The coup that fizzled out

THE RUMORS had been floating around for weeks that a military coup was being planned and would take place soon. I had heard so many rumors before that I just dismissed this latest one as being just the product of the imaginations of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration's detractors.

But then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went on the air and addressed the nation on television, saying that some junior officers were plotting a coup and that they had disappeared with weapons taken from the military. She said that a nationwide search for them had been launched. I thought nothing more of it until last Sunday when I was half-watching the news on TV when the take-over of a shopping center in Manila by armed soldiers was mentioned. That got my attention! After all, it's not everyday that an actual coup attempt takes place in the Philippines, even though the rumors surface all the time.

Later when I was watching The Filipino Channel's live coverage of events in Makati I realized that it was the Glorietta shopping center and the Oakwood hotel that had been taken over by the armed mutineers. All of the civilians inside both complexes were released by the soldiers, including the many foreigners staying at the hotel. What was most alarming were pictures of soldiers wiring explosives to traffic barriers outside the complex. They demanded that President Macapagal-Arroyo resign, along with Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and military intelligence chief Victor Corpus.

Soldiers loyal to the president set up blockades around Makati, preventing reinforcements from reaching the Oakwood. This plus the fact that the senior officers who had promised to support the coup not coming through, was what helped make the coup attempt fizzle out in just 19 hours. A raid on the house of a former aide to ex-President Joseph Estrada yielded a large cache of brand new weapons, ammunition, equipment and medicines worth at least 30 million pesos.

Senator Gringo Honasan, who himself led a bloody coup attempt against then-President Corazon Aquino in December 1987, insisted on talking to the rebel soldiers on Sunday afternoon. Now the government is about to charge him with being the brains behind this latest coup attempt, although Honasan vehemently denied it. Corpus has resigned, after being accused by the rebel soldiers of planning the recent Davao bombing in which several people were killed. According to the rebel soldiers, Reyes and Corpus are allegedly behind the recent bombings in order to get more military aid from the United States.

I really don't believe that the military would intentionally plan bombings that kill innocent civilians just to get more military aid. But I do think that Honasan's protestations of innocence were rather hard to believe. A thorough investigation should be made into the whole coup attempt, and if Honasan is found to have helped the plotters, he should be impeached and jailed.

The rebel soldiers looked young and idealistic. Their main gripe was legitimate: too much corruption in the government and military. As the leader of the mutineers, Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, said: "I am convinced that these reforms will not come in my lifetime. Corruption will continue, and that's so sad because this is what the people want."

It now seems that the top five leaders of the mutineers will be court martialed, while the rest of the nearly 300 soldiers who participated in the coup attempt will get lesser punishments.

Although some observers have tried to downplay the significance of the coup attempt, the shockwaves are still being felt in the Philippines. The peso has plunged to nearly 55 to the dollar, and foreign investors sadly have one more reason not to invest in the country. The inherent instability of the Philippine government is not something that helps attract the money of investors, be they Filipino or foreigners. Already economists are predicting that the coup attempt will knock off a percentage point in this year's growth figure for the domestic economy.

President Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation address before Congress on Monday was unfortunately completely overshadowed by the attempted coup the day before. She tried to downplay the effect of the mutiny, but I don't think many people bought it. It remains a fact that the President hasn't been able to make a dent in the corruption that continues to flourish in the Philippines. The country remains polarized between the haves and the haves not, between the communist rebels and the rich landowners, between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority.

The economic growth indicators that analysts love throwing around are hardly indicative of the true picture on the ground. Four percent annual economic growth sounds good enough on paper, but what does it really mean? Probably just more profits for the already rich businessmen and does not have much impact on the daily grind of most struggling Filipinos.

Thousands of Filipinos continue to leave the country for work abroad, and the middle class isn't expanding.

A reader of mine wrote to me last week to comment that although my column "The Banana Republic We Have Become" (July 26) was overly pessimistic he had to agree with me. I'm sorry that I can't be more upbeat, but merely stagnating is not enough for the Philippines. The country needs to show real growth, reform and lessening of corruption. Only then will the social conditions really change on the ground.

Comments or questions? E-mail the author at manilamoods@hotmail.com. Visit the author's website at www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.