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Things I Learned from Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (or How to Launch an UNsuccessful Revolt)
December 1st, 2007
First of all, understand that I despise this administration of Gloria Arroyo, with almost as much fervor as Conrado de Quiros. However, this latest coup at the Peninsula Hotel can make even staunch critics scratch their heads. If you did something and it didn’t work the first time, shouldn’t you get a clue? Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Things went wrong on so many levels - some of them seemingly trivial, but actually important.
So for idealists out the, here are, from my observation, the surefire ways to make your uprising go crashing down. Feel free to add your own ideas to this list.
#1 – Time it with bad weather. To doom your uprising from the start, you need to be certain there will be minimal participation from the citizenry. Nothing dampens the people’s will to flock to the streets better than pouring rain. Signal #4 is ideal.
#2 – Hole up in a plush hotel. Classes D & E are the most dissatisfied groups today. They’d love to see the president out of her office. Therefore, you should stage your revolt in some snazzy hotel to alienate the masses. While you’re at it, make sure it’s located at the center of a business district. This way, you’ll be among the rich and the middle class, who are largely apathetic to your cause.
#3 – Call on the people during office hours, NOT after. The catalyst for EDSA 2, the impeachment walkout, happened at a strategic time: right before the evening news. People were at home and saw everything on TV. Awareness was very high. If you want your uprising to flop, make sure people are inside their workplaces and students are in school, unaware of what’s going on. This will give the government enough time to crush you before your supporters reach a critical mass.
#4 – Issue vague, confusing statements. Prepare a short written statement. Then, refuse to give more interviews. Be as inaccessible as possible to the media. Don’t assign a media liaison officer or a designated spokesperson. He might just lessen the confusion.
#5 – Be very optimistic. Don’t wait for any highly emotional event to stir up the masses. Any time is a good time for a coup (to fail). But if you really want your revolt to be unsuccessful, do it in a climate where the people are highly cynical.
#6 – Leave your gas masks at home. This government loves using tear gas and water canons. So, be sure to leave counter-measures under your bed where they will be useless. Also, if inside a building, choose a lower floor for your HQ, where gas fumes will reach you in no time.
#7 - Don’t do your homework. Planning? What’s that? Be spontaneous and disorganized. Don’t popularize your alternate plan of government BEFORE the revolt, sell it to people right there and then. To top it all off, leave other like-minded oppositionists in the dark.
Let me heave a sigh.
History is written by the victors. If EDSA I failed in 1986, Ramos and Enrile would have been labeled as no more than pathetic, coup-plotting adventurists. But they succeeded, and so future generations will read about them as heroes in textbooks. In contrast, Trillanes and Gen. Lim will be tried for treason. Such is “the rule of law”.
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December 1st, 2007 at 12:44 pm
tsktsk. lahat na lang gagawin nila para mapansin ng media. pathetic. magpapapansin sa media, tapos, WALA NAMANG BACKBONE. di naman mapanindigan yung mga kagaguhang pinaggagagawa nila. tsktsktsk.
December 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
The latest coup attempt was just an embarrassment. You know you’re an ineffective leader when your call for revolution is greeted with either confusion or amusement. =_=
Do I understand correctly that Trillanes walked out of his own trial? Totoo ba yun?
December 1st, 2007 at 9:46 pm
yep. ongoing yung trial ng Oakwood mutiny. He was able to leave the building even though he had plenty of armed guards, who reportedly switched sides.
I can understand his frustration. He became an ordinary citizen and tried to change the system from within by running for senator. He won and yet they didn’t let him serve his term. Nakakulong pa rin sya sa Fort Bonifacio. He’s not even allowed to conduct hearings within the camp where he’s detained. Kung ako si Trillanes, neck-deep na rin cguro frustration ko.
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:51 am
It’s odd to me that he was even able to run for senator. Mandela was a much-loved and well-respected leader, but even he wasn’t able to run for office while he was in jail. Same goes for Ninoy Aquino. O_o
But perhaps it’s foolish of me to expect any politician (or aspiring politician) to follow the letter of the law. Pilipinas nga naman yan, diba? =P
As far as Trillanes getting elected, I’m not sure if his victory was brought about by faith in his leadership as much as it was brought about by dissatisfaction with the current head of state. There is a difference, diba? Gloria has abused her position (to put it mildly), but Trillanes and his cohorts have demonstrated for the second time that they are not the right people to bring the country out of the mire.
And re: Trillanes’ frustration with the system - I was raised by a family of lawyers and attorneys who taught me to respect the law but also to understand its limitations. You can try to beat the system, but if you can’t, you have to possess enough knowledge to make it work for you. Walking out of your own trial, calling for revolution, and not having any concrete plan of action is not the way to do either option.
I think this pathetic coup reiterates the need for a leader who has ideas to execute, not a man who shouts for change but has no plan on how to implement it. But Trillanes’ method to achieve change was to disrespect the law and repeat the actions that made him a laughing stock in the first place! How can you entrust the country to that kind of leadership? Hanggang ganun na lang ba, replacing one evil with a lesser one? I think that the Philippines deserves better than that.
Just my two cents. ^_^V
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 am
Trillanes is not yet convicted of anything, therefore he is free to run for public office. Imagine, the Oakwood mutiny happened in May 2003, but it still hasn’t been resolved. Justice favors the rich and the powerful, that’s true everywhere (who makes the laws and enforce them?), but it’s more depressingly apparent in 3rd world countries like here in the Philippines.
He’s a military man, not an expert on laws and political strategies - that’s obvious. Maybe he thought that winning in the elections with an overwhelming mandate of 11 million votes will automatically give him the same number of supporters come crunch time. He should’ve taken the surveys more seriously. People sympathize with his cause but condemn the way he acted.
This country deserves a better leader than either Trillanes or GMA, but the opposition can’t get its act together to pose a formidable challenge. Gloria will probably be able to finish her term until 2010. It’s sad because majority of Filipinos dislike her, and would like nothing more than for her to step down from office. That’s why Trillanes won: he’s the ultimate symbol of dissatisfaction with this government. But Gloria is coiled like a serpent around her throne. Nothing can touch her, it seems. Legal means have been sought. Impeachment complaints were filed 3 times in 3 years (that’s the most for any president). They don’t even hear out the complaints because her cohorts in congress have reduced the impeachment proceedings to a sham numbers game (they said so themselves). There’s no interest in finding the truth, only jockeying for votes to kill the impeachment, and getting monetary reward for “loyalty”.
From what I know, there’s only 3 ways to get a president out of office:
- stepping down voluntarily (no chance in hell for this one)
- being incapacitated or death
- impeachment
Having run out of options, I will not be surprised if someday, I tune in to the news and hear about an assassination attempt. Desperate people, who have no legal recourse, turn to desperate measures. Nakakaawa ang Pilipinas.