Moving on

Finally, the Prozac must be working. In a promising sign of recovery from acute panic disorder, the administration announced yesterday it would no longer place under arrest five militant party-list representatives if they go home today.

Until last night, the five remained holed up at the House of Representatives, where they have camped out since February to avoid arrest for rebellion. A sixth congressman was arrested during the state of national emergency and held without bail at Camp Crame.

The charges stemmed from "Final Act 2," the coup plot purportedly involving a strange alliance of leftists, military extremists and certain political personalities. It was supposed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the first people power revolt on Feb. 25, but was aborted after Scout Rangers commander Danny Lim was arrested on the eve of D-day.

The administration, in justifying its efforts to go after the six lawmakers, maintains that the state has a right to protect itself. True enough. For the argument to gain traction in this land of endless political tumult, however, the administration needs two things: incontrovertible legitimacy, and incontrovertible evidence.

On both counts this administration falls short. It should learn to count its blessings and move on.

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Final Act 2 was supposed to be the last hurrah of all the forces that have been trying to kick out President Arroyo in the wake of the "Hello, Garci" vote-rigging scandal in July last year. Judging from the political noise leading up to Feb. 25, the existence of a plot seems probable though hardly unexpected. The coffee shops were abuzz with coup speculation for weeks before Feb. 25. There was talk of political realignments and power shifts from one elite clique to the next.

The country, however, has been awash with coup rumors since Day One of an administration installed through a de facto coup. Such is the curse of people power revolts; they keep coming back to haunt the principal beneficiaries.

A prominent opposition personality once told me that whenever he felt like annoying Malacañang, all he had to do was attend a party, chat about staging a coup and leak the details to the press.

This is the only country where coup plotters even hold a press conference and call for people power live on national TV.

How does the administration sift idle talk and empty threats from something that poses a clear and present danger to the state?

Apparently, by studying the level of involvement of military elements. In the case of Final Act 2, members of the elite Army Scout Ranger Regiment were supposed to serve as the spearhead of the coup. They were supposed to support the forces that would be mustered by the civilian component of the coup during a rally on Feb. 24.

Unfortunately for the coup plotters, the crowd that showed up for that rally was a faint shadow of the people power revolts of the past. Since 1986, the size of the crowd that shows up to celebrate people power has progressively thinned.

The administration should have simply taken off from there and allowed the anti-government forces to blow off steam in commemorating people power. Instead we got Proclamation 1017, the arrest of protesters in the streets and a weird raid on a newspaper office.

The official stance of maximum tolerance should have been reinforced by the pathetic attempt of a Marine officer to trigger a coup and get the people to rally behind him and his APCs on Feb. 26. The last time we saw this mutinous officer, during his 15 minutes of fame, was when he bid his troops a tearful goodbye following his reassignment.

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It did look like there was a serious plot to topple the administration in February. But in the court of public opinion — in this country, anyway – there is a world of difference between plotting a coup and staging it.

The junior military officers who are still languishing in detention for a coup attempt in 2003 actually staged it, complete with TV cameras rolling and kibitzers nearby as foot soldiers ringed the Makati commercial center with explosives.

Because Final Act 2 failed to take off, the administration has found it tough to sell the coup plot to a chronically skeptical public.

The administration has presented documents of the plot, which was supposed to continue until May Day, and trotted out witnesses to identify the personalities involved.

But without actual troop movements on Feb. 24 and 25, and with many of the civilians tagged in the plot, including civil society types and the party-list representatives, furiously denying their alleged involvement, the authenticity of Final Act 2 has become a question of credibility. As the administration surely knows, it has problems in the credibility department.

That lack of credibility, however, has not elicited a level of public outrage that should worry any administration.

We saw this lack of outrage again on May 1, when the "massive" crowds promised by anti-government forces did not materialize.

That should have served as a strong signal to the administration that it’s time to exhale, to loosen up and allow full expression of the exuberance of Pinoy democracy.

The controversies involving Final Act 2 have reached the courts. If the judiciary wants to release those charged with rebellion, or decides to throw out the government’s case, the administration is within its right to seek reconsideration.

But it has more to gain by simply dropping the cases and moving on. Isn’t that what administration officials keep telling the nation – that it’s time to move on?

Blessed with a weak, fractious opposition and a public that simply wants to get on with its life, the administration has more to gain by refusing to make martyrs out of its political enemies.

Panic attacks are never pretty.