Deliverance or wag the dog?

Believe it or not, ex-everything Antonio Trillanes gave me a major headache.

The source of my weekend long headache comes from the fact that his latest escapade left more questions than answers. He also reminded me of past events that brought up conspiracy angles that are very disturbing. But since he already caused the major melt down of my weekend plans, I had no other choice but to bounce the questions around and see what developed.

Just to get an unbiased perspective I randomly tossed the “ball” at a few civilians as well as ex-military to get their reactions as well as opinion. Regardless of political color, it’s interesting to discover some stuff that’s been overlooked or ignored during the Manila Peninsula rumble.

Puzzle #1 Out of 31 Magdalo detainees at the Makati City hall, 5 CHOSE to stay 26 walked out. The 5 were kept in a separate detention facility and had broken ties with Trillanes. Past reports indicate that the security ratio was approximately 2 guards to one detainee or 62 armed military escorts. The escorts are carefully selected because the AFP has previously been victimized by charming detainees like Senator Gringo Honasan who manage to befriend his jailors. How was it possible for the Magdalo to convince their escorts but not their co-conspirators in the “Oakwood mutiny”.

When news broke out that Triallanes et al were on the march, initial reports claimed that their guards were simply escorting them as instructed. They had no orders to challenge the group, so most of the people assumed that everything was “under control”. When the authorities arrested the rebels why were the “escorts” separated from the main group of rebels? Were they being “debriefed”?

In terms of conspiracy theories, it reminded some of us of Victor Corpuz and other DPAs who looked like bad eggs but in the end were “restored” to the service in another shape or form.

If there is no conspiracy angle here, whose stupidity caused this serious breach in security and why has the AFP been silent on the matter considering they publicly “hanged” an officer for not being on the ground when soldiers were massacred in Basilan.

 Puzzle #2 The hearing was conducted several floors up in a building crawling with cops and within walking distance of a police headquarters. Between the time General Danny Lim chose to walk out of the hearing , went down the elevator, until the time he got to J.P Rizal street past the Makati Police headquarters would have been at least ten minutes. A fire alarm or a judge screaming out the window for the police could have stopped the whole stunt?

There were several business establishments along the route that had heavily armed cops with bomb sniffing dogs, the entire country was made aware of the Lim-Trillanes parade for approximately 35 minutes before they got into the Manila Peninsula. Was there no one in the entire Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces monitoring the radio stations at least? Only after the attack did the officials start talking about a major plot to overthrow the government. They claimed to have known about the plot but were unable to block and arrest Lim and Trillanes who were parading on Makati Avenue.

Even the harshest critics of the AFP and the PNP find this level of incompetence hard to believe. It all seemed like no one was minding the store or no one was in a hurry. Some of the government troops marched their way to the scene instead of being rushed in on troop carriers.

Given this serious failure in intelligence and communications, there is a need to restudy the priorities and budgets of both the PNP and the AFP.

Puzzle#3 Why did Lim and Trillanes go to Manila Peninsula instead of the Manila Mandarin? Strategically speaking it was right down the road from their point of origin and more centrally located. The Mandarin provided better defense and the parade would have been shorter. Was Trillanes simply reviving the old ghost of past coups or following an outdated manual? In fact even his schoolmates wonder at his choice of venue. 

Puzzle# 4: “You and what army?” Why does Trillanes repeat the same mistake over and over again? If he simply gave a press statement saying all he wanted was a few minutes to air his grievances real or imagined, the whole thing might have made sense. But their declaration of “withdrawal of support” made them look as if they had short term memory loss. That’s what you did at Oakwood and that’s the reason why you were in court a few hours ago.

If Trillanes was counting on the many voters who elected him as Senator to flock to the Peninsula he obviously read the votes wrong and clearly didn’t learn from the Oakwood mistake.

Whatever questions remain unanswered Lim and Trillanes certainly achieved a few things. They succeeded in telling the world what they thought of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. They even managed to get an international news channel to label her as an “Unpopular President whose administration is hounded by charges of corruption.

They succeeded in showing the entire country and the world how “temporarily or momentarily incompetent” our authorities are, how the authorities would respond with extreme prejudice to prove their power and their authority.

They showed us that given an opportunity, some leaders of the Philippine National Police will get even and show their petty attitude as they did with Philippine media. They showed us that even the so-called “ma-PR” and friendly officers of the PNP will instantly forget all goodwill and professionalism and turn into ingrates and abusive characters, who make no distinction between friend or foe.

By creating a rift between the officials whose promotions are PR generated and the media who danced to their songs, Trillanes et al may have started a new war. When some PNP officials threatened to file charges and counter charges against members of media, they obviously forgot about their own past and present sins. About mistresses, girlfriends, scholars and familiarization trips to night clubs that are their private brothels. Trillanes certainly did not cause the damage at the Peninsula but from the looks of it he is about to ruin a few careers as well as a few already broken marriages.