The coup flop of Trillanes

It’s the 40th anniversary today of the declaration of martial law. Four decades ago, the late President Ferdinand Marcos issued Proclamation 1081 that placed the entire country under martial law, until this was lifted by Proclamation 2045 on January 17,1981.

Credited as the chief martial law administrator of the Marcos martial rule through those years is then Defense Minister and now incumbent Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile. Ironically, it was also Enrile who was chiefly behind the ouster of the Marcoses during the EDSA People Power Revolution in February 1986.

It was acknowledged by the world as the most peaceful, first people-powered revolution. It installed into office the first woman President in our country, the late Corazon Aquino. She was the widow of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., who was among the Marcos foes arrested immediately after martial law was imposed. She is also the mother of now incumbent President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Though having restored democracy in the Philippines, Mrs. Aquino went through at least nine coup d’ etats launched by mutinous soldiers during her six years in office. And one of these coups repeatedly crushed involved Enrile and then Col. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan who is now also a senator.

So it is rather understandable why P-Noy obviously still has deep-seated distrust in Enrile. It could be a reason why P-Noy kept out of the loop the Senate president. The Chief Executive gave the special assignment secretly to a very junior senator. The very sensitive errand involves the country’s national security and international relations.

The task was to conduct “back-channel” talks with top officials of the Chinese politburo to ease renewed tensions between the Philippines and China on conflicting territorial claims of the islands, shoals, reefs, and atolls around the West Philippine Sea that overlaps with the South China Sea. In particular, tensions erupted anew over Panatag Shoal in Zambales sometime in April this year when Chinese fishing boats, backed up by gunboats from China, entered our country’s waters around the 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

As it turned out, the President gave the task — that has wide geo-political impact — to amnestied mutineer Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. He is one of the leaders of the so-called “Magdalo” officers behind the botched mutiny staged at Oakwood Hotel on July 27, 2003. While attending a hearing on his rebellion case at the Makati City regional trial court, Trillanes led the infamous siege of the Manila Peninsula Hotel on November 29, 2007. That coup attempt failed, too.

Perhaps, at the back of P-Noy’s mind is the thought that the sitting Senate president could not be trusted given his track record. Memories still haunt him that for a short while, Enrile continued to be Defense Minister of his late mother after EDSA-1. This was until Enrile was fired from the Cabinet after being implicated in the foiled “God Save the Queen” coup plot against Mrs. Aquino.

P-Noy instead opted to rely on the rabid and blind loyalty of Trillanes who owes his freedom to Aquino through the amnesty granted to him and fellow Magdalo mutineers. But the Palace spokespeople were quick to clarify it was the neophyte senator who purportedly offered to help conduct the “backdoor” talks with China.

Trillanes claims his secret mission for P-Noy deescalated the tension between the Philippines and China over the Panatag row. But even the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) does not validate his claims on clearing Panatag shoal from continuing Chinese ship intrusions.

As of this writing, it is still unclear how Trillanes purportedly gained right connections in Beijing that could link him to top Chinese politburo decision-makers. All credentials and experience that Trillanes has on record is having led two failed coup attempts against former President and now Congresswoman of Pampanga Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

With more than half of his six-year term as senator spent in detention at Camp Crame in Quezon City, Trillanes obviously did not know any better about basic parliamentary rules and procedures. He did not even bother to give the Senate president nor fellow senators or any of the Senate foreign relations committee members a clue about his special mission.

The Senate being a ratifying body for international treaties with other countries, the Senate president has every right and duty to be apprised of foreign policy initiatives of the executive branch.

Hence, Enrile did not mince any words in his righteous indignation of how the President conducted his foreign policy initiatives behind his back. It exploded in the face of Trillanes when he challenged the leadership no less of Enrile at the Senate.

It was again a miscalculation on the part of Trillanes to use the halls of the Senate to launch his attacks on Enrile over a flimsy allegation. On a personal privilege, Trillanes lambasted the Senate president on a supposed attempt to railroad the bill seeking to divide into congressional districts the province of Camarines Sur.

Trillanes accused Enrile of being a “lackey” of ex-President Arroyo to push the senators into acquiescing to the intense lobby of Bicolano congressmen to approve the CamSur bill. Himself a Bicolano, Trillanes charged that the CamSur bill was being forced upon the senators to approve in time for the holding of the May 2013 midterm elections in favor of the ex-President’s re-electionist son, CamSur Rep. Dato Arroyo. The 15th Congress adjourned yesterday without the Senate approving CamSur bill.

A former military man, Trillanes should have conducted first due diligence and intelligence work before launching any attack. But as events unfolded, Trillanes was the one put on the spot when Enrile delivered the goods against him on his China deals.

Now, Trillanes is admitting he was working to oust Enrile as Senate President. In the same way the Palace dropped him like a hot potato on his China talks, senators from P-Noy’s Liberal Party (LP) distanced themselves from the latest coup flop of Trillanes.