A Comedy of Insurrection

Written for my weekly column in a Manila newspaper, but not published due to being too hot a topic.

 

Thursday was my day off this week, so I was lucky enough to have nothing better to do than to sit and watch the extended coverage of the latest episode of the Trillanes & Friends soap opera on ANC News. Ordinarily, a criminal defendant escaping from a courtroom with an armed escort and taking over a hotel in order to attempt a launch a popular uprising should be viewed with some degree of seriousness. But I just can’t seem to muster what I guess would be a serious attitude about it, at least as far as Lieutenant (I’m sorry, I mean Senator) Trillanes is concerned.

Trillanes’ latest exercise in luxury hotel-seizure was a big topic of conversation later on in the evening in discussion groups I belong to, and words like “ridiculous” and “loser” – and much worse that can’t be repeated here – seemed to keep popping up. No one supported this guy; whether they were Pinoys here, Pinoys abroad, or expats, everybody that had something to say about Thursday’s events pretty quickly wrote Trillanes off as a hopeless fool and annoying troublemaker.  The popular uprising he and his compatriots seemed to be hoping for never materialized. And the “wide support” he claimed to have within the AFP obviously didn’t include the 1,500 or so troops who showed up within minutes of his arrival at the Manila Pen and hammed it up for the news cameras while waiting for the order to go haul his sorry butt out of there.

Despite the farcical nature of the situation, which thankfully ended without anyone getting hurt, it did raise a few issues that bear further examination. This is not the first time in recent months that there has been a serious breach of security within a courtroom somewhere in the country. That is an unacceptable problem, and one that should be immediately and aggressively corrected. It is also rather astonishing that the law allows a suspect in detention and standing trial on criminal charges to run for any public office, let alone the office of Senator, in the first place. Whether he is innocent or guilty of those charges is irrelevant; until the legal process has run its course, the person in that situation cannot possibly discharge the duties of his office. That is a disservice not only to his constituents, but to the rest of the government which is missing one of its parts to work effectively, and should not be allowed.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing about the drama was that as it ended, the focus rather abruptly shifted from the actions of Trillanes, Lim, et al., to the arrest and detention of the media people who were in the hotel with the rebellious group. I am reminded of something I learned in high school when I was working as a stringer for my hometown’s weekly paper: the job of the media is to report the news, not to be the news. For all the righteous indignation of the media people who were reporting on the plight of their colleagues, the media did not exactly cover themselves in glory in this situation. Being a reporter does not give one a right to cross a police line or willfully ignore an order of lawful authorities. Those who did created unnecessary drama and acted irresponsibly, and the reaction of the police, while perhaps needlessly heavy-handed out of frustration in the chaos of the moment, was understandable and basically appropriate.

I hope that all the parties who had an interest in the situation will give matters some careful thought. The administration should quickly return its concentration to the job of serving the people and managing the country, which after all, is the best way to avoid these occasional circuses staged by disgruntled elements. The opposition needs to reconsider how to best provide the people with a responsible alternative point of view within the rule of law and the structure of the constitution. The media needs to refocus on serving the public by providing fair and balanced information without becoming part of the story themselves. And the people need to realize that their vote is a powerful and precious tool, and is perhaps too valuable to spend on someone whose only significant contribution to society in the past five years is a questionable habit of hijacking luxury hotels.

Author's Note

Background, since this was written for an audience who would be aware of the news at the time: In November, 2007, a certain Lt. Antonio Trillanes, who was on trial for a failed mutiny at a different hotel in 2004 and who had been elected to the Senate while in jail, escaped from a courtroom with a couple dozen renegade soldiers and various supporters and seized the Manila Peninsula Hotel in another attempt to launch a revolt. After a few hours, the Marines tear-gassed everyone out and arrested the lot of them.