A coup plot is not a game

Once again, a Philippine president is vowing to purge the military and the police of all "adventurists" and punish all who participated in the aborted February 24 coup plot. Let’s see whether GMA has the guts and political will to do so this time. In the past, from Cory to FVR to Erap, brave words of this nature fizzled out into amnesty.

I must confess that this writer was guilty of having urged former President Fidel V. Ramos to make peace with the putschists of the RAM-SFP-YOU. If you will remember, it was only the Philippine STAR which had supported Ramos (the other newspapers had other candidates). In a front page editorial written by this Publisher, we had broken precedent by openly endorsing FVR the day before the elections. Running in a hotly-contested field of seven candidates, General Ramos had won with only 24.7 percent of the vote. He defeated Miriam Defensor-Santiago by a mere 800,000 votes – but this was enough.

On the eve of his victory proclamation, FVR scheduled a one-on-one dinner with me at the Manila Hotel to thank me for our support. FVR then asked me what I wanted. I told him that I definitely did not want to be appointed to his Cabinet, nor any government position. I also told him I wasn’t interested in proposing anyone to become a member of his Cabinet. "I would like to ask you, instead, not to appoint three persons to your Cabinet, because they won’t be good for you or your government." I named them. Would you believe? A few weeks later, he appointed all three. So much for the power of the press in the Philippines!

Of course, he had to drop two of the three from his Cabinet later – but that’s another story.

The next important thing I asked FVR to do was to reconcile with the rebellious group which had bedeviled the Cory Government with at least five coup attempts, three of them serious – namely the RAM (Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabansa), the SFP (mostly Marcos loyalists who styled themselves "Soldiers of the Filipino People") and the YOU (Young Officers Union). FVR recoiled at the very idea. He said that that group had even planned to assassinate him and he could not make any peace with them. I pointed out to the General that he was not as popular in the Armed Forces as he thought since, according to his own Krystal Survey, he had lost in all the military camps except one. In short, as the incoming president he needed all the support from the military he could muster. FVR, of course, testily rejected any idea that he was not popular in the Armed Forces, and continues to do so today, so I won’t debate this issue with him. On the other hand, I had asked him: "Have any insurgent movements been able to overthrow the government or come close to it?" I pointed out that the NPA had been trying by that time for more than 20 years but had not succeeded. The various Bangsamoro insurgents like the Moro National Liberation Front, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Abu-Sayyaf, I noted, had never gotten out of Mindanao to seriously challenge the Manila government in Luzon.

In contrast, I reminded Eddie, the RAM-SFP-YOU almost succeeded in toppling the Cory Government in December 1989 when they launched a surprise attack which included an OV-10 Bronco actually making a bombing run on Malacañang itself that sent the entire Cabinet scurrying under the table. (Which is why even today the Palace is equipped with a defensive anti-aircraft rocket system.) The putchists even had an armored column led by a colonel deployed in Greenhills, ready to move. I know because they had parked most of their armored car units right beside the O.B. Montessori Center. So, my wife and her staff and teachers went out to offer them sandwiches and coffee and politely requested them to move a block away in order that the school might not be in the line of fire. The colonel and his men courteously saluted and did just that. They moved their armored column a block away.

In short, the coup was "interrupted" only when the Americans sent four phantom F-4s from Clark Field to fly over the city in what FVR later described as a "persuasion flight" to send a message to the putschists that the US was supporting the government and not the rebels. The mutiny fizzled out and most of the military components which had been mobilizing to join the move quietly faded back into the woodwork. By the same token, I told FVR before he assumed the presidency, it is important that the rogue leadership of the RAM-SFP-YOU be brought back into the fold. FVR finally agreed and successfully finessed an agreement with that organization which was later colorfully described by him as "a peace of the brave". This is what enabled the RAM leader, Col. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan to obtain amnesty. You know the rest. Despite his hostility to GMA and the order for his arrest (and that of Ping Lacson) after the May 1, 2001 assault on the Palace by a mob, the charismatic Honasan got elected to the Senate. Is he up to his own tricks? That’s the question today.

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The nonsense now being pedaled by some officers whose asses got caught in the sling in the current investigation into the February "conspiracy," is that it was not a coup attempt at all that had been contemplated but merely "a withdrawal of support from the President". If we stop playing word games, what else is a "withdrawal of support" by officers and men who are under military discipline except mutiny? Former president Joseph "Erap" Estrada (did he really fund the last caper?) understands well enough that when his generals, including his Armed Forces Chief of Staff Angelo T. Reyes, mounted the podium at the height of the January 2001 Edsa People Power Dos demonstrations to announce they had withdrawn their support from him, this act signaled his overthrow. The fact that it was bloodless did not change the nature of the beast: the defectors had betrayed their legitimate Commander-in-Chief. It’s said that the former president had been watching the Edsa demonstrations on television in the Palace, and when he saw his most trusted generals declaring their withdrawal of support from him, he exclaimed: "patay na ako!" (Literally, I’m dead!)

If enough officers and soldiers in the Armed Forces had rallied behind Estrada and upheld his presidency, ignoring the well-televised defection of their top generals, Erap would never have been ousted. Indeed, the generals might then have been arrested and stood up before a firing squad. Mr. Estrada, of course, for all his blustering ways, suffers from sporadic attacks of becoming pusong mamon (too soft-hearted), and he might have "forgiven" them. But that will forever remain in the realm of speculation. For, in the aftermath, the former president was arrested, handcuffed, and (to our shame) embarrassed by being put on television being fingerprinted like a common criminal.

Now you know why, aside from being her mother’s daughter, GMA will never resign – and those who thought she would, "shamed" by the televised condemnation of some of her cabinet members and officials notoriously known as the "Hyatt 10" into quitting, must have been dreaming. La Gloria, surely, must have recalled what she and her merrymen had done to poor Estrada, finger print-routine and all. GMA certainly would not like the same thing to happen to her.

Going back to his fall in January 2001, Erap’s miscalculation was that he didn’t know when the jig was up. The day before, with the Edsa mobs increasing in numbers and fury, the United States government, through its acting Ambassador Mike Malinowski, had offered the embattled president "temporary asylum". The condition was that he be flown out to another country, or overseas city like Hong Kong, where he then could be whisked away by the Americans to some place in the USA. (Unlike the day in February 1986 when they plucked the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his family out of the besieged Malacañang Palace in two helicopters and sped him off to Hawaii, the Americans obviously were no longer in the home delivery service).

For hours, some friends of mine who were trying "to borrow" a private plane precisely to evacuate Erap to this overseas safe haven were frantically working the phones, in an attempt to persuade sundry businessmen into providing one of their own private jets. Most of those contacted declined, an early indication that they knew that Erap was finished. Finally, one reluctantly volunteered his aircraft "on condition that it be cleared with Vice President GMA." The organizers of his sudden "evacuation", heaved a vast sigh of relief. They believed that saved the situation from deteriorating into anarchy and violence, it was imperative to get Erap out without fuss or bother.

The plane was already on the tarmac, all gassed up, when President Estrada decided to stick it out and refused to leave. You know the rest. During his five years in prison, perhaps Erap himself must have entertained some regrets about not having taken that option. Anyway, history is full of "what might have beens".

Today we have the case of the officers and men who were allegedly poised to mutiny.

How can anyone of them argue that it was only a mere "withdrawal of support" they had intended? This is a land, sad to say, where putchists seems to blithely consider mounting a coup d’etat a kind of gentleman’s game – like, say, basketball or football. After the "game" is over, they seem to believe, all the "losers" have to do is go to the showers and freshen up for the next "game". Probably it’s time they were disabused of this attitude. But how?

Will the government really punish those found to have been involved this time? We’ll wait and see. I noticed that in the list of suspects in the February 24 plot are some familiar names who were prominently involved in earlier failed coups and mutinies. Among the names being mentioned is, of course, that of Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, the now-detained Commander of one of our elite forces, the 1,500-strong Philippine Scout Rangers. Another name which popped up yesterday in the Gotcha column of Jarius Bondoc was that, to my surprise, of ex-Col. Rafael Galvez.

If you put two and two together, you’ll recall that it was Col. Rafael "Baby" Galvez, along with then Captain Danny Lim who commanded the rebellious Scout Rangers when they seized the heart of Makati’s financial district in December 1989. The Scout Rangers at that time had occupied the area for more than one week, paralyzing all business in the district. (Another leader of that group was then Major Abe Puruganan, who is now an Undersecretary in the GMA government and has remained loyal). The Rangers were at last convinced into surrendering. The deal was that they would be allowed to keep their arms and march back to their barracks in Fort Bonifacio. There, they would be disarmed and put under military detention. Sanamagan: The Rangers withdrew in grand fashion. They held a parade right down Ayala Avenue to the cheers of many onlookers. Whatta country !

Does history repeat itself? A philosopher once said that history never repeats itself but man does.

Ironically, when we were in the Oakwood Hotel in Makati, trying to negotiate the surrender of the Magdalo Mutineers, sweating it out for hours in a building wired with explosives, on either side of me were Danny Lim and Puruganan. As we listened to the complaints of the angry young officers who declared they were ready to die – namely, Trillanes, Maestrecampo, Gambala and the others, I turned to Danny and asked him: "How do you feel being on the other side this time?"

To which he replied with a twisted grin on his face: "Weird."

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The current situation, I submit, is equally weird. How should GMA handle the mutineers? There must certainly be punishment this time. Even the Magdalo rebels had agreed to be tried under the Articles of War. On the other hand, the policy of retribution, I believe must be accompanied by an even more zealous effort of attraction. La Presidenta as Commander-in-Chief must continue with even more zeal what we undertook at Oakwood on July 27, 2003, and this time honestly address the grudge and complaints, not betray the pledges made in that surrender agreement. As I’ve shouted from the rooftops in the past three years (egged on by the other government panel negotiators who could not speak owing to the fact that they continue to work for the government) some of the promises made at Oakwood were not kept.

The threat of "coup" has been diffused for now. It gives GMA time to reform the Armed Forces and convince the young captains – who are the main source of the ferment – of her sincerity. If she wastes this opportunity, then nobody can predict what could still happen.

Fortunately this time, many of the idealistic officers who might have joined the conspiracy were turned off by the "flirtation" with Leftists and outright Communist themselves. The military, even the most discontented in their ranks, instinctively realize that their deadliest enemies will always be the Communist New People’s Army and the Leftists who are the civilian front of the NDF-NPA insurgency.

What GMA has to do is show them that she deserves their loyalty and trust – and that there is a better way.