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Destabilization: Real or Imagined?

News about a new coup attempt came from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself last week, citing confidential military and police reports. It was to be the second plot only two months after the aborted May 1 putsch. This time, however, nobody of any consequence–including the president’s political allies in Congress–listened seriously, prompting speculations that Malacañang (the presidential office) was only feeding rumors in order to divert public attention from the more pressing issues of the day. Militant groups, who were mainly instrumental for the ouster of Joseph Estrada, echoed similar sentiments.

By Andrea Trinidad-Echavez
Bulatlat.com

Is the destabilization plot on the 5-month-old Macapagal-Arroyo government real or imagined?

Militant groups which played key roles in last January’s People Power 2 that catapulted President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into power believe that the government could either be just out of its mind or cooking up something sinister.

Describing the disclosure as nothing but "paranoia," militants also suspect that the government was "inducing a situation of paralysis" to cover up its own inability to resolve the worsening political and economic crisis in the country.

The fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, on the other hand, said the alleged threat could be part of government's plan to divert public attention from "pressing issues" such as the long-delayed arraignment of ousted President Joseph Estrada and the Abu Sayyaf hostage crisis.

"Once again, the people are seeing and hearing the echoes of the past,” Pamalakaya chair Rodolfo Sambajon said in a press conference. “Rumors of destabilization and power grab are being fed into the national consciousness to divert public attention from pressing issues like the much-awaited trial of the Estradas and their cohorts."

Sambajon said the "government and its military are constantly adding scenes to the script to keep the plot moving and keep away critical minds from the trial."

"Everything will run like a clockwork to cover up the blunder of granting several concessions to the Estradas and perhaps the awarding of salvation for the Estradas in the near future," he said.

Last week, the President said that "some camps" were plotting against her government and that the recent spate of kidnap-for-ransom incidents were part of the plan. Two days later, she said that government intelligence officers uncovered another coup plot similar to the Labor Day siege purportedly to be launched last June 26 and 27, coinciding with the arraignment of Estrada. (Estrada, who is currently detained at the Veterans Memorial Hospital in Quezon City, faces charges of perjury, plunder, corruption and other heinous crimes before the Sandiganbayan or anti-graft court.)

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) is also reportedly hatching a series of bombings in crowded places in Metro Manila to divert the military's attention from Basilan in southern Philippines where the bandits are keeping some hostages they had seized in Palawan weeks ago.

Activists from the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement in the Philippines) joined Pamalakaya in castigating police officials, who fed the reports to Malacañang, for "scaring" the public by feeding it with alleged bombing and destabilization plots.

KMP chair Rafael Mariano questioned the motive behind what he described as "kiss and tell" attitude of top police officers in revealing so-called confidential reports on the purported bombings.

The alleged bomb threats by the Abu Sayyaf seem “like an old motion picture repeatedly being shown in second-run theaters in the metropolis," Mariano, who also chairs the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), said.

He said the disclosure was apparently part of a vain attempt to diffuse raging public opinion against the administration.

Mariano said the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces could "use and abuse all these tales" about the Abu Sayyaf bomb threats in Metro Manila to justify the deployment of troops and increase the activities of both the police and the military in the region.

Pamalakaya's Sambajon meanwhile pressed for an investigation of the aborted plan by the Abu Sayyaf to bomb public places in the National Capital Region as well as the alleged June26-27 power grab attempt.

"Militarist groups and hard-core officers" within the military and police are trying "to paint a worse scenario to mobilize public opinion in favor of an all-out military intervention in state affairs including the militarization of the metropolis," the fisherfolk leader said.

He said however that the bandit group is also the Macapagal administration's principal liability since it would be hard-pressed to explain and face future accountability.

Another group said Arroyo was being paranoid about the alleged destabilization plot. It challenged the president to identify the alleged coup plotters to quash speculations that the Malacañang disclosures are not a mere diversionary tactic.

Late last year, at the height of the oust-Estrada campaign, police authorities revealed a plot of the Abu Sayyaf to bomb Metro Manila. The bombs did indeed explode on Dec. 30, when a number of public locations including an LRT station were attacked simultaneously. But it was not the ASG that came under police retaliation but suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Arrested MILF suspects were released for lack of evidence. The case remains unsolved.

Just weeks after being installed as president, Arroyo revealed a pro-Estrada rightist coup plot. The plot turned out to be true as alleged ringleaders incited a large pro-Estrada rally at Edsa Shrine to mount a siege on Malacañang May 1. The putsch failed but its suspected ringleaders–including opposition senatorial candidates–remain on the loose. Bulatlat.com

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