Was there an
embedded journalist?

We have a new Papal Nuncio coming soon. We also have a new ambassador from the United States due to arrive. What, or who else will be new when the Ides of March comes along?

***

Our Sweet and sometimes Sour columnist Edouard Garcia texted this early yesterday: "January 22 - Pacman's victory. After 13 days, Feb. 4 - Ultra stampede. After 13 days, Feb. 17 - Leyte landslide. After 13 days, March 2 - ????" Maybe Edouard's source did not factor in Feb. 24 because it did not fall within the 13-day span. But it was a Disaster Day, as far as Philippine media is concerned.

***

Yesterday, Feb. 27, scores of people, soldiers, officials, members of non-government organizations, even Generals, found themselves on the list of those targetted for arrest and charging for various crimes by the Justice Department. Where will they be taken and incarcerated? Let's hope not in the places where journalists like the late Chino Roces, Johnny Mercado, Max Soliven, Amando Doronila and so many others were herded to about 34 years ago. Will they be allowed to stay in resorts like Erap? But his charge was for plunder only. He didn't say he would oust GMA.

***

The journalists among the current crop of detainees (most of the offenses they are being charged for an unbailable, I understand) can take hope in the fact that, if they survive, they can become popular columnist like Max Soliven and Amando Doronila, who, now and then love to recall their days in detention. Max, for instance, seems to enjoy very much recalling having Ninoy Aquino as his cellmate. If he is not yet writing a book about those days when he suffered as a martyr of press freedom, I hope he will start one soon.

***

The pre and post EDSA days must have recharged the memories of our prosecutors. Suddenly, they are filing charges against Gringo Honasan for allegedly supporting or instigating the Oakwood mutiny in 2003. Like hindsight, too, they remembered to charge the Big Ones like Jose Ma. Sison, Fr. Louis Jalandoni, NPA spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, Partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo and three others, and many, many others. Whether they will be as lucky as those arrested before the EDSA anniversary who were released promptly after they had played their roles, we don't know.

***

What I found most interesting yesterday was a copy of the Time Magazine article entitled "Inside the Philippines Coup Plot" that seemed to me like a story written with tongue-in-cheek. The title is revealing enough, it broadly hints that the magazine was in on the alleged plot. Indeed, it must have been, since the article says that a Time reporter actually witnessed the meetings of the plotters in the house of former Rep. Peping Cojuangco. There, said the Time article, the ringleaders planned out how they would yank out President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, set up a new government, and even called up Washington to tell them of their plans!

***

Could the plotters have been that stupid? You plan a revolt, and you let a reporter from an international magazine into it? Maybe the Time reporter had agreed to be an "embedded" journalist and broke his or her (very likely the latter) word? Or they all forgot to make her promise "Off the record"? I tell you, we hatched better plots than that when we were in elementary school. From all the stories, the justifications, excuses and defenses, one could suspect that all the participants in the drama, protagonists and antagonists, were all immature, I mean, amateurs. So, maybe, there is no reason to be scared, after all.

***

Several groups, especially of lawyers and law professors, are questioning, or are poised to question the President's Proclamation No. 1017 before the Supreme Court. What if she had consulted some of the justices before issuing it, and had been assured that it was okay? That's a wild idea, of course, but we do know who appoints the justices, don't we? I hear the SC will take the matter up today. By the way, what happened to all those questions about the other one, the equally controversial Executive Order 464?*

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