Wrong move

History shows that successful people power revolutions are always spontaneous and unplanned. Hence the failure of Trillanes and company to mount another people power uprising last Thursday just proves that the whole thing was planned despite Trillanes’ protestations that it was done on the spur of the moment. His post mortem insistence that it was not intentionally done is evidently just an excuse for a pitiable execution of an ill-fated undertaking. His group of plotters simply failed to anticipate the swift, bold, daring and decisive response of a government showing no reluctance at all in using its superior firepower and manpower to pulverize them if necessary. Defending the majesty of the law especially against people who have repeatedly mocked it in the past sometimes requires such kind of response. Our law enforcers may have resorted to overkill especially in handcuffing and detaining media people but all things considered, their counter moves were acceptable to the silent majority.

The silent majority whose participation constitutes the vital element of any successful people power uprising definitely did not go along with Trillanes and his group. Not only did they not see any clear-cut alternative offered by the group. More importantly, as property owners themselves, they readily empathized with the sorry lot of the Manila Pen owner. They pictured themselves in its shoes and did not like what they saw. To them, it is so revolting for a duly elected Senator and a be-medaled General joined by a former Vice President, two bishops, a priest and activists lawyers to just barge in, occupy and take over their residence or place of business and create a situation that would endanger their lives and those of their guests and cause so much damage and destruction to their properties just because of supposedly noble intentions. The sight simply shocked and disgusted the silent majority because these are supposedly people of integrity who could easily distinguish right from wrong, and who readily knows that a wrong cannot be used to right another wrong.

The unfortunate action of Trillanes and company last Thursday was plainly done at the wrong time, in the wrong place, for the wrong reasons and in the wrong way.

Even die hard fanatics will have second thoughts responding to Trillanes’ call to rally in Makati at the height of a heavy downpour especially when the country was just reeling from the effects of two destructive typhoons that rendered so many people homeless. People would rather not disrupt government relief operations to the hapless disaster victims or just stay at home instead of helping disgruntled soldiers redress their grievances, even if valid.

The worst place to start a rally is in a courtroom by walking out from a court hearing. Our courts of justice are the foremost symbols of the rule of law. Walking out from a courtroom denigrates and defies this symbol and removes all semblance of legitimacy to the action. People rally to a cause  primarily because they perceive it to be legitimate and for the common good. This is utterly lacking in the action of Trillanes and his cohorts. Hence it did not create enough ripples that could generate massive waves of people movement.

Indeed Trillanes and company’s main reason for contemptuously storming out of the court room was in connection with the pending case of coup d’etat against him and the rest of the Oakwood mutineers. This is not so urgent a matter of national concern as would arouse the indignation of the nation and result in another people power uprising. There is no public interest of paramount national importance involved in their cause. It was more of the personal and collective interest of Trillanes, Lim and the other soldiers under trial. They virtually walked out of a “coup” trial to stage another coup. The reasons for their actions are definitely wrong.

More so the way they carried out their plan. Blustering their way inside a five-star hotel full of customers, creating tumult therein, disturbing the peace and placing so many lives and property in danger of death and destruction were definitely not how a successful people power should be staged. The fiasco at Manila Hotel during the early part of the Cory Regime and the recent Oakwood debacle during the current Gloria administration should have convinced these soldiers with rebellious streak and messianic complex that invading hotels is the most stupid way of carrying out their military adventurism even for purposes of allegedly effecting reforms in our society.

Reforms are initiated and approved in our civilian parliament which is the  Congress composed of Senators and Congressmen. Trillanes was already elected a Senator. He had all the chances and the means to initiate the needed social reforms he advocates; in the Senate not in a hotel. We may have street parliamentarians but never “hotel parliamentarians” composed of soldiers prone to damaging adventurism like Trillanes. Hence I am sure that the 11 million voters who elected Trillanes Senator last election must now be painfully and angrily lamenting having done so.

EDSA I and II succeeded because they were conducted in a way that avoids or minimizes possible violence and destruction. They were done in streets and public places, not in hotels. Even then, those who are still contemplating to launch another people power should forget about it. Non-violent people power uprising will no longer succeed in this country because people who joined them and rallied to their noble causes simply felt cheated and betrayed after the two EDSAS. The prevailing mood is that they will just have more of the same kind of corrupt government they previously rallied against and toppled. Prayer power is the call of the hour.

But GMA should not consider the lack of people’s support to the call for her resignation as a stamp of approval to the many perceived anomalies and abuses besetting her administration. People are still craving for plausible and credible explanations to the charges of large scale corruptions and betrayals of public trust especially because of lack of full transparency and repeated attempts to suppress a full dress inquiry into these exposés. These serious issues cannot remain unanswered, brushed aside and forgotten by repeated calls for reconciliation allegedly to enable our country to move forward towards peace and prosperity. The next time around, it may not be as funny and as laughable as the stupid and hilarious Trillanes-Lim caper because there may already be bloodshed.

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