Truth Behind the Military Uprising in Manila
The Universe
(August 24, 2003)
STANDING in the centre of Makati business and high-rise residential district of Manila, I can see nothing to indicate there was a dangerous military uprising by 321 rebellious officers and enlisted men.
They took over an apartment complex and shopping mall. They demanded the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the defence secretary and the chief of intelligence, alleging corruption.
They accused military commanders of treason by selling weapons and ammunition to the Muslim rebels in Mindanao. Furthermore, it was alleged that the generals ad taken bribes to allow Abu Sayyaf terrorists escape a dragnet and that some commanders were behind a series of bombings in Davao.
The stand-off was resolved in a very Filipino manner through negotiations and appeals by family and friends to persuade them to stand down and avoid bloodshed. In the middle of these negotiations, the officers held a press conference.
If the coup attempt was a forum for raising public awareness about their allegations, it succeeded spectacularly. If it was a attempt to trigger a mass military to their cause, it failed miserably. There is no mass discontent with the administration of Arroyo.
Ammunition, communication equipment and rebel armbands were discovered in the home of a wealthy associate of the former deposed president Joseph Estrada, the erstwhile film star and one-time “champion of the poor”. More incriminating evidence was discovered in the houses of his former mistress and receipts for equipment used in the mutiny were allegedly traced to his sons.
Estrada’s greed was his undoing as president. A crony turned against him and spilled the beans when he testified that Estrada was the main beneficiary if illegal gambling and had huge secret bank accounts of ill-gotten wealth.
A popular non-violent uprising toppled him from power almost two years ago when his friends in the senate blocked evidence that would have impeached him. According to critics, Estrada and his cronies would have benefited most from the attempted coup d’etat had it been successful.
President Arroyo declared a ‘state of rebellion’ the day of the attempted coup that gave her special powered coup that gave her special powers but far short of anything like martial law. There is no suspension of constitutional or civil rights.
Meantime, there has been two positive developments here. One was the declaration that the $682m deposited by former dictator Ferdinand Marcos in Swiss banks is ill-gotten wealth and wil be foreifted to the people. A law is being rushed through to give one third of this to the victims of human rights violations under Marcos and the rest for agrarian reform. This was a decision 17 years in the making.
Another recent Supreme court decision declared that the money levied from coconut farmers by Marcos but siphoned off by his business cronies was public money. Change for the better is coming – but all too slowly.
