When Lt. San Juan was arrested just a few days before the coup would have begun, found with him were the minutes of his meetings with the Communists on CDs, something we wrote about months back. Now he has validated this story; that after all, they were not "planted" evidences as he earlier claimed. His "confession" proves once and for all that the left and the right wing groups, together with the opposition and the business groups that support them were the active participants of that ill-fated coup.
A few days later, Time Magazine's Nelly Sindayen came out with a news story saying that indeed a coup was hatched in the residence of former Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco together with civil society's Pastor "Boy" Saycon. In that article, Cojuangco was even talking to a military officer who was unnamed. To date, none of those featured in the Time Magazine article by Sindayen dared to file libel charges against Nelly Sindayen for false reporting. Obviously, a court case would reveal more of the truth.
With the recently exposed video of Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim of the First Ranger Scout Regiment declaring that he was no longer supporting Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) or his Commander-in-chief, most of us now believe that Gen. Lim was the military component of that ill-fated coup attempt. But of course, these days we only hear denials coming from those invited to shed light on this by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
If their coup won the day, better believe that these people would be the new power blocs in the new government. They'd be accepting tv interviews bragging how they brought about the collapse of the Arroyo government. Alas for these people, Pres. Arroyo proved smarter than the rest of them and now they are all in hot water. Many businessmen who helped finance that ill-fated coup are also under investigation. Mr. Antonio "Tonyboy" Cojuangco was the last one being interviewed by the NBI who denied involvement of the coup. Like I said, he would be singing a different tune if only their coup won the day.
Finally, outgoing Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Generoso Senga has ordered court martial proceedings to be conducted against Brig. Gen. Lim and all those who were arrested for whatever their role was during the ill-fated coup attempt. If you ask me, the Arroyo administration should have done this sooner, not six months later. Next coup attempt might be swifter, bloodier and it just might succeed because we're just too lax to cut down those officers with a messianic complex.
Of course, to those who have been following this story, we now know that Jonah Rodriquez had a falling apart with former Mayor Alvin Garcia and he thought it would have provided him an opening to solve his case. In the end, Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Margot was beyond forgiving simply because this case had just gone too far. I'm sure that Margot can forgive this man… for as long as there is retribution and more importantly that our people learn the lessons that you just can't use the cellphone to harass others.
Meanwhile it is interesting to note that Margot Osmeña mentioned that she would use the P200 thousand fine that's being slapped to Jonah Rodriguez for the Task Force Street Children. This is classic Margot Osmeña. I really expected her to do this, making something good out of a bad situation. So the only problem remaining is, Jonah claims that he has no money to pay this fine. Hmmm, I don't know how the judge would look into this but if he can't pay that means he would spend more time behind bars. Margot used to show me those ugly messages almost on a daily basis. For me, it is enough that this episode is finally behind them.