: As the world rushes aid to the victims of the Leyte landslide,
why are the political players of Manila more engrossed with power
grabs?

For years, foreigners have suspected Filipinos of being
congenitally doomed to shoot ourselves on the foot at the first sign of
impending success over adversity.

Since the start of the year, the peso has strengthened
dramatically. The economy is beginning to roar. Large-scale investments
are being negotiated.

Our prospects appear too bright for the forces of despair to
handle. They must plot coups and invite the proclamation of a state of
emergency. They must raise a ruckus in the streets to scare away
tourism and investments.

By making fools of themselves, obsessed with their own
inexplicable hatred for a sitting president, they succeed only in
making all of us look like a nation of fools. They succeed only in
diminishing the possibility that misery could be reduced and prosperity
guaranteed within the foreseeable future.