Trillanes & Lim bolted out of a Makati court hearing last November 29,2007, where they were being tried for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and February 2006 Mutiny respectively; followed by civilian supporters, foremeost of whom were former Vice-Pres Teofisto Guingona and former University of the Philippines President Francisco Nemenzo. They briskly walked and holed themselves up at the Makati Peninsula Hotel. As they did, they were calling for the people to reject President GMA and asking them to join them in Makati. Senator Trillanes had fiery passion in his eyes; Brig. Gen. Lim had power in what he repeatedly uttered: "Dissent without astion is consent."
The walk-out and seige of Manila Peninsulat Hotel appeared spontaneous and lacked coordination. Filipinos of common mind and stand were taken by surprise. Among them was ex-Ambassador Roy Señeres who would have joined them and said he felt bad that he was not informed of said move.
Bayan Muna Represnetative Satur Ocampo considered it naivete on the part of the two active dissenters to have carried out the seige without an organized broad support from the people.
For I while, I fantasized Trillanes and Lim doing a Ninoy for the cause of Filipino people's freedom from a widely-perceived to be a discredited and corrupt dispensation.
In 6 hours it looked like all was over. All dissenters were hauled to Bicutan detension in handcuffs, including the brave media people who have imbedded themselves in the middle of the action to the finish, after a government overkill which sent a battallion of soldiers and two war tank rambling into the Christmassy halls of Manila Peninsula.
But nothing is over. For as long as the people values democratic freedom and decent governance which majority of the Filipinos do, active dissent such as the Manila Pen seige may happen again and again when people are driven by utter helplessness and desperation.
Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) contributor and political analyst Amando Doronila has written the following warning:
The Peninsula insurrection may have collapsed, but the grievances that drove the rebels to desperate action remain smoldering underneath unless addressed seriously. XXXXXXXXXX There are more than enough grievances to feed plots inside the military to seize power. The more serious plotters have learned the lesson that they can't seize power by turning their guns at hotels. The next time around, the guns will be blazing at Malacañang. (PDI, Dec. 3,2007)
5 comments:
A few foreign friends ask me why I persist living in a nation where nothing's fair at all. The good get punished, the evil enjoy lavishly, and the the indifferent flee the country. (right now, I bet many are fleeing this lawless country).
The way I see it, life isn't fair.... it's only fairer than death. Wherever I go, there's gonna be a few demons itching to create a living hell for all of us. So, may as well make the most of it in this nation of mindless rallies and frenzied coups
happyjoey, why don't you sound happy at all? We have a beautiful country with great people. You and me can do our share in making life here really a blessing
Trillanes and Lim have been trying to do something to improve the situation. Though they might have been misguided, reckless even, and failed, they have left important lessons. Hopefully, they have also awakened some people.
It's nice that they're doing their best to awaken the people. Sad thing is, many snort it off and roll back to sleep. ;)
Sad indeed! Snorting and sleeping off problems are signs of depression--which will only lead to more problems unless the Filipinos bounce back on time.
once again we see people blaming those that react to political killings and disapearance with impunity, electoral cheating and shameless scandals on corruption instead of trying to understand why we have such crisis or "incident" if we believe Bunye.
If we feel strongly against the move of Trillanes and company as misguided what then are we doing to address their grievances which affect not just Trillanes and co. but the nation as a whole?
Yeah, poke fun or rant about it but one thing is crystal clear here..... trillanes and co. has the guts to take a stand while the rest of the nation stood in the sidelines ranting and complaining but doing nothing. And while we enjoy the jokes going around corrupt politicians are more amused and laughing their way to the bank because people see what's wrong with Trillanes & co. to a point of backing a regime with questionable mandate.
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