What exactly is Bush going to tell Gloria that they won’t be able to discuss over the phone or through their subalterns? Whatever it is, such publicized visits are intended to communicate something to the audience — in this case, the Filipino and American publics. Walter Lohman, senior research fellow of the neo-conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, declared, “Bush is meeting with her not to endorse her politics or anything she is doing but to express his confidence in the Philippine Constitution and the need for her to stay until the completion of her term.” Given that Lohman and his Heritage ilk merely echo what the backers of Dubya really think, we can only conclude that coup efforts in the Philippines are alive and well in the minds of many patriotic Filipinos.
I wouldn’t have written about it if the neo-cons’ analysis were not made public because I’d like to help keep the powers-that-be in the dark about any such moves among patriotic Filipinos. Yet it is foolish to think that we have better intelligence than the US Embassy here, where a surplus of Quislings exist and where the buying of traitors comes very cheap — a US immigrant visa, for example, is enough to buy the collaboration of any Filipino of poor patriotic fiber. All coup plotters must assume the US Embassy gets to know about any plans earlier than some of the other collaborators. In the 2001 coup against President Estrada, I remember how the embassy circuits knew about it in advance, in the last quarter of 2000. It was even my Russian Embassy friends who relayed to me what the British and Americans told them.
The trick, then, to launching a successful coup is not to deny the plot but to create as many plots and continuously “leak” them. More importantly, though, we should continue to explain why these plots persist — that oppression and exploitation of the people by foreign powers that coddle corrupt political agents such as Gloria continue. The education of all those involved in coup plans, as well as making the public understand the reasons behind these, along with the methods for and promises of change from such, are a must, if we are to build the indispensable mass base of support for a patriotic coup. Truly, no coup in the Philippine context will ever succeed without a real patriotic cause because in the face of the US’ power to corrupt, mere power mongering and lust for material benefits will never stand a chance.
Of course, one full proof guarantee for success is to have the US embassy on your side, just as it was in Edsa I and II, but the foreign powers charge an enormously high price. The nation’s plunder, as what was seen after two “people power revolts,” with Cory Aquino selling off our “crown jewels” through privatization, accelerated by clone FVR and Gloria, to the point of the Philippines, used to being just the “sick man of Asia,” now placed in the ICU, drained of blood, is but a staggering example. The only time when a halt to this could have been attained was when they staged the coup against Estrada. The burning embers of Gringo’s 1989 attempt, as well as, the military-civilian protests by Senator Trillanes in 2003 and with Gen. Danilo Lim on Nov. 29, 2007 at the Manila Pen, were all doused by the US Embassy.
Back in 1989, a panic-stricken Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos beseeched Colin Powell to get US Phantom jets to conduct persuasion flights against the rebel military forces. Then, in 2007, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney “leaked” her embassy’s position on the Manila Pen standoff as early as noon, discouraging support, and made formal by late afternoon. Those instances only prove that the US and the Brits, along with their predatory Joint Foreign Chambers, know that they will not be able to stop nationalistic aspirations once patriots are in power. That’s why the US wants a controlled transition from the strongly hated Gloria Arroyo to its next puppet; and why it will not countenance an unpredictable exercise such as a coup with patriotic backing. Elections, therefore, are much more desired since these are more predictable and easier to control.
After eight years of Edsa II, the US feels it now has all the institutional mechanisms installed to derive its desired results. It has survey organizations in its pocket, like the SWS, to create “trending” effects; it has Namfrel and the Church doing so-called election monitoring but whose role has actually been to sanitize any news of electoral fraud; it has unprecedented Big Business control of the economy and thus, election money, ad nausea. By extension, the US powers would then love to enthrone somebody like Noli de Castro — and Bush will probably assure Gloria of safe passage for this to happen. So for those of us who are fighting to make this nation truly prosperous and safe for our next generation, we must cultivate in the minds of everyone the dream of gaining freedom and sovereignty from the exploiting foreign powers and their Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce. That’s the only way to reclaim the vast wealth of this nation for our people.
The victories of patriots in South America are changing the world’s geopolitical configuration. It’s time Filipinos stopped beating around the bush and go straight to the point: We need our revolution now, peaceful or otherwise, and patriotic soldiers and civilians must rally around this call.
