The November 29 Coup

I turned the TV on yesterday with the intention of watching some intellectually stimulating shows from JackTV. Instead, I was treated to one of the more entertaining live local news stories I had seen in a while.

Senator Trillanes walked out of a court hearing, traversed the streets of makati with a bunch of armed men. They marched towards the manila peninsula hotel, commandeered it and called for the people to join them in overthrowing the arroyo administration. The military and the police gave them a deadline to surrender. The deadline came and passed. Swarms of troops started storming the hotel. Gunshots were heard. A tank crashed through the front door of the hotel.
Senator Trillanes seemed really determined so I was expecting it to end in bloodshed. I was sure people were going to be googling pictures of Trillanes' corpse later in the day But alas, Trillanes and company gave up with hardly a fight

Much to the dismay of the Media personnel who were caught inside the hotel at the time of the incident, they were tied up, rounded up like cattle and forced to ride non-airconditioned buses (the horror) to bicutan, in which they were detained. They were understandably outraged (airconditioned buses would've been a more humane option) However, this is a very good tactical move for the military for magdalo soldiers have a reputation of being exceptionally good at subterfuge. A number of them could've easily blended in with the media. The magdalo soldier's proficiency in disguise is displayed in the picture below in which, if one would look very closely, a magdalo soldier can be seen inconspicuously disguised as a Rastafarian "MAWN" . He doesn't stand out at all.

Senator Trillanes is a very colorful character with very lofty goals and very creative/dramatic methods of bringing them to fruition
He believes that toppling the current government would solve the problems of the Philippines. What a non-simplistic worldview. This goes with the"let's-give-money-to-the-poor" ideology as guaranteed ways of permanently eradicating poverty in the Philippines. He doesn't share with us his alternative solution because he knows that the Filipino masses want to use their brains. He intends to make us use our brains by making us guess what his plans are.

Senator Trillanes used a lot of fighting words. He said he was ready to die. He said he wasn't going to back down. His confidence and charisma were so intense, hypnotic and overflowing that he was able to convince elderly civilians, family men with a lot at stake, to embark on a perilous, military crusade with just a handful of armed soldiers with them.

Guingona not yet dead, just dazed by Trillanes' hypnotic charisma

When the tank came crashing through the door though, he gave up almost instantaneously without resistance. But this wasn't an act of cowardice. This was a selfless act of genuine heroism for he really wanted to save the civilians who were with him. The same civilians whom he kept from leaving the hotel when the bullets started flying