During the time of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, there were so many coup attempts against her that some now-forgotten wit came up with the term “coup pals” to describe Trillanes, et al., rebellious junior officers that they were.
These military people were reportedly acting on orders of disgruntled Yellows who thought that, after unseating the popular Erap Estrada through a repeat of the so-called EDSA Revolution, they could install his Vice-President, who would be beholden to the Yellow horde and subject to their commands.
When PGMA showed beyond cavil that she was her own woman, they whipped out the just-recently used People Power playbook to try to oust her. Unfortunately for them, PGMA was made of sterner stuff. Thus the sorry spectacle of supposedly tough military “reformists” scampering for safety when a tank rammed into their five-star hotel redoubt and pointed a 50-caliber gun right into their faces.
Trillanes, for his part, was dragged practically by the balls by a police general, right into a stockade. A humiliating defeat definitely, for a brash Philippine Military Academy graduate who thought he was better than any policeman.
Now, barely seven months into the Marcos presidency, the Yellows/Pinks are at it again. Dusting off ye olde coup manual which has fallen into disrepute in the 2000s, they are floating rumors of another coup, this time by police brass purportedly “demoralized” by calls from the Interior and Local Government Secretary for them to resign en masse, so that a “cleansing” may be effected within the ranks.
The wisdom and advisability of that move by Secretary Abalos is still the subject of much debate, to be sure. But whatever it may be, two things are clear: The police officialdom is — at least outwardly — supportive of it; and it bears the imprimatur of the President, who so declared in no uncertain terms.
Besides, the remnants of the Yellow horde are in a quandary: with a Duterte (Vice President Sara Z. Duterte) as Marcos’ constitutional successor, the cure may be worse than the disease, from their point of view. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place! Unless they will do another extra-constitutional action, which is another matter altogether.
As for the majority, who are now reaping the fruits of a constitutional government without the threat of another chaotic “revolutionary” change, they will not take kindly to another attempt by the bitter yellows to mount a regime change outside of the Fundamental Charter. The coup plotters should have learned their lessons as early as the year 2000: They will be treated as body dirt by the Filipinos and washed down the drain once again.