Funny things happened on the way to the coup

Though cooped up for weeks in Congress cubbyholes to dodge arrest that befell one of them, the "Batasan Six" have not lost their sense of humor. Hilarious was Reps. Satur Ocampo and Ted Casiño’s photo display of them "plotting" with then-Vice President Gloria Arroyo in Nov. 2000 to depose Joseph Estrada. Also in the pictures were Reps. Crispin Beltran, Lisa Maza, Rafael Mariano and Joel Virador, all now accused of conspiring with rightists to topple Arroyo. Casiño’s punch line said it all: "The call then is the same as today: oust the President. So she too should be charged with rebellion, and I’ll stand state witness."

The joke’s on them as well, though. One word not painted in the pictures is that the Batasan Six’s accuser of rebellion back then was Sen. Panfilo Lacson, now their confederate against Arroyo. On Nov. 30, 2000 Lacson flew to Washington with military school chum Jake Malajacan to present himself as the best replacement for the tottering Estrada. One of the influential US figures that Lacson met with was Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, senior member of the House committee on international relations. The latter’s adviser Al Santoli disclosed after the 90-minute talk that Lacson, then-National Police chief, was hatching with military generals a coup d’état against his patron Estrada ostensibly to prevent communists, in cahoots with Arroyo, from taking advantage of the political crisis. A brief sent to Manila by an anti-Estrada friend of Santoli stated: "They (Lacson et al) showed the US leaders photos of Arroyo with radicals, and passed out copies of the Left’s proposals (for a post-Estrada government), alleging that she has agreed to terminate bilateral RP-US military relations."

Lacson’s accusative photos are probably the same press clippings that the Batasan Six are now exhibiting. Amusingly, one pix has Arroyo arm-in-arm with them, captioned "Leftist backers demand guarantees from Gloria." A news item on the unauthorized Lacson-Malajacan trip read then: "Lacson also allegedly told the US officials that alternative plans were afoot to replace Estrada, but insisted that Arroyo is not the solution because of her communist dalliance."

Things get even funnier. Malajacan is one of three ex-colonels whom authorities now tag as having met with Communist Party cadres last Feb. 20. In a paper on that event titled "Minutes Re Final Talk", culled from a flash drive of recaptured Magdalo mutineer Lt. Lawrence San Juan the next day, Malajacan, Felix Turingan and Rafael Galvez briefed the underground leaders on a 100-day offensive to bring down Arroyo via a combination of leftist and military actions. Mentioned several times in the document was Lacson, along with another military schoolmate ex-senator Greg Honasan, as members of a "takeover council".

Lacson has admitted that coup plotters did invite him to sit in a junta, but declined because its decision-making was vague. His pals depicted him in "Final Talk" as tricky for desiring to be installed as President. Whatever joke notion they had of constitutional succession by the Vice President was unclear. But their reservations about Lacson jibe with an intelligence leak in early Dec. that a coup in the offing had fizzled out when he stopped financing it because turned down to rule in lieu of a junta. A third military schoolmate reportedly had berated him, "Mistah, I might as well disband the (coup) forces." For, as "Final Talk" has it, Lacson’s idea of succession is that since Arroyo allegedly cheated the presidential election, and top two contenders Fernando Poe Jr. and Raul Roco have since passed away, then he as fourth-placer must be declared Chief Executive.

That interpretation of election rules would be even more uproarious if, by a stroke of fate, Lacson and fifth-ranker Eddie Villanueva cannot sit as President. For then, Filipinos would have as Commander-in-Chief the sixth and last placer Eddie Gil, he with the droll head of hair and 26,000 out of 34 million votes.

But that’s not the end of the sit-com of national politics. Estrada, against whom Lacson and Malajacan plotted in 2000, is now an ally again to wrest power from Arroyo. So are ex-president Cory Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon who, respectively, had led marches against and the impeachment trial of Estrada in 2001. They’re now on the same side as Honasan who, with Kit Tatad, Tito Sotto and pals, staunchly had shielded Estrada. Ditto Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel and Ed Angara. Differing, Estrada defender Miriam Santiago is today Arroyo’s protector. From a power-sharing deal with Manuel Villar, Drilon should have stepped down as Senate chief last Dec., had Arroyo not induced the former to sit for only a year starting in July. In gratitude, Drilon last July had offered Arroyo safe haven in his Iloilo home-province against her foes, then turned against her three days later.

More jests. One of Estrada’s inquisitors in 2001, Sen. Rodolfo Biazon is also presently against Arroyo. He was the Armed Forces chief who in 1989 repulsed then-Captains Danilo Lim and Ariel Querubin from capturing Camp Aguinaldo and assassinating Aquino. He is now virtually egging disgruntled army officers to withdraw support from a President. In a final comical twist, Aquino’s brother Peping Cojuangco reportedly was in touch with now-General Lim the night before they and Querubin were to join anti-Arroyo rallies last Feb. 24.

And so it goes in Philippine politics of sila-sila.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]