Another ‘Sonny’ in the making? That was Gringo’s real nickname

The Cabinet members and some Armed Forces officers who appeared at yesterday’s "investigation" by the House Defense Committee of the Oakwood Mutiny (rebellion? failed coup d’ etat? Sus, everybody has his or her own interpretation) obviously tried to pin the blame on the former RAMrod putschist, Senator Gregorio Honasan.

Led by the Cabinet’s most-endangered species, Defense Secretary Angelo T. Reyes in full cry, the other Cabineteers like National Security Adviser Roy Golez (former congressman, Naval officer, and Annapolis boxing champ), Interior and Local Government Secretary Joey Lina, etc., brandished Gringo Honasan’s "National Recovery Program", a document which had been freely distributed by Honasan weeks ago to everybody, fantastically claiming it had been the "vision" on which the coup-plotters’ frenzy had been fueled to violence.

Reyes held up another document, entitled "The Last Revolution" which he claimed was the incendiary manifesto of the plotters and which supported the above-mentioned "National Recovery Program". Ergo, Reyes and the other government guys chimed in, especially Secretary Golez, Honasan must have been involved in the plot. Sounded like a Greek chorus, if you ask me.

Don’t get me wrong. Gringo might indeed have been involved or at least an inspiration, but there’s no proof Honasan had a hand in the second document.

Sanamagan, Greg. They’re trying to cook your goose.

What’s interesting is that, in response to a query from former Communist rebel (NDF-NPA) Saturnino Ocampo, party-list congressman from Bayan Muna, as to whether Reyes shouldn’t resign since, some quarters suggest, his remaining in command might hinder an investigation, Reyes retorted: "No, sir."

Reyes, whose ouster, along with that of Intelligence Chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus (now resigned, and gone to Seoul), had been demanded by the military rebels said he would not resign because "I am not the problem, I am part of the solution!" Salamabit. Which part?

Satur Ocampo, who ought to know about such things since he used to be in the NPA-NDF guerrilla movement, asked one of the most sensible questions of the hour: How come the mutineers had been able to sneak into the heart of Makati and seize the Oakwood Premier luxury building and lay those explosives when the military and police were already supposed to be on full alert because of an announced coup?

The ranking officers present at the hearing, including Armed Forces Chief of Staff, General Narciso Abaya, answered to the effect that with their forces stretched thin, it was difficult to assess where any mutineers or rebels would strike first. Another general (I didn’t get his name) said that Marines and other government troops reached the area within "minutes". If true, they were far too late, since the rebels were already entrenched by then. The officer maintained that they had been securing other vital points, like the radio stations, TV stations, etc., plus, of course, Malacañang. Abaya pointed out that military intelligence agents were roaming through Makati. He pleaded that a visible military presence in downtown Makati would have alarmed people, and been objected to, even by "your honors", the congressmen.

* * *

Of course, it’s impossible to be everywhere at the same time, and nobody could predict, admittedly, where putschists would strike in the dark of night, but it seems to me that the failure to "protect" the Oakwood building, a luxury apartment cum hotel where diplomats are residing, and further beside the most bustling Makati shopping mall, the Glorietta, and across from the 5-star Inter-Continental Hotel, full of foreign guests as well, is a terrible failure of both positioning and intelligence.

To begin with, no less than the Australian Ambassador, Ms. Ruth Pearce, was living there, plus other ranking diplomats from Canada, Brunei, and again, the Political Counselor from Australia, and four Australian police officers who were assisting our police! Susmariosep. I thought our government was sworn to protect all diplomats, and bragged about it constantly, especially when their home governments complained about terrorist threats.

The short-time "hostaging" of Ambassador Pearce was especially embarrassing. Equally discomfiting was the fact that four Canadian diplomats were also booked into rooms in the Oakwood. I’m personally embarrassed myself, since this writer was one of the many who were angered and expressed indignation some months ago when the Australians and Canadians summarily "closed down" their Embassies, claiming there was a "terrorist threat" against them! Although the threat was ostensibly from Islamic terrorists, we should have defended them, too, from threats posed by some of our own military.

I apologize hereby.

Fortunately, the young mutineers gallantly let the Ambassador, the other diplomats, and other residents of the Oakwood go out to safety without harm (although the occupants spent a few anxious hours penned up in that barricaded and explosive wired building). The military rebels did not attempt to hold them as "human shields" or enhance their own bargaining position.

Sure, we can’t hail them as heroes, because they, by their rebellion or mutiny (whatchercallit?), destabilized our country, demoralized many, and gave us a black-eye worldwide. But, as it’s said, give the devil his due. Those hot-headed young idealists didn’t play dirty, and, in the end, although they’re now being jeered at, chided and scorned by some (idolized by many others) for having surrendered without bringing down the house, and adjoining buildings, the 20-hour "siege" ended peacefully.

Whatever the critics may say: Thank God for that.

* * *

The President, like Queen Victoria of Britain a century ago, "was not amused" by the fact that the media, from newspapers to television, seem to be casting the Oakwood Five, the leaders of the Mutineers – namely, Navy Lt. S.G. Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV, Scout Ranger Captain Gerardo Gambala, Scout Ranger Captain Milo Maestrecampo, Marine Captain Gerry Alejano, Navy Lt. S.G. James Layug – into sort of "heroes" or "patriots".

Madam President: This is inevitable. All over the world, putschists and revolutionaries, especially the good-looking ones, tend to be "romanticized". (Like Che Guevarra who looked like Jesus Christ.)

Moreover, many of the grievances of the putschists were valid, while others were completely askew. The endemic corruption in the military, and also in the police, is well- known, and deplored by everybody. The outburst of indignation by the rebels strikes a sympathetic chord among the exasperated and disgusted general population. Even the "violence" of what they did is being viewed as their cry of despair, their urgency to get their message across, even if they died doing it.

It’s good they didn’t die. The last thing we need is for a military coup to produce "martyrs". Then, more trouble might have proved unstoppable.

Will there be more trouble? Corpus said so before his abrupt departure. (Sure enough, he, too caused trouble himself). Abaya warns about the same thing.

The young coupsters belonged, as their red armbands with the white starbust Katipunan symbol proclaimed, to the "Magdalo" faction – which, during the Revolution, identified the Emilio Aguinaldo pangkat. There’s talk about a bigger Magdiwa faction still in hiding (also derived from the Katipunan – representing the Andres Bonifacio movement, which by the way failed, with our hero, Gat Andres being executed).

Is the Magdiwa group bigger than the failed Magdalo? It’s sad that coup rumors continue to be bruited about, but we cannot afford to stick our heads into the ground like ostriches and hope the problem will go away. If the GMA government, our military, and our police – by adopting a foolish state of denial – don’t pursue real reforms (it’s an old complaint), then there’ll be more to come.

It’s nice to blame "political" godfathers and sponsors, and, indeed, this group had financiers with their own agendas. Yet I looked them in the eye, and saw sincerity and frustration.

Certainly they will undergo court martial. They submitted themselves, in the negotiations, to the "Articles of War". Surely they will undergo punishment. They must and were resigned to it. But they raised their "cry". We must heed it, take it seriously, and not pooh-pooh it into futility.

* * *

Owing to his charismatic good looks in part, "Sonny" Trillanes is becoming a media personality. He’s not just a pretty face. Perhaps he may have been manipulated by older men, but his reformist character dates back to his cadet days. So with all the frontliners in the putsch, let’s face it.

Many people by now know some of the contents of the dissertation he wrote in March 2002, entitled "Corruption in the Philippine Navy Procurement System". In his introduction, Trillanes had emphasized that "on February 2001, the Philippine Navy (and the AFP) was rocked by a leadership crisis when the Philippine Marines (PMAR) demanded the relief of the Flag-Officer-in-Command, Rear Admiral (Willie) Wong (Pazzibugan 2001). The crisis was triggered by the berating of the Marines by RAdm. Wong for alleged irregularities in the procurement of P3.8 million worth of Kevlar Helmets (Pablo 2001). In the events that followed, the Marines prevailed and RAdm. Wong was stripped of his command and was ‘promoted’ to an Ambassadorial post."

Indeed, Wong – a straight-shooter – was, after his precipitate retirement, named by President GMA our Ambassador to Vietnam, because, as she told me, she wanted to give him a job. He’s now come home from Hanoi, I hear, and been named by the President the head of the North Rail system.

What makes Trillanes a media darling is his perceived earnestness, eloquence, and the fact that his darling mother is all over the TV programs, showing surprising poise and exuding motherly warmth and credibility. Trillanes’ dad, moreover, Navy Captain Antonio Trillanes III belonged to PMA class ’59, and had been one of the idealist officers who rebelled against Marcos at the EDSA barricades in People Power I, February 1986. (The elder Antonio III – all Sonny’s brothers are also called Antonio – was born April 29, 1932, near Caloocan – not far from the site of the Cry of Balintawak, or Pugad Lawin, take your pick.)

The question is, naturally: Do we have another Gringo in the making? Many don’t know that Honasan’s real nickname in his family, and among his oldest friends, is "Sonny," and sometimes even "Sonny Boy". He used to send notes to me in the old RAM-SFP-YOU putschist days (five or more attempts) addressed "Tito Max" from "Sonny".

Gives you pause, doesn’t it?

I knew Greg’s late father well, too, the very handsome Colonel Romeo Honasan, one of the late President Ramon Magsaysay’s most trusted officers, whom he named chief of his Presidential Security Guards (PSG).

Can we say, here we go again?