Saturday, September 22, 2007 Maxey: Game of the Generals By Ram Maxey Bar None
HERE we go again. Armed Forces Chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has confirmed that military intelligence has uncovered a new plot to destabilize the government.
Oh? So, what's new about such a plot? It's old hat. Each time the military eyes a bigger budget the top brass conjures up this bugaboo called destabilization or coup d'etat, hoping to scare Congress enough to make it cough up a more substantial military budget than the last one.
It's pretty obvious that the conviction of former president Joseph Estrada for plunder by the Sandiganbayan was a good excuse for the military to alert the populace to the possibility that his millions of rabid supporters would mount massive demonstrations nationwide aimed at obtaining freedom for their idol who has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
No wonder 6,000 policemen and soldiers and military hardware were fielded in Metro Manila on the day the court handed down its decision. Except for a handful of rallyists denouncing the verdict, nothing untoward happened. The overkill proved to be a huge embarrassment to the paranoid government.
But Esperon has taken a new tack by not discounting the possibility that leaders of such a destabilization move may yet capitalize on the controversy over the national broadband network to arouse the people's ire enough to make them march on to Malacañang in a reprise of 2001. But the ongoing Senate investigation on the ZTE caper has so far failed to produce the kind of sparks that would ignite people's anger.
On the contrary, the questions and answers that drag on for hours can actually induce sleep among those in the gallery, except for such participants in the probe as Senate President Manny Villar, Senators Mar Roxas, Dick Gordon, Francis Pangilinan and Ping Lacson. This is as good a time and place as any to project their image as presidential wannabes before the eyes of millions of Filipino televiewers. But if those in the political opposition think the proceedings will lead to a people's revolt that would unseat the durable occupant of Malacañang, they are dead wrong.
This latest anti-government plot aired by Gen. Esperon may, or may not, be the real thing, who knows? Asked by media to name names, Esperon demurred, citing "operational purposes" whatever that means. But he has found an ally in Air Force Chief Lieutenant General Horacio Tolentino who said that he would talk to his commanders and advise them not to take part in any subversive move.
Well, they'd better not join any coup considering the possibility that some of their older, dilapidated aircraft could disintegrate in mid-air.
