There was a real coup, too

Malacañang is releasing - has released already in Manila, I was told - a documentary movie that is intended to show the people evidences that there really was a coup d'etat in the works, and that this was the reason why Proclamation 1017 had to be issued. It is a 12-minute film, with, I am sure portions showing the President and her troika of Cruz, Lomibao and Gonzalez, with speaking parts.

Since Proclamation 1017 has already been lifted, will it be safe for those who see it to state aloud whether they consider it fiction or non-fiction?

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Many continue to think that, as former President Fidel Ramos said, the whole thing was an "overkill". What coup? They ask. We did not even hear a gunshot, we did not see putschists, in fact, what we saw, instead of thick-skinned Marines, were those weeping over the treatment of one of their most respected officers. Surely those are not potential coup participants? Oh, but one REAL coup did take place at the Manila Hotel the other day. And there was only one victim, and that was Senate President Franklin Drilon, whose leadership of the Liberal Party was seized from him unceremoniously. Even illegally, he says.

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Poor Frank Drilon, now he cannot stop watching his back. I'm sure it is not only the presidency of the LP that he has risked. There still is the Senate presidency that, you can bet as much as you wish, will not stay longer in his hands. Let's wait and see. Meanwhile, what could be the reason why business did not seem affected much by the issuance of Proclamation 1017? Some wise guy said they did not believe the coup stories, they said it was only intended to frighten the media. Well, that was probably confirmed by what Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said after the lifting of 1017. He was quoted as saying that "Even the most rebellious media were intimidated by the proclamation and had begun to reexamine their policies". As the Japanese would say it, Ah su des ka! (Sorry about the spelling, that's all the Japanese I know, aside from Arigato and Gozaimasu).

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But it was very interesting to watch on TV yesterday the march of the lawyers towards EDSA. Fortunately we had our own columnist, Rowena Guanzon, in the group, so we were able to get her to give a first-hand report on the happenings there. And she delivered. At the STAR office, we craned our necks and squinted our eyes to catch a glimpse of her in the marching crowd on TV, but only one claimed to have caught a glimpse of someone who looked like her. But it was exciting, reading her story. The way she wrote about their success in getting to the heart of EDSA, you'd think it was another great military feat, like the capture of Iwo Jima. I wish I had reminded her to bring a DAILY STAR pennant to plant there.

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It was sort of anti-climatic, though, the way GMA condescended to revoke her own pronouncement when the lawyers were just getting warmed up for their protest. Some claim that there must have been a call from Washington, or wherever the perambulating George Bush is at the moment, with a message like that Ronald Reagan spokesman who told Ferdinand Marcos to "cut and cut cleanly". But that's not likely, since the Troika, who seem to make all the decisions now, had already said the other day that they were "recommending" the lifting. And she did.

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What about the Supreme Court? The members have not yet acted on the questions raised against 1017 by so many groups and individuals. The only thing they have done, so far, was to ask the parties involved to give their explanations, or whatever you call those voluminous documents written in legalese and full of wherefores and whereases. Will the High Court say that 1017 was legal, or will it say no? If it is the letter, alas, people will still say our Supreme Court is "Too late the hero".

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Meanwhile the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines is asking its flock to say a special prayer supposed to be prescribed during wars and disasters. I looked over the published copy and three supplications leaped out before my eyes. The first was "Help our national leaders to seek the truth and live by the truth". The second was "Lord, banish both violence and falsehood from our midst." And the third was "Lord do not allow our human rights, dignity and freedom to be sacrificed on the false altar of national security or to be trampled upon by ugly lust for power". Amen, Amen, let us all say.*

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