Coup rumors have resumed and for a reason!

In this country, as February approaches, rumors of coups grow ever louder. So if lately you've heard another coup rumor, it must be because we just heard that yesterday, four Oakwood mutineers have followed Marine Capt. Rafael Faeldon and have escaped or deserted Camp Crame. Clearly, despite their supposedly being incarcerated, these mutineers still have some kind of support inside this military base, otherwise how could they have gotten away? Now the Military Police have created "search teams" to look for the missing Oakwood mutineers, 1st Lt. Sonny Sarmiento, 1st Lt. Lawrence San Juan, 1st Lt. Patricio Bumindang and 1st Lt. Nathaniel Rabonza.

If you ask me, this could be some kind of "posse" which could lead into a nasty shootout; after all, in military parlance a deserter loses a lot of rights. Often, especially in times of war, a deserter is even shot on sight! But it seems that Army Chief Lt. General Hermogenes Esperon is still looking at a happy ending on this problem, that the fugitives would be caught. Well, they better be caught otherwise, those Oakwood mutineers would "infect" their comrades in the military and from a brushfire we could have a conflagration! That's how serious this problem is at this time!

As I said, many tongues are already wagging that a coup is a-brewing, more so that the problem that the Oakwood mutineers about military corruption hasn't been addressed. To add to our woes, the military gave a super "lenient" punishment for the Oakwood mutineers for holding the entire nation hostage. In other countries they would be jailed for a long time and booted out of military service. Here, they're slapped a few months in jail and asked to take an oath of allegiance which I'm sure that many soldiers did with their fingers crossed behind their backs!

When ill-disciplined military officials get away with a mini-coup and are not properly punished it is not difficult for destabilizers to convince them that they can do it again because if they win the next coup, the coup leaders would be the next high-ranking officers.

Meanwhile, Army Chief Lt. General Hermogenes Esperon created an investigating body to look into why the Oakwood Mutineers escaped. If you ask me, finding out why is not a difficult task given to investigative body. The problem is whether this body would tell us the real reasons why those soldiers escaped. The people of Makati ought to be on the alert at this time because those Oakwood fugitive mutineers could very well try to retake Oakwood again, but this time around, things could get bloody!

Finally, I can't get what Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes was trying to say when he said to the Filipino people, "If you're going to choose Mrs. Arroyo, that means you are satisfied with your present situation and the country's condition and you can bear her until 2010." Is he telling the destabilizers that if they spring out of jail, he'll be the next "Honasan?" The problem with this people is, they want political change to come from the barrel of a gun.

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Yesterday I was watching on ANC TV the ongoing debates of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments for Charter Change. Their debates gives you an idea that our Congressmen who are supposed to be representatives of their respective districts are no longer representing them because they make decisions on their own without checking what their constituents really want. These people have arrogated into themselves that their constituents will swallow what they want them to swallow.

I have no doubt that whatever proposals have emanated from the Presidential Consultative Commission (ConCom) is now being used by pro-cha-cha Congressmen. But one of them hit the nail on the head when he said that shifting to a Parliamentary system would mean losing our time-honored checks and balances because a Parliamentary system is a fusion of both the Executive and Legislative Branches of the government. This is precisely why a Federal system, which gives powers to the Local Government Units would provide such checks and balances.

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Final call for all our classmates from the University of San Carlos Boys High School Class '66. This Saturday, Jan.21st, we will be celebrating our 40th year at the Penthouse of our schoolmate Florentino Atillo III in Mactan, just across the Film Academy at 6PM. This year's 40th celebration is expected to bring the biggest number of classmates! Noel Laspinas just texted me to greet our classmates as he cannot come. So too with my best friend in high school, Tony Rizarri, who also cannot come.

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