EDITORIAL - Coup? Go ahead

If there’s more than gas-causing hot air in the latest rumors of a brewing coup, the plotters should go ahead with it. And when it is launched, authorities should do more than laugh off the attempt as a tired drama staged by people with too much time on their hands.

Soldiers and police in the active service who participate in the plot must face the full force of the law and administrative rules that can warrant their dismissal from their organization. Coup attempts are no laughing matter. During the presidency of Corazon Aquino, they prevented the country from taking off and building on the gains of the 1986 people power revolution.

Participants in those ruinous coup attempts were detained and court-martialed but were given a second chance under an amnesty. Some used the opportunity to enter politics, but others saw it as a green light to continue taking the coup path each time they had complaints about the civilian government.

The Arroyo administration, even when facing the worst corruption scandals, repelled every coup attempt. Presidents have been unseated twice in this country, but only when one element is present: popular support. People power, which threw out Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, was absent in all the military plots to kick out Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from the presidency.

Several coup plotters during the Arroyo administration, however, have been richly rewarded with elective and appointive positions in government. When destabilization attempts are seen to pay off, they are likely to be repeated.

When military mutineers in the Arroyo administration failed to muster popular support, there was talk of people power fatigue. Filipinos now look to other paths for change. If coup plots fizzled out when there were numerous reasons for the people to want a leadership change, why will they succeed at this time under a president who, even as he is buffeted by controversies, is clearly bent on pursuing reforms?

If there are soldiers and police unhappy enough to plot a coup, they should go ahead with it, and find out how many civilians will join them. And when they come out of the shadows, they should not be molly-coddled. There are laws and rules that must be applied if the nation wants to instill professionalism in the military and police.