Run him, he'll win November 22, 2006
THE text messages came fast and furious midweek last week: Gringo Honasan had been caught. One or two even called up to tell me about it. My reaction was: "Yes, so?"
Of course, I sympathize with Honasan for the injuries he got while trying to escape his pursuers, especially in the, well, colorful circumstances that he did. It would have made for a nice scene in an action movie, or a comedy of the titillating kind. I recall again the ordeal of a friend of mine who got pursued by arresting officers in the dead of night past narrow alleys in Manila's Sta. Mesa district during the dark days of martial law. He got tagged in a spot where the residents had hung out their clothes to dry and his hands were bound by clothesline wire. He was charged with resisting arrest along with subversion. He wanted to say, "I was not resisting arrest, I was avoiding arrest!" But he thought prudence was the better part of valor, silence the better part of wit.
But to go back: Frankly, I don't know why Honasan was hiding. Even more frankly, I don't know why he was being sought out by the authorities. That's what happened too after the Oakwood mutiny. Every time something like that happens, his name seems to be ticked off routinely. Reminds you of Claude Rains' famous line in "Casablanca": "Round up the usual suspects."
Honasan is the victim of his own notoriety, if not self-advertisement. I've asked around about the February "withdrawal of support," and most of those I've talked to say his participation there was largely marginal. I did ask some of the Magdalo officers last year how influential Honasan was with them, and they told me that although they regarded him as an "icon," as indeed they did most of the RAM leaders, and as indeed they did the military officers whose reputation for valor and incorruptibility preceded them -- Ariel Querubin and Alexander Balutan chief of them -- they were not exactly under his spell or tutelage.
Of course, he didn't mind being bruited about as the roisterer, physical or spiritual, of military restiveness. He may have been the source of some of the rumors himself. Well, there's as much a price to pay for notoriety as (romantic) perks to derive from it.
None of this can be unknown to government, whose intelligence may not be so unintelligent. Which brings me to why it should be so earnest in trying to nab him. Indeed, to why Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself would go out of her way to make a big thing of his arrest.
My theory is that the government's pinning the "withdrawal of support" on Honasan promotes one self-serving, and fallacious, idea. Namely, that the "withdrawal of support" is no better or worse than the foiled RAM coups of the past. The logic is: It shares the same messianic spirit, or sense of adventurism, or belief that a few bold souls from the military could rescue this country from its lot. It shares the same praetorian mentality as well, the coup plotters being poised to take over the country and run it themselves.
Nothing can be further from the truth. The February "withdrawal of support" was like the RAM coups of the past only in the same way that oil spill off the shores of Guimaras is like the garbage collecting on the waters of the Manila Bay. It is a gross exaggeration. No, it is a gross distortion. The opposite in fact is truer.
Unlike the RAM coups of the past, the February (would-be) revolt did not intend to put the military in charge of the country. The fact that Dodong Nemenzo is being accused of rebellion, along with Oscar Orbos and many others, is proof of it. By government's own avowal, the coup, had it succeeded, would have put up a transitional civilian government in its place. The old RAM coups, had they succeeded, would have put RAM government in place of Cory's.
Unlike the RAM coups of the past, the February "withdrawal of support" was not a coup in the traditional sense; it was an extension of people power. It did not rely on a few individuals to carry it out; it relied on the nation to do it. If it were a coup, it would have been the most popular coup in the world, in every sense of the word "popular." Hell, it was so openly advertised they even tried to get Generals Generoso Senga and Hermogenes Esperon to join it. The real coup, in every sense of the word too, happened well before, wreaked by GMA with the help of Garci.
By assigning Honasan a key role in the February revolt, or indeed the role of its mastermind, the government hopes to reduce it to just another episode in the never-ending series of military adventurism. A case of batty messiahs trying to bring down a duly constituted government. The last is wrong on both counts.
Honasan, however, may console himself with one thing: He is getting free, high-profile, unadulterated pre-campaign advertising. If he manages to run for senator next year -- I don't know what Raul Gonzalez can do to prevent him from doing so; forget Gonzalez's kidneys, his real disease lodges in another organ upstairs, way, way upstairs -- I have little doubt he will win. In fact, he may even top the field on the strength of his being depicted as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's No. 1 enemy, or would-be destroyer. It will have nothing to do with a dubious plotter's charisma or acceptability.
It will have everything to do with a fake President's lack of them.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=33989
Of course, I sympathize with Honasan for the injuries he got while trying to escape his pursuers, especially in the, well, colorful circumstances that he did. It would have made for a nice scene in an action movie, or a comedy of the titillating kind. I recall again the ordeal of a friend of mine who got pursued by arresting officers in the dead of night past narrow alleys in Manila's Sta. Mesa district during the dark days of martial law. He got tagged in a spot where the residents had hung out their clothes to dry and his hands were bound by clothesline wire. He was charged with resisting arrest along with subversion. He wanted to say, "I was not resisting arrest, I was avoiding arrest!" But he thought prudence was the better part of valor, silence the better part of wit.
But to go back: Frankly, I don't know why Honasan was hiding. Even more frankly, I don't know why he was being sought out by the authorities. That's what happened too after the Oakwood mutiny. Every time something like that happens, his name seems to be ticked off routinely. Reminds you of Claude Rains' famous line in "Casablanca": "Round up the usual suspects."
Honasan is the victim of his own notoriety, if not self-advertisement. I've asked around about the February "withdrawal of support," and most of those I've talked to say his participation there was largely marginal. I did ask some of the Magdalo officers last year how influential Honasan was with them, and they told me that although they regarded him as an "icon," as indeed they did most of the RAM leaders, and as indeed they did the military officers whose reputation for valor and incorruptibility preceded them -- Ariel Querubin and Alexander Balutan chief of them -- they were not exactly under his spell or tutelage.
Of course, he didn't mind being bruited about as the roisterer, physical or spiritual, of military restiveness. He may have been the source of some of the rumors himself. Well, there's as much a price to pay for notoriety as (romantic) perks to derive from it.
None of this can be unknown to government, whose intelligence may not be so unintelligent. Which brings me to why it should be so earnest in trying to nab him. Indeed, to why Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself would go out of her way to make a big thing of his arrest.
My theory is that the government's pinning the "withdrawal of support" on Honasan promotes one self-serving, and fallacious, idea. Namely, that the "withdrawal of support" is no better or worse than the foiled RAM coups of the past. The logic is: It shares the same messianic spirit, or sense of adventurism, or belief that a few bold souls from the military could rescue this country from its lot. It shares the same praetorian mentality as well, the coup plotters being poised to take over the country and run it themselves.
Nothing can be further from the truth. The February "withdrawal of support" was like the RAM coups of the past only in the same way that oil spill off the shores of Guimaras is like the garbage collecting on the waters of the Manila Bay. It is a gross exaggeration. No, it is a gross distortion. The opposite in fact is truer.
Unlike the RAM coups of the past, the February (would-be) revolt did not intend to put the military in charge of the country. The fact that Dodong Nemenzo is being accused of rebellion, along with Oscar Orbos and many others, is proof of it. By government's own avowal, the coup, had it succeeded, would have put up a transitional civilian government in its place. The old RAM coups, had they succeeded, would have put RAM government in place of Cory's.
Unlike the RAM coups of the past, the February "withdrawal of support" was not a coup in the traditional sense; it was an extension of people power. It did not rely on a few individuals to carry it out; it relied on the nation to do it. If it were a coup, it would have been the most popular coup in the world, in every sense of the word "popular." Hell, it was so openly advertised they even tried to get Generals Generoso Senga and Hermogenes Esperon to join it. The real coup, in every sense of the word too, happened well before, wreaked by GMA with the help of Garci.
By assigning Honasan a key role in the February revolt, or indeed the role of its mastermind, the government hopes to reduce it to just another episode in the never-ending series of military adventurism. A case of batty messiahs trying to bring down a duly constituted government. The last is wrong on both counts.
Honasan, however, may console himself with one thing: He is getting free, high-profile, unadulterated pre-campaign advertising. If he manages to run for senator next year -- I don't know what Raul Gonzalez can do to prevent him from doing so; forget Gonzalez's kidneys, his real disease lodges in another organ upstairs, way, way upstairs -- I have little doubt he will win. In fact, he may even top the field on the strength of his being depicted as Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's No. 1 enemy, or would-be destroyer. It will have nothing to do with a dubious plotter's charisma or acceptability.
It will have everything to do with a fake President's lack of them.
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropinion/columns/view_article.php?article_id=33989
posted by dqfan06 @ 9:57 AM
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