Sunday, December 09, 2007 Cariño: Folly in Makati By Linda Grace Cariño Paradigm Shift
LIKE many of the Pinoy vote base, I spared one for detained military officer Antonio Trillanes IV last May. Not ashamed of it, either. It was part of the protest vote that made said young officer a senator. More importantly, it was a vote that sent a clear signal to the PGMA government that despite its political successes, the Garci scandal, the General Garcia fiasco, the DA scam, and others, were not forgotten episodes.
Like many, I was one who was interrupted at work on Thursday, November 29th, by the breaking news that the controversial senator was apparently once again trying to marshal some sort of a coup. Like many, what was clear to me was only what was on TV: that Trillanes led a walkout of the hearing where the case against what has come to be called the Magdalo group was being held. With Brigadier General Danilo Lim, the group proceeded to walk through the streets of Makati to the Manila Peninsula, which they then attempted to take over, Oakwood style.
A fast and furious retaliation from the country’s armed forces, however, made the incident history by nightfall. By then, we all knew that another coup attempt had failed. Because of its failure, unlike Edsas One and Two, it was thus a crime.
Without making of the rightness of wrongness of what some 35 or so people now being charged for the latest anti-GMA coup attempted, it was clearly strategic folly for Trillanes to pursue what unfolded as a movement that lacked a following. I had text reactions from those who maintain that Trillanes is one who could do much good for our country, but all likewise agree that last Thursday’s Makati scenario was folly.
Sheer folly, it also took much away from the image of the senator we put in office. But I'm thinking: should it?
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