Why coup plots persist
The Philippine government has arrested at least one active soldier and four of his former comrades in the Army for alleged involvement in yet another destabilization plot meant to force President Arroyo from office.
Why these destabilization plots continue cannot be pinned solely on the unpopularity of the president or on the growing resentment among lower-ranked military personnel against the generals and colonels who surround her.
The destabilization plots continue because the perception is growing that chances are great that one can get away with it. In relation to the few who have been caught and punished, the pool of resources to mount an armed initiative is much deeper.
What is holding back any real surge of activity is the lack of funding to mount a credible offensive. As in any other business undertaking, it takes real money to finance a coup with any real chance of succeeding.
Most of the available funding comes from personalities who stand to gain much from the removal of the president. But having no real commitment to reforms other than their own grand visions of a drastic change in fortunes, they hedge against being forced their entire hand.
These personalities have other futures to think of and prepare for, futures that are in fact more immediate and realistic than the rather Quixotic quest for a viable and successful power grab.
If only there is a real gambler from among the coup financiers, one who is willing to dump his entire kitty on an adventure of a lifetime, no matter how it turns out, then and only then must Arroyo start getting real worried.
In the absence of that, however, what she can realistically anticipate is a sustained series of half-baked efforts that can only undermine but not exactly topple her government. If she falls in face of these attempts nevertheless, then she only has herself to blame.
One area she can blame herself is her failure to contain the smoldering resentments within the ranks, fanned in large part by the realization that while it is the ordinary soldier who must dodge the bullets in battle for peanuts, it is the generals who get to eat the cake.
And because they only get a slap on the wrist if they complain, the prospect of effecting change by swift if unconstitutional and illegal means becomes quite appealing indeed. It is a chance that is really worth taking.
Not that we are trying to justify or romanticize rebellion. On the contrary, we are for more stringent measures to curb and stop rebellion from within the ranks. Such a course of action to effect change has no place in a peaceful and orderly society such as we all desire.
And if it has to take severe punitive measure that offenders can never forget for the rest of their lives, that is the course of action the government needs to take. It is, after all, a no-nonsense attitude that is eventually the best teacher of manners.
The government not only has to make sure it is not worth the while of anybody to grab power by unconstitutional means, it also has to make sure everybody gets the message and understands it.
One Edsa revolt is enough. If we failed to derive anything beneficial and meaningful from it, then let us own up to the fact that, as far as the Filipino is concerned, it was one big fluke among history's great human adventures.
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Members of the Visayanian Staffers Alumni Association will be holding their annual reunion and fellowship at
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