Was it just a paper coup?

Some officials close to the President have come out saying that the obnoxious Proclamation No. 1017 may be lifted Saturday. Yesterday, the Supreme Court, sitting en banc, did not resolve the questions brought before it on the legality or constitutionality of 1017. Who is hedging? Is it the President wanting to pre-empt the High Court by withdrawing her most infamous decision, or is it the Supreme Court who wants to wait until the issue becomes moot and academic?

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This time, I have the feeling that it will be the media that will save this country from the onerous possibilities of Proclamation 1017. Because it is freedom of the press that is threatened - and given a taste of what could come - in the first hours after the issuance of 1017 - we are assured that at least one sector will not quickly lie down and let the tyrants walk over it. As rightly pointed out by some practitioners, most media people are crazy enough to welcome being persecuted if they believe their freedom is threatened.

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Last night, the chief of the Philippine National Police, the now redoubtable Arturo Lumibao, was the speaker at a meeting of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. As expected, he had to face a lot of thorny questions, that could not be stalled by his obvious attempts to look and sound like a harmless old bachelor. But one has to give it to the media people present. They were quite civil in propounding their questions. Oh, but could it have been because they were already intimidated by what the man could do?

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One of those who posed a question was a young fellow who introduced himself as a writer from Time, "the only newsmagazine that covered a coup plot…" eliciting titters from the audience. Because, indeed, Time had reported the other day that one of its reporters was present at the meeting where the scheme was being finalized. I was also happy to hear the question from Tony Lopez, one of our veteran foreign correspondents. He really zeroed in on what I also had in mind.

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This was after Lumibao had stated that they had collected all kinds of evidence against the plotters, among them the minutes of the meeting of the plotters in the military. Lopez asked if the "minutes" could have been a creation (he didn't say whose, but everybody knew, I'm sure) or if it was a genuine one. When Lumibao answered that it was genuine, Lopez asked if it carried the signatures of those present, and if it had been ratified. That brought out laughter from the participants, but no answer from Lumibao. He didn't have a clear answer, either, when asked if he already had those guidelines that he had been talking about after the assault on the Tribune.

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But he was quick to explain that they did not search or do anything drastic at the Tribune office. In other words, perhaps, the raid was just like the so-called "persuasion flights" that the Americans fielded during the coup tries (real ones, not "paper coups") against former President Cory Aquino. I say "paper" because all we know is that Lumibao et al have been talking about lists, maps, styrofoam scales, minutes of meetings, but we haven't been shown, nor have we heard of any machine guns, M-16s, Uzis, rifles, ammos, or even just slingshots and bolos seized from the plotters. Didn't they cover that scenario, too?

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Anyway, Lumibao, one must admit, kept his cool, and so did the media people present but it was a sort of armed neutrality. Last night all the news comments seemed to focus on the possibility that Malacañang will lift its own deadly weapon on Saturday. Also, that the Supreme Court will not be deciding on the issue up to Monday because it will still wait for explanations from the parties concerned. As a fellow I know who is very fond of anachronisms would say it, the case will become "mute and academic".

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By the way, after seeing and hearing Lumibao before the FOCAP, I can tell people who suspected it that there is no truth to the rumor that Lumibao is a clone of the late General Fabian Ver. He may seem like that with the present president, but, it's true, too, that different folks have different strokes.*

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