Remember that revolutionary gov't option?

Whatever the reasons why no less than President Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III took it upon himself to call that press conference to warn the devotees of the Black Nazarene to stay home because of that terror threat imagined or concocted, I hope he has learned his lessons well because despite the Presidential warning, the millions of devotees totally ignored his warnings. His critics would even dare to say… his ramblings! In the end, even Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin admitted that the safehouses that they raided yielded nothing, no bomb making devices and no terrorists.

Perhaps his security advisers were so good in convincing the President that the threat was so real… that he decided to make the announcement himself. But protocol dictates that he should have let his security advisers or at the very least, his usual bevy of Palace sycophants to do the announcement so that when nothing happens, the President would not be embarrassed.

When the President issued those warnings, it triggered various text messages that rang throughout this Catholic nation of ours… that he is the first President to publicly scare people from attending an annual Catholic procession and keep them away from our Lord Jesus Christ. Some texts even dared tag him as the anti-Christ because of his pro-RH stand! This coming Saturday is the solemn procession for the Señor Sto. Niño as it is Sinulog week in Cebu City. I just hope that the President would not issue a similar warning and prevent the devotees from going to the Sto. Niño Basilica.

In the past many years that we’ve held the Sinulog Festival, authorities always lived with the possibility of having serious security threats. But then our Cebuano leaders always take that leap of faith… that God himself would protect his own! For the 32 years we’ve held the Sinulog Festival, it has become the number one tourist drawer to the Philippines and the Fluvial Parade and afternoon procession is the most solemn procession you will ever see… where millions silently pray while walking with the Señor Sto. Niño.

On Sunday, we will be holding the Sinulog Parade… now this is the boisterous, riotous part of the Fiesta of Cebu, yet we’ve never had serious untoward events that happened during the parade. P-Noy has been invited by the Sinulog Foundation, headed by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama. If he does come here, he should be prepared to get stuck in traffic because the whole City of Cebu freezes during the parade.

Now going back to that security threat… the big question is where did that threat come from? Was it so big a threat that P-Noy did not only make the announcement himself, he had his security officials standing behind him when he was on the podium? They actually looked more like they stumbled into a coup plot of sort, rather than a potential terrorist plot.

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

Before the declaration of Martial Law on September 21, 1972, there was an incident, the attempted assassination 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. It was only in February 1986 when JPE turned against Marcos during the EDSA Revolt when we learned that that assassination plot was in truth… stage-managed.

Looking back again at the front photos in the STAR reminded me of the lineup 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 public lineup? Now that reminded me of the column that I wrote in this corner last November 22nd 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 lineup looked to me like a preview of the revolutionary government that quite possibly could already be in progress!

But no one from Malacañang dared to give me a reply to the column we wrote… deadma! Then very quietly a week later, 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? Abangan!

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