A ‘State of Rebellion’ declaration was a big blunder on GMA’s part - BY THE WAY by Max V. Soliven

As everybody knows (some even sneer at this writer as "Max the Knife"), I’m a hardliner on law and order. However, even in the wake of yesterday’s violent and vicious assaults by the mob on Malacañang and "reports" of a coup plot, that "State of Rebellion" declaration by President Arroyo was an awful mistake. It wasn’t necessary.

The government could have dealt with plotters and hysterical crowds resolutely and decisively as, indeed, it did yesterday without invoking the spectre of a "state of rebellion."

Do you know what such an announcement of a crisis has done to our image of stability both at home and abroad? It gives the impression that the government is running scared, which is an altogether false impression. Now, what foreign investor or businessman (the heck with the already faltering tourist industry) will come here? When the President of the Republic, no less, sends the dire message that her administration is embattled and this nation is under a virtual "state of siege", then it’s curtains for our reputation on the international scene.

The fact is that our nation has been fighting rebellions, right, left and center, ever since Independence in 1946. The late Dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos even used the so-called "‘rebel threat" as his excuse for imposing martial law in September 1972. Ninoy Aquino, this columnist and thousands of others, for that matter, were arrested on the charge that we "wittingly or unwittingly" contributed to this "subversion" and helped "destabilize" the government. Yet, even with an OV-10 bomber or RAM helicopter gunships attacking Malacañang and Camp Aguinaldo, no other "state of rebellion" or "state of emergency" was ever declared. Now, after a hail of only a few thousand rocks and stones, attacks with icepicks, dos-por-dos clubs, and lead pipes, we’re a nation embroiled in a "state of rebellion?" And what about the bruited-about military conspiracy? Potential putschists didn’t even get, as yet, to fire off a single shot.

Alas, this weird pronouncement which is neither fish nor fowl, and not even mentioned in the Constitution as such, has given us an international black-eye much worse than the savage pro-Erap rioters did even though they overturned and burned many vehicles, deluged the defenders of the Palace with hails of stones, killed a policeman, seriously wounded another policeman, and raised mayhem in general. Why? Because the declaration by the President of "a state of rebellion" was official. It gives the impression worldwide that our government is under grave threat.

Domestically, too, it provokes fear, even paranoia, that the GMA Administration may be gearing up to declare "martial law", pick up and imprison Opposition leaders, dissenters, and alleged "troublemakers." It’s overkill of the clumsiest sort.

Was there a coup plot? Not even just perhaps, but probably so. But there have been Putschist plots and conspiracies before. The President could merely have shrugged confidently and quipped: "I eat coup plots for breakfast." (Pass the sugar, please). That would have told the nation and the world that all’s well in the Philippines, God’s in His Heaven, and La Gloria remains in excelsis in untrammeled tranquillity.

Susmariosep! Even in the Kingdom of Hyperbole, why make a mountain out of a molehill?

* * *

The Banzai charge on Malacañang in the dark hour before dawn yesterday, at about 2:30 to 3 a.m., was well-orchestrated. It wasn’t an impulsive act on the part of the EDSA TRES mob, with the crowd marching from the EDSA Shrine, suddenly inflamed by the hortatory speeches of Opposition and pro-Estrada firebrands. The "attackers", in sneaky fashion, surged practically out of nowhere, obviously well-prepared for violent confrontation.

The attacking horde caught the police guarding the approaches to the Palace by surprise, and the first wave surged all the way to the gate of the Palace itself before the "defenders" rallied and pushed them back outside of Gate 7. The assaulting "forces" had come complete with "ammunition" in the form of piles of rocks and large stones, which they hurled with glee at the shocked troopers and Presidential Security Guards, hurting many of the guards before a counter-attack with tear gas, baton-wielding cops, PSG soldiers and Air Force personnel drove them back. For hours the battle raged, with the mob – the eyes of many glazed with hatred and their teeth grit in stubborn determination – giving way reluctantly only in the face of repeated charges by the defenders and reinforcing soldiers, PAF military police, and sailors.

I don’t think commentators and complaining Opposition spokesmen were right to call the rioters "unarmed" (walang armas or hindi nagdadalang armas). A huge stone or rock is a terrible weapon which, hurled with precision and force, can crack a man’s skull. One protester died when shot in the face, although it was clear that the policemen and soldiers exercised what is euphemistically called "maximum tolerance" (some radio-TV announcers even went overboard and called it "extreme maximum tolerance.") Another was reported to have died, but up to press time the fatality’s identity has not been verified.

In truth, given the ferocity of the meleé, it’s a wonder that not more were killed – but it’s early yet, and more fatalities may still be reported. We saw TV footage of one policeman, staggered by a rain of rocks, fall to the ground, and draw his sidearm, but he hesitated to fire even when dozens of demonstrators ganged up on him and almost clubbed and kicked him to death.

It was fascinating to hear Opposition candidates and other anti-government stalwarts come on the air to deny that they had egged on the mob, or told them to march on Malacañang. Every one of them denied having used inflammatory words like "lusob! lusob!" Must have been look-alikes, then, who were seen and heard screaming those words during the five nights of increasingly large rallies at the EDSA Shrine, in which the pro-Estrada crowd was whipped into a frenzy. In the end, to hear them plead innocence, it was a "mindless" and "leaderless" mob that had thrown itself against the gates of Malacañang in human wave convulsions, and raged through Mendiola, J.P. Laurel and the environs of the Palace. What? No leaders? How could it have been a case of spontaneous combustion?

The media, covering the event, came under snarling attack, too. Reporters and cameramen were roughed up, even those cute lady TV newscasters on the spot were given the scare of their lives as stones and other objects rained on their vehicles. Four ABS-CBN vans were attacked, overturned, looted, then burned. One GMA-7 van and other news vehicles suffered the same fate. A police car, an ambulance (with the Red Cross painted prominently on it), and other cars and vans were likewise destroyed, with the patrol car burning ferociously when put to the torch for more than an hour, mercifully without blowing up and hurting bystanders.

In sum, the angry mob’s rage knew no limits and spared no one in its path. As soon as one of the violent demonstrators was collared by the troopers or cops, he or she became meek as a lamb, frightened, protesting innocence, begging for mercy (one could not help noting that the enraged cops, in turn, jabbed them and hit them with night-sticks and clubs when they thought the cameras were not peeking).

It was a spectacle that will be seen today on front pages and on TV channels all over the world. But what the hell: It happens in Berlin, London,Paris and Sydney, too.

* * *

I have to commend our STAR photographer Mike Amoroso as well as our other staffers on the scene for covering the entire imbroglio and the see-saw "action" from beginning to end. Either Mike was everywhere, or he had many cameramen friends in ABS-CBN and GMA-7, because the roving cameras panned on him frequently.

It’s good to be the "boss" for a change and be able to dispatch younger guys as "cannon-fodder" to the battlefront. As a foreign correspondent and war correspondent, I’ve covered much worse violence and mob scenes in my heyday. The most terrible war I encountered was, of course, the Tet Offensive in February 1968, and, indeed, I had on more than one occasion to restrain my accompanying television cameraman (the old, defunct Channel 5’s camera chief) Tony Tecson. Tony was bent on charging into every fray with his Arriflex camera, belonging to the Manila Times TV station, which was newfangled at the time, very expensive and under-insured. The late Tony (may he be happy in newsman’s Heaven) erroneously believed I was less concerned about his life than with preserving the state-of-the-art TV camera just procured by our frugal TV head, Marquitos Roces, from destruction. (I later had my own talk show on the more lavishly-funded ABS-CBN, and didn’t have to worry about saving the TV cameras). Looks like ABS-CBN took a beating yesterday, though.

The bloodiest events were the riots in Jakarta, Surakarta, Sundang, and Bali, following the failed 1965 GESTAPU "coup" (kudeta, as in this country, is the word they use). In the weeks that ensued, we journalists were sickened to see rampaging mobs gone amok – they have the same word for that, as well – massacring "Chinese" and suspected Indonesian Communists. When the death toll neared 100,000 and the streams ran red, we stopped counting. In the end, it was estimated that half a million were murdered by the mindless rioters. The mob would set buildings ablaze after trashing every room, then overturn and set on fire every vehicle they found parked nearby. It was at a riot in front of Res Publica, a Leftwing Chinese school, that I broke my middle finger in an embarrassing way. I was digging into my pocket hastily to recover the key to my borrowed car because the mob suddenly came surging my way, attacking every parked vehicles, and I twisted my finger grotesquely. It took four months to get it straightened again, and everybody back home was speculating maliciously on how it got that way.

The most traumatic event, however, occurred when a group of us went to Mexico D.F., the Mexican capital, in 1968 to enjoy the Olympic Games there – but I found myself covering the anti-government student demonstrations and rallies instead. One night, as a massive demonstration was taking place in the Plaza de Tres Culturas, government armored cars and baby-tanks crashed into the square. The military asked no questions and issued no warnings. They simply started firing pointblank at the students, without any preamble. I ducked (not under the bed, Tita C.) behind the nearest lamppost. The famous Italian woman journalist, Oriana Fallaci of Milan’s Corriere della Sera, was not as lucky. She was on the podium with the student leaders and was felled by a bullet and a piece of shrapnel. Later on, in the hospital, the government sent her flowers with an apology. Fallaci threw the flowers on the floor, crying out: "Send those flowers to the dead students!" (She was no beauty, far from it, but whatta woman!)

Hundreds of students and youthful demonstrators died in that outright massacre. The government claimed that only a few dozens were killed "by mistake." It was no mistake. It was cold-blooded and merciless. I shudder to think of it, even now. There might have been a thousand lying strewn about, when the smoke lifted, in grotesque and bloody heaps on the ground.

For all their sound and fury, yesterday’s clashes were a cakewalk.

* * *

There will be no end to sermonizing and a pious analyzing of the assault made by thousands of obviously masa protesters and kapus-palad demonstrators on Malacañang. Many will cluck their tongues over how the pro-Erap and anti-establishment orators and circus-barkers inflamed the "anti-rich" passions of the mob. There’s much talk about the anger and discontent of the dispossessed, the homeless, and the unemployed being "manipulated" by behind-the-scenes agitators who kept themselves safely out of sight.

Indeed, there’s a great need to address the inequalities in our society and give the poor a boost up. On the other hand, you don’t conjure up "employment" and "fulfillment" for the poor and underprivileged with the wave of a magic wand. If the economy is faltering, how can jobs, a better education for everyone, and a better "future" be manufactured out of thin air?

The riots were, true enough, a wake-up call. But we’ve said such things over and over again. Even Jesus Christ, rebuking Judas one day, declared, "The poor you will always have with you." Our Lord recruited his dearest Apostles from the masa, from among fishermen and laborers, even a prostitute, and, worse, a tax collector. But He made it clear that the world will always have it share of "poor" people as well as of pharisees and high priests. The High Priest, His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin, showed himself anew yesterday, blessing the EDSA Shrine which had been defiled, he indicated, by the pro-Erap demonstrators, but politically did not blame the poor. Instead, he pointed his irate finger at those who manipulated them, once more calling "the wrath of God" on their heads. The Cardinal’s Wrathful God must be working overtime, since He is invoked by His Political Turbulence on every convenient occasion. Just like MacArthur asserting, "I have returned," Sin happily intoned, "We have recovered our EDSA Shrine." For every Sin a moral lesson, I’d say.

Erap and Jinggoy are in Sta. Rosa, while Senator Johnny Ponce Enrile et cetera are under "arrest." So that was the purpose of that "state of rebellion" pronouncement: In order to give the government the opportunity to nab JPE, Gringo Honasan, Ernie Maceda et al. (Has Gringo been located yet?)

In any event, those "arrests" could have been made without any melodrama. How long can the authorities keep these fellows under "arrest" without proving that they had conspired to mount a coup d’etat? We’ll have to see what surfaces today and in the days to come.

These are troubled times, evidently. But too many of the "troubles" are self-inflicted, brought on their own heads by the men and women who clumsily run our government. Let’s hope that, before it’s too late, they’ll learn to be more sure-footed.