Thursday Mutiny
Thursday Mutiny
Dec 03There’s nothing like a mutiny on a Thursday to break this blogger’s reverie.
Granted, more than a month has passed since I’ve checked my dashboard and obliterated the tramadol spam in my comments page. The incentive to rant has driven me to once again activating this blog. So here goes!
Trillanes & Company – you don’t interrupt our lives for an interlude at the Manila Pen and refuse to explain what drove you to walk out that courtroom in the first place. Yes, I got that “pagbabago or Gloria” zinger. But is that all you’ve risked your life for? Certainly, that was not the time to be timid about messaging opportunities! Btw, the next time you’re thinking of bolting out, consider getting an events planner. Haaay!
General Barias & Company – why the need to label one of the tanks with a sign that read “marines”? what kind of pathetic propaganda line was that? and why the handcuffs on media people? couldn’t you “process” them in any of the function rooms of the hotel, preferably one without tear gas fumes?
And shame on you, Secretary Puno & General Esperon! A curfew! That’s a throwback to the Marcos years – “sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang kailangan” epoch that took years of democratic reforms to overcome. There is nothing in the law that allows you to impose a curfew. Yet, you did. And there were reports afterwards about how criminality went down during those five shameful hours. Were we supposed to enjoy it and clamor for more curfews to come?
What Trillanes and Lim did were shameful and downright embarrassing, no matter how honorable their motives may have been. But that’s why they have pending cases in court. Our police authorities, on the other hand, clearly over-reacted. And that’s why what they did after the mutiny was quelled must be denounced and investigated. Our liberties would be under constant threat unless the root of such actions are uncovered and duly rectified.
Should the Senate expel Trillanes? I don’t think so. He may be stoic but not altogether silent. He may be fearless but not fearsome. He broke the law, but didn’t the other side violate the law as well? Being ignored may yet prove to be the most appropriate punishment. However, I think the man needs some serious reflection. The people don’t quite “get” him. Unless they do, then he’ll just be another rebel, angry and misunderstood.
I don’t really get why people say that the military overreacted. This hotel *chuckle* takeover is this group’s second offense of a similar nature and I’m sure it was right for them to take a more aggressive stance this time around to ensure that it wouldn’t escalate to something harder to control. They begged and pleaded with the media to leave the premises of the building but they chose to stay behind and risk their lives.
And then they whine about being tear gassed?! It was brave of them to take that calculated risk in the name of journalism but once you bitch and cry about the consequences of your actions, you’re just another idiot who didn’t know what he/she was getting in to.
As for the curfew, yeah, that was weird.
Not a comment, but an inquiry. your family name Ople, is that your hubby’s? because I have a batchmate in USThighschool (sy1969-70) named RAUL OPLE. how are you related? i will appreciate if you will reply to this inquiry in private (as in personal email which I’ve registered here. Thanks!
The action taken by the police shows its lack of readiness and preparation to handle situations in which lives of innocent by-standers might be at risk. All it knows is use brute force to crush the perceived enemy even if the latter is defenseless against such armed might. This is the second time it has happened, the first being the Iloilo Capitol siege last January in which armed police commandos also stormed the province’s seat of government, smashing doors and pointing armalite rifles at unarmed civilians. If this constitutes the rules of engagement for the police, then it’s not remote innocent people will unnecessarily get killed in police operations.