We were in the middle of the workshop on “Building Fiscal Sustainability through Better Risk Management of Public-Private Partnership Projects” that I attended in Jakarta, Indonesia when I got a lot of text messages that there was another hotel siege a-brewing. Subsequent text messages told me that it was the handiwork of Sen. Antonio Trillianes and Gen. Danilo Lim, who were joined by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona and running priest Fr. Roberto Reyes.
Fortunately the 50-plus participants of this workshop from the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) nations were too engrossed with their work to really care about this new political circus happening in the Philippines. Call it another embarrassing moment in Philippine stupidity! After the workshop, I rushed to the room just in time when CNN, BBC News and Star News Asia were reporting this very embarrassing incident.
Of course the next day, I read the Jakarta Post, which had a front-page color photo of the Special Forces behind an armored vehicle entering the Peninsula Manila lobby, but the story was buried on Page 12. Their main story was about Indonesia’s international ranking on education which has dropped, like most countries in Southeast Asia. Of course I had to give out explanations to our fellow delegates as to what was really happening back home. If you only gauged it from the satellite news feeds or the English language newspapers, you really would not get the full report of what was really happening in the Philippines.
Thankfully this incident was over very quickly and now we need answers to questions like, why Sen. Trillianes was able to walk out of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) and literally walk toward the Peninsula Manila? If you ask me, this drama was obviously planned. Shame on the ancient Teofisto Guingona or that misguided Fr. Reyes for joining what was clearly a quixotic attempt at embarrassing the Arroyo administration because they also succeeded in embarrassing the Filipino nation as a whole.
While their short-lived misadventure may have embarrassed our country before the whole world, especially with their demands for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), they only revealed the reality that this lawless wild bunch of has-beens really has no popular support from anyone and this ultimately showed that President Arroyo is firmly in control of the government regardless of how low her popularity is back home.
In my book, this incident only backfired against Sen. Trillianes because he only has shown the Filipino people how irresponsible he is instead of being grateful that Filipino voters voted him to a Senate seat. Indeed, Trillianes may have captured a Senate seat, but he couldn’t keep the Oakwood Hotel and the Peninsula Manila when he took over them by force. Their misadventure has definitely resulted in financial losses for the damaged five-star hotel and I would like to know whether Sen. Trillianes, Gen. Danilo Lim, Teofisto Guingona, and yes, Fr. Reyes, are prepared to pay for the damage that they have done.
There is no question that too many in the opposition are covertly or openly supporting the Trillianes Comedy Act Two. We are now in the first week of the last month of the year 2007 and next month the year 2008 will be upon us, which means La Gloria has but two years left in her very long reign. I can understand the frustration and impatience of the anti-Gloria elements. But this is not the fault of President Arroyo. The blame lies squarely on this unlamented and kilometric Cory Constitution that was forged and hammered by 49 men and women who were still suffering from Martial Law hangover.
Thus the framers of the Constitution ordained that the President shall have a single six-year, non-extendable term. Thus we are now learning our lessons very well that a six-year single term is too short for a good president and consequently, too long for a lousy one. This is why we need to immediately call for Charter changes to return this country back to the two four-year terms that pre-Martial Law presidents used to enjoy. We have to change this now because after President Arroyo, who knows we’d get another six long years with an unwanted president.
As a final word, I don’t know why some news reports insist that what happened at Peninsula Manila was another failed coup. Let’s call a spade a spade, that wasn’t a coup; it was pure dramatics – taking over a hotel to get maximum media exposure. President Arroyo’s government was never threatened.
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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.