Tears and coups

 While I am a critic of Noynoy  though of relative obscurity compared to those who send him into fits morning,  noon  and night  I probably would be the last person to accuse him of having contrived his descent into near tears during his SONA last Monday. Crying, or thereabouts, is something non-actors cannot plan or fake. If it comes, it comes, even to the toughest of men.

 So I do not think Noynoy came close to tears in accordance with some script. I have to concede it was genuine and I have no problem with that. What I am afraid of is that Filipinos, being natural softies, will lose their grip on the continuing need to make Noynoy accountable for his misdeeds. What a crying shame it would be if, having come this close to make him accountable, he gets to give us the slip on account of a near-tearful discourse.

 Right now there are several impeachment complaints filed against him. And while I do not have any illusions that Noynoy can actually get impeached, much less face a Senate trial, to me it is enough that impeachment complaints have in fact been filed. To me that is enough to shatter the myth of Noynoy. I never thought the day would come when he can actually be sued for doing things contrary to what he promised, the very same things he claimed to be seeking to eliminate.

 The hero will forever be scarred by these impeachment complaints in his resume. What is more is that the complaints are not spurious but valid. They are not of the Oliver Lozano mold. And while it is true the impeachment complaints have lost some sting to perception issues inherent in leftist authorships, the fact is their validity remains intact. A valid thing stays valid regardless of whether it is a left hand or a right hand that does the validation.

 Thus, the only way the impeachment complaints can lose is by a play in numbers, never by a test on the merits. And that I can accept. Be that as it may, Noynoy still needs to face his bosses outside the impeachment process. He still needs to get down to the brass tacks about the DAP, the PDAF, the continuing graft and corruption even within his own ranks — more so because it is within his own ranks.

 Noynoy could not have faked a tear because there is no way anyone can cry away responsibility. Filipinos may have stopped and paused when Noynoy broke during his SONA. But there is no way he can make a cottage industry out of crying in order to stem the tide of dissatisfaction sweeping the country. If Noynoy has to cry, once is definitely enough. He cannot cry the next time he stands before the camera. His little sister already has patented that act.

 Tears cannot be faked. But the bogey man can. In fact the bogey man has already been set loose by Antonio Trillanes. Trillanes, of all people, is warning of a coup d’ etat. Without giving any specifics, he went into a spiel spinning the yarn that retired generals are plotting the overthrow of Noynoy. What is this? A coup plotter warning of a coup.

 Actually, it is not so much of the coup as to why a coup. And why should it come from such a polluted source. Is this an improvement on the tear that some accuse Noynoy of but which I do not for a second believe? It looks pretty dorky to me for a coup plotter to warn of a coup, unless it is to achieve the opposite of what any coup seeks — rally the people around Noynoy instead of ousting him.

 Just like his past failed endeavors, Trillanes just does not seem to get it. And in this he shares a remarkable oneness with, guess who — Noynoy Aquino! Noynoy and Trillanes perfectly share the same notion that the end justifies the means: It is okay to steal money through DAP in good faith, in the case of Noynoy, and it is okay to rig buildings with bombs and possibly kill civilians enroute to ousting a corrupt leader, in the case of Trillanes.

 Noynoy and Trillanes, by the way, share in yet another remarkable distinction. Both got elected in a surprise turnout. Why Filipinos voted into office someone simply because his mother died, in the case of Noynoy, and another because he was an articulate coup plotter, in the case of Trillanes, confounds me no end, even to this day. How could Filipinos, who claim to be intelligent voters, become so unintelligent all of a sudden when Noynoy and Trillanes came up to be voted upon?

 Anyway, and regardless of how they came to where they are now, Noynoy and Trillanes are wrong in their actions, and in the justifications that came after they acted. How strange that even in their witting or unwitting moments, they should behave and think so eerily alike. Maybe they used to be soulmates in a different dimension.

 Let us stop the nonsense about tears and coups. Both are never the answers to anyone’s problems. Noynoy cannot cry away corruption, poverty, unemployment, rising prices, rising crime, looming power crisis. And Trillanes cannot coup his way to systemic changes in a country fiercely jealous of its democratic pretensions. Both must work within the parameters of their positions, not in accordance with their personalities or personal feelings.

 I am a little worried, though, about all this talk of tears and coups, even if I do not subscribe to the effectiveness of either in directing the affairs of state. Somehow I get the feeling that the two are connected. Noynoy’s near tears came within the general area in the SONA where he was talking about his experiences in the coups launched against his mother. Funny that Trillanes should come out of the blue a day later with rumors of a coup.

 If Trillanes wanted to expose the rumored coup in order to nip it in the bud, he should have provided the details. He did not. So, is he merely trying to spook some people? If so, who? Definitely not Noynoy. Judging by Malacañang’s reaction, it is not worried one bit, and is not taking any precautions even, as if it knew more than it is letting on. I am beginning to suspect a moro-moro, often the preferred solution by the clueless.