PAJAMAS MEDIA's Austin Bay picks up on this Voice of America post on the coup rumors that have been circulating for the last few weeks. Ricky Carandang of ABSCBN News had the good post and discussion on this matter, as of course, MLQ3. I've offered this theory on these and a number of blogs: The Palace has been fuelling the rumors themselves as a means of diverting attention from the fact that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been studiously avoiding the Edsa celebrations -- both this week's Edsa I commemoration of the overthrow of Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, and that of her own coup d'etat in 2001's Edsa II People Power Coup.
Related:
My post on the Anniversary of Edsa 2 last month:
The Real Coup d'tat
On the Oakwood Mutiny:
Did the Oakwood Mutiny Fail Because Gringo Stole Erap's Money?
Backgrounder for US visitors to this website:
America's Interests and the Fate of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
America Should Withdraw Support for GMA's Mob Rule
BREAKING (0655) I just heard Lt. Larry San Juan, one of the four escaped Oakwood Mutineers talking to radio anchor Eli Saludar (RMN News) on AM Radio in Manila. He is asking residents of the area around Malacanang to "move out temporarily of their homes" this coming Friday...This follows an explosion in a garbage can just outside Malacanang Palace around noon yesterday and persistent rumors. Two organizations, the Young Officers Union-New Generation (YOUNG) and the Reformed Armed Forces of the Philippines (RAFP) Nothing however, happened during last Saturday's homecoming in Baguio City of the Philippine Military Academy...and the radio announcer just hopes civilians are kept out of whatever now happens.
It's bright and hazy in the Archipelago at the moment, a thick fog covers the City of Manila away to the eastwards towards the Antipolo hills...early morning traffic is already building up from the honking sounds...
(UPDATES all day)
(0830) DZXL RMN News Radio in Manila is reporting that a Lt. Lawrence San Juan has just been arrested by Batangas Provincial Police in Padre Garcia Town. Minutes before the news, announcer Eli Saludar asked Atty. Roel Pulido, a defense lawyer of the Oakwood Muitneers, if the voice on their interview of Lt. Larry San Juan at around 6:45 am this morning was that of the Lt. San Juan whom he knew. Atty. Pulido said it sounded like "his friend" and the client of his colleague Atty. Theodore Te.
WILL GMA DECLARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY? Perhaps the analogy I've made to "Light a Fire Movement" is wrong. Maybe the correct analogy is the faked assassination of then Justice Sec. Juan Ponce Enrile in 1972 as a prelude to the delcaration of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos. Seems to me the risible Justice Secretary of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Sec. Raul Gonzalez has been making claims that he is on a hitlist of the Magdalo/Oakwood mutineers. She wouldn't dare! It's not the same herd of sheep that Marcos faced any more!
(0848) Hmmm has RMN Radio News announcer Eli Saludar been reading Philippine Commentary? He is talking about Radulan Sahiron and is giving out details from this old post last year: Did Philippine Govt Arrest the Wrong ONE-ARMED Bandit Terrorist?
(0906) PhilVolcs reports from Albay province that Mount Mayon is getting ready to erupt. What's next after stampedes, landslides, coup d'etat?
(1000) ABSCBN News' Ricky Carandang is reporting on jitters in the investor community over the coup rumors roiling the Archipelago, including "blog-chatter" on US blogs. RMN News follows up on the arrest of Lt. Larry San Juan and two others in Padre Garcia town, Batangas province. Subversive documents are reported to be in their possession with the suggestion being made that he was arrested in the company of NPA members. This rather "convenient" line was introduced by one of Eli Saludars co-anchors earlier. It's a tip-off possibly that a State of Emergency is in the offing, as some are speculating...It's simply inconceivable that the Snake Handlers are now in bed with the serpents! But if you wanted to make the Left and Right look like they were in on a conspiracy, maybe you could declare martial law on the Center. More later when they present the prisoner and his "comrades"...
(1200 GMT+8) Asked by the original Mutineer and Coup Plotter of them all, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, what he thought the chances of coup d'etat were at this time, the Armed Forces Chief of Staff told a Senate budget hearing this morning in Manila that the chance is "VERY LOW." Whereupon Enrile gave him a lecture on the need for omerta in planning and executing a coup d'etat (not its announcement on national radio as I've noted earlier) Well, Enrile should know, he failed in 9 out of 10 attempts against Cory in the 80s. His only "Win" happened at Edsa I, and he's been long upstaged by Fidel Ramos, his co-mutineer against the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.
(2230 GMT+8)It seems pretty clear what the point of the exercise was today: Spread the line that the Oakwood Mutineers and the CPP/NPA are now together in plotting to overthrow the Arroyo administration. The reason I say it is a "line" is that in looking over the day's blogging, that "line" emerged in the earliest AM radio broadcasts. As I've mentioned on this blog, I often monitor the day's earliest radio morning broadcasts on two or three key stations because I've discovered this is where the Palace often puts out its talking points. Those "lines" that survive the rest of the day going around the media mills are usually "official." So there it is for today: the Right and the Left are now united against GMA. These official "lines" confirm their nature by disappearing from the "headlines" in a few days...we shall see if these coup rumors really were meant to last only till the Edsa celebrations are over this weekend. Of course, I don't actually know, perhaps there is an alliance now between the serpents and the snake-handlers that used to hunt them down. What do I know?
