Paranoia
The result of having suffered not just one, or two, but several coup attempts against government in this country is that we have become just a bit paranoid. There have been sightings of military trucks traversing EDSA this week, along with armored personnel carriers - Simbas according to my "experts." So frequent were the sightings that the rumor mills went into overdrive. And with social media, rumors travel the speed of light. It wasn't long before talk of an impending coup flooded the net, hogged the news and troubled our minds.
People have started "putting two and two together." In an emotional moment during his last SONA, President Aquino reminisced about his parents and their sacrifices for this country, after which he talked about "the enemies of the state" who can easily end his life. Then comes Sen. Trillanes' revelations, himself twice a putschist, saying that retired officers aligned with former President Gloria Arroyo are planning moves to "destabilize the country." The "tip" was seconded by a party-list group made up of former military officers. It would be easy to fall for such information. What with this country's history of coups?
According to the AFP spokesperson, the trucks that everyone saw were carrying unserviceable firearms to an undisclosed location, and because of the sensitivity of the cargo, they had to deploy the APCs along their route to provide security. The new Chief of Staff has categorically stated that there is no reason to oust President Aquino. Both the Palace and those supposedly aligned with the former president have denied knowledge of any moves to destabilize or remove President Aquino from power. Senator Trillanes is now on the defensive against accusations that he spread the rumor to gain media exposure for the coming elections. The Palace has also called on the rumor mongers to stop. Trillanes and the Magdalo party-list stand by their information, and are saying that the plan was discovered before it could be initiated.
There is a serious current power play between the Executive and the Supreme Court, one of the most serious that has ever become in recent Philippine history. But, as it is, the process is still well within the democratic parameters of legitimate exchange between two co-equal branches of government. Until the process ends in a gravely trapped deadlock there seems no reason why an equally serious course of action should even be thought of. It actually sounds preposterous. But many of us Filipinos could actually be so insane that hatching a plan to overthrow this administration isn't so different from calling for President Aquino's impeachment. But is it insanity that drives all these rumors? Or is it avarice? As one Palace insider explained ---- to someone asking why PNoy seems to be losing out on the PR and media fronts of this war ---- it is because they are battling from all the directions of whomever now faces the hard hand of justice from this administration's reform moves. Analysts ask, who wants to see PNoy out, or don't want his will for reform continued beyond his term? Certainly, those who wish never to be found guilty of stealing from public coffers or committing plunder would be in that list. That counts so, so many. Whoever these people are who exert so much effort in painting PNoy as the bad guy, aren't far from going crazy thinking of ways to ride on this one opportunity to try to bring the President down.
Of course, it is still always better to be prepared. The rumors have their value despite the damage that such stories circulating may do against the stability the government has so far achieved for the country. PNoy, in his second chance at life as he described in his speech, is blessed with great power, will and opportunity to make the difference he wants to make in the name of what his parents had started. As much as his is an administration of many firsts, he is now beset with hurdles that might seem insurmountable. But who knew that at his most beleaguered moment he would come back with a State of the Nation Address that silenced even his most ardent detractors? The coup, in the end, might just be PNoy's.
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