Headed for the bridge over troubled waters

I really don’t know what’s going on (I’m not yet saying he is crazy) in the mind of Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, III but whenever we get a terror alert, this is usually done in great secrecy so as not to alarm our people. What the National Security Adviser (NSA) would do is move all the security agencies into high gear on a frantic search for the would-be perpetrator and stop him on his tracks before he can do the dastardly deed.

 If at all this report gets leaked to the press, it would come out as an inside page statement warning our people of a potential threat from saboteurs. But calling it openly as a terror threat without identifying where the threat was coming from leaves as lot to be desired. So the big question to ask is where is that threat coming from? With the Aquino Regime virtually “sleeping with the enemy,” it couldn’t have come from the Communists.  

 Looking intently at the colored front-page news when the President made this public statement of the terror threat, he was with AFP Chief Lt. Gen. Jessie Dellosa, Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin, National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia, Executive Sec. Jojo Ochoa, Interior Sec. Jesse Robredo, DOJ Sec. Leila de Lima and PNP Chief Nicanor Bartolome and they looked more like they stumbled into a coup plot of sorts, rather than a potential terrorist plot. But is it really a terror threat or something worse?

 With Malacañang propagandists spinning all sorts of pro-PNoy propaganda, we can never tell what to believe under the Aquino Regime. These are times that are not much different from the days prior to the declaration of Martial Law when the propagandists of then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos spun out that falsehood of the threat of communism that the Philippines could fall just like the other Asian countries that fell into communist rule.

 Prior to the September 21, 1972 declaration of Martial Law, there was an incident … an assassination attempt against then Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE), which then triggered Pres. Marcos to declare Martial Rule all over the country. Of course, it was only in February 1986 when JPE turned against Marcos during the EDSA Revolt to reveal that that assassination plot was in truth stage-managed.

 Looking back at the front photos in the Star reminded me of the usual line up of new officials when a new group would take over from the old government. But wait! The Aquino Regime is well in place already … so why was there a need to do that line up for the consumption of the public? This reminded me of the column that I wrote in The Philippine Star last November 22 back when then DND spokesman Jess Paredes made an off-the-cuff remark at the Rembrandt Hotel that one of their options was the possibility of calling for a Revolutionary government! That line up looked like a Revolutionary government that’s already in progress!

 No one from Malacañang dared to give me a reply to the column we wrote … it’s called “deadma!” Then very quietly, we learned that Atty. Jess Paredes was out as DND spokesman, to which, once more, we wrote a query whether he was asked to resign or was he fired? Again … deadma! Could I have stumbled on this plot that indeed there was such a sinister plan by the Aquino Regime to establish a revolutionary government along the lines where there would be power-sharing with the communists? You may call this idea far fetched, but given the precarious situation with the up and coming impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona, we are indeed headed towards the proverbial bridge over troubled waters!  

 I talked with ANAD Party-list Rep. Pastor Alcover, Jr. on this issue and he reminded me about the bombing of Plaza Miranda way back on Aug.21, 1971 or 41-years ago … that the dastardly deed was perpetrated by Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Chairman Jose Maria Sison who ordered the grenade attack on the Liberal Party’s “Miting de Avance” that was about to proclaim their line up of eight senators.

 The bombing of Plaza Miranda had the Communists pointing their fingers at Pres. Marcos who in turn pointed to the Communists as the perpetrators of that crime. Then in an unprecedented move, Pres. Marcos suspended the “Writ of Habeas Corpus” which was testing the waters for the declaration of Martial Rule a year later.  

 Call me paranoid if you will, but after 26-years as a journalist, my hunch is … the Aquino regime is being faced not just with a simple terrorist threat, but rather a threat to its existence, otherwise the President wouldn’t have any need to line up his official family. We saw this during the assumption of then Vice-Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in EDSA II and what I’m seeing today is something that the Aquino Regime is trying to pre-empt. This happens when the people can no longer count on the gov’t to tell the truth!

*  *  *

Email [email protected]