Why invite the perfect storm? | as easy as ABC

There is something calming about being able to engage in stressful work in Makati, and even reassuring to move in its heavy traffic at turtle speed. At least we are able to live normal lives. I say this because in one December about this time (yes, going into Christmas), Makati was converted into the last stronghold by rebel soldiers, who occupied more than 20 buildings in the Makati Central Business District. Foreigners in hotels were trapped, properties destroyed, and soldiers and even some civilians were killed or injured.

From their vantage point among tall buildings, rebel snipers could see the movements of government forces on the streets below. Above them, though, flew government and US fighter planes that shot down heavy military artillery under rebel control. If Christmas was coming, it surely sounded then that New Year fireworks went off well ahead of schedule.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend” was truly in play that day. Soldiers from the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) teamed up with forces still loyal to the deposed dictator to stage the coup attempt, fueled by funds from the deep coffers of the dictator or his cronies.

The Makati siege that lasted from 2-7 Dec. in 1989 brought more miseries than just lost days of work. Tourism tremendously suffered then, while investment confidence after the dictator was booted out quickly converted to capital flight. It was estimated that that short event cost the Philippines valuable $1.5 billion during that time. Most of all, it hurt the Philippine brand. All the positive signs then were almost neutralized, and the country’s claim to fame of a bloodless revolution was one we could no longer really make.

During that military coup, people stayed home. Brave nuns tried to approach the tanks once more but they were shot at. But that was much less sinister than trying to remove from power by force the rightful winner of the snap presidential elections, to thwart the will of the Filipino people yet again. The coup was defeated, and the dictator remained booted out. Since then, the leader of the mutiny became a senator. Members of the dictator’s family were elected back into public office, as they continue to keep ill-gotten wealth, without remorse and punishment.

I have no words for how some people can turn a blind eye to the institutional grand larceny of people’s money, businesses, freedoms and lives during martial rule. The formula was: feed your loyal constituents well. As for the rest of the country, feed them with lies, or threaten them with incarceration and torture.

It was during the Martial Law years that the country’s fortune changed from being the frontrunner in Asia to being at the bottom of the pit. The nation’s unborn children then were already immersed in foreign debt, the country had to make do with an economy that had been going to the dogs, while those in power lived extravagantly, amassing so much fortune that Marcos earned recognition in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s greatest thief.

Strangely, some millennials on TV and social media give hair-raising, off comments such as: if you hate Marcos, do not use the roads he constructed, and the hospitals he built, or the Cultural Center of the Philippines. At the risk of dignifying those statements with a comment, I need to say that those roads in the north and trophy structures were all constructed and built with taxpayers’ money, and those projects were also partially how the powers that be made money! It is the obligation of any president to spend on public works, or else we all should not pay tax at all. Presidents or mayors who had these constructed do not own them simply because they were funded by people’s hard-earned tax money.

Even our current president swears that Martial Law is stupid, and that it has brought nothing but hardship to the Filipinos, even as he allowed Marcos to be buried as a hero. Marcos then tried to label all those who protested against his martial rule as Reds. Now the protesters against the Marcos burial are being labelled as “Yellows.” That means their cries will be ignored. Since the Yellows lost in the elections, their protests will be treated as irrelevant.

The surreptitious burial to please one family was a slap on the entire nation, leaving a welt that speaks volumes of how much importance the President gives to people’s sentiments. It is not the last straw, but it is brewing a storm. If it is true that the burial is the first installment of a scheme to install the dictator’s son to the vice presidency, it will summon a tempest.

The people will not allow their will to be thwarted again. They will take sides against those who have corrupted our culture and unrepentantly ravaged the country’s fortune and future, and against those who will make that happen again. The military will remember that it is sworn to defend the people. The government today will tough it out and is not expected to be as tolerant. Sadly, the country may now be incapable of bloodless revolutions such as the first EDSA, and military conflict can be worse than the mutiny that happened in the Makati commercial district during that one fateful December.

If that happens, what of the Philippine gains as the new tiger economy of Asia, the creeping but gaining inclusive growth, the trust of the international community, the credit ratings , and its ambition going into 2040? Was the promised change a change for the worse? What harm will befall countless individuals brave enough to make a distinction between right and wrong?

All will be at risk. But why curse the country with wrong decisions? What is the wisdom behind inviting the perfect storm?