EDITORIAL – Déjà vu

This one ended even quicker than its precedent four years ago. Saying they wanted to avoid bloodshed, detainees accused of plotting a coup led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim surrendered and were re-arrested early last night. Hours earlier, the two men had walked out of their court trial in Makati, then marched in the rain to the five-star Manila Peninsula Hotel in the heart of the nation’s financial district, where they demanded the resignation of President Arroyo and called on other members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to join them.

Both men are not new to trying to topple the government from posh accommodations. Lim led the takeover of hotels in Makati in December 1989, in the bloodiest attempt to topple the administration of Corazon Aquino. How the government dealt with him has to have a bearing on his actions yesterday — and on those of Trillanes and their supporters. After getting a slap on the wrist for the 1989 coup, Lim was eventually reinstated. Under Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who rose to power on the wings of a military-backed popular revolt, Lim was even appointed to head the elite Army Scout Ranger Regiment.

Trillanes was a junior officer when he joined several others and staged a mutiny in July 2003. That time they picked the posh Oakwood serviced apartments, also in the heart of Makati, to stage their mutiny. From detention, Trillanes managed to win a seat in the Senate last May. When adventurism is rewarded, it is bound to be repeated. Thus we had that hotel siege yesterday, staged by individuals already facing charges for plotting a coup last year.

But that is not the only reason we keep hearing the same refrain and seeing the same methods resorted to over and over again. Though the end does not justify the means, many of the gripes expressed by those who staged yesterday’s “situation” are valid. It did not help that the administration again indulged its penchant for overkill yesterday, rounding up media members and imposing a midnight-to-dawn curfew. Those moves would only be added to a long list of reasons for public discontent. Until those complaints are reasonably addressed, we have not seen the last of Trillanes’ capers.