Filipinos in Holland cast doubts on rebellion of Trillanes

Filipinos in Holland cast doubts on rebellion of Trillanes


By LOUI GALICIA

ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

Some Filipinos in the Netherlands believe that the November 29 failed uprising maybe just a farce, ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau reported.

Last week’s coup attempt led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was closely watched by Filipinos in Europe live on ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel and ANC and those in the Netherlands tuned in well even into the aftermath of the events.

But some Filipinos here have already concluded that the act by Trillanes was insincere and even suspected that President Arroyo was behind it.

Some of these Filipinos who gave their reactions to ABS-CBN, on condition of anonymity, are former staff members of the Philippine National Police while another was from an elite unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Based on their experience, they said that the failed coup attempt was just a big theatrical show.

A former policeman in the Philippines said that the act was pre-planned and that President Arroyo may be behind it.

"I’ve been a policeman before. It was a pre-planned plan, it was a pre-planned issue. Dahil gusto ni Arroyo na umupo hanggang 2010 (Because Arroyo wants to remain in power till 2010)," he said.

He thinks that Trillanes has a connection with Arroyo.

"Meron, kasi (There is, because) either you twist it militarily or in a government way, it is a political manipulation. If you want the position, if you are the president you can manipulate people so if you have the majority of the military or police officers in your control, you can manipulate the system," he added.

These Filipinos say that the Department of Justice should go after Arroyo who is possibly the one who funded the failed coup attempt.

"Ganun yun lahat. Scripted yan lahat. Ang nagiging kawawa diyan yung mga maliliit na lower ranks na sundalo. Ang nagkakapera diyan yung mga generals to be honest. Mahirap magsalita. Yung ang nakikita ko, nararamdaman ko. Nanggaling ako sa isang elite unit sa Armed Forces of the Philippines dati. As in marami akong na-obserbahan based on my experience mismo. Yung mga generals ang nagkakapera diyan," a former member of a AFP staff unit said.

(it’s all like that. It’s all scripted. The ones who don’t mater are the lower-ranked soldiers. To be hones, the ones who get money are the generals. It’s hard to say something. But that’s what I saw, what I feel. I came from an elite unit of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. And I observed a lot of things based on my own experience. The gernerals would be the ones to get money from this.)

These Filipinos think that it is possible that the coup attempt was staged as a political maneuver for Arroyo to remain in power until 2010.

"Parang practice lang yun. Ina-anticipate lang nila [the military] kung paano mag-react. From the reaction, i-eevaluate nun ang kabilang panig kung paano ang approach," another former AFP staff said.

(Maybe it’ just a practice. They’re anticipating how the military would react. From the reaction they will evaluate how then they will approach it.)

"Pinapakita ng gobyerno na me kapasidad sila at kapangyarihan lalo na ang military. Ngayon ewan kung bakit yung sino ang nandoon, wala silang magawa," another former Filipino police officer added.

(The government has shown that it has the capacity and the capability especially the military. Now, I don’t know who was there, they could not do anything.)

However there are Filipinos who don’t believe that Arroyo had a hand in the failed coup attempt and that Trillanes is not just cut to be a real revolutionary.

A former activist during the Marcos era, Toto Zamora would rather say that it was just a desperate attempt on the part of Trillanes because he doesn’t believe that it’s really a rebellion.

"I don’t think it’s the beginning now or it’s a real rebellion. It’s more on the publicity side. I don’t think so," Zamora said.

"I know how dynamic it was planned for Trillanes…or Guingona, all those technocrats there, ideologues or tacticians. It’s just only short-lived. That’s what I think. I don’t think Trillanes is representing the real revolutionary group in the Philippines. There is a real revolutionary group, dynamic, well-structured since the time of 1950s or early 50s, it was well placed in the "common tao" in the Philippines," Zamora declared.

Zamora says that this revolutionary group started in the University of the Philippines which produced intellectuals in the 1950s who became professors and who later became generals and colonels.

For him, Trillanes isn’t from the same breed that belongs to what he calls the "superstructure" of the so-called real revolutionary group that’s why the coup attempt failed.

"It failed because it was premature or as what I said, these people do not belong to the real revolutionary group. Because the real revolutionary group who I grew up with when I was in the Philippines in the 60s and 70s, it is so called the protracted struggle. I don’t think that Trillanes group is a protracted struggle, that the generation will pass to other generation the ideology of the revolutionary. I don’t think so. It is a desperate hope to change very quick using the influence as a military," Zamora reiterated.

Zamora doesn’t believe that Trillanes’s attempt or future attempts to overthrow the government will create a domino reaction from the masses just like what had happened during EDSA One.

"I think he’s honest. He wants change but Trillanes does not belong to the revolutionary group," he said.

SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBNNEWS.COM

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=101451