Press Release
December 3, 2007

Privilege Speech of Senator Richard J. Gordon

Mr. President:

I rise today on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

I am not here to demand the expulsion of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV from this chamber--for I believe he himself has already and effectively done that, through his actions and by his conscious decision to employ extra-constitutional means to achieve his ends. He has placed himself beyond the pale of the very same laws he swore to execute in the oath of office that you and I--and everyone else in this chamber--solemnly pledged ourselves to.

What I am more concerned about, Mr. President, is our response as an institution to the damage that has been done by Senator Trillanes and his ragtag band of putschists--not just to the Manila Peninsula Hotel and its lobby, and not just a few days' worth of business, but to our nation as a whole. I am appalled and distressed that we have not spoken more uniformly and unequivocally to condemn the events of November 29 and their instigators.

A few days ago, just before this caper or coup or whatever you wish to call it happened, I was in Geneva in my capacity as a board member of the International Red Cross, attending the international convention. In my report, I drew attention to the many actions we were simultaneously undertaking to cope with natural disasters, and to the search and rescue operations then underway for airport pilots, missing airmen and passengers at sea. At the same time we had an earthquake, ocean surges, climate change...

The next day came the jarring news that a revolt of sorts had broken out in Manila. Not surprisingly, but to my keen embarrassment, my Red Cross colleagues raised the question that, I am sure, occurred to many of our countrymen as well: "Don't Filipinos have enough natural disasters to deal with, that they should hurt themselves with more man-made ones?"

There is no doubt in my mind that--whatever its professed reasons--the Nov. 29 caper was an unqualified, man-made disaster. Its only mitigating factor seems to be that no lives were directly lost. But there are clearly tremendous economic and other costs to be paid for that incident, and we will continue to feel those effects long after Senator Trillanes and General Lim shall have faded from the headlines.

My question today is: who is going to be held accountable for those costs? The monetary costs are high enough. I read about Senator Trillanes' reported offer to reimburse the hotel for the damage done--which leads me to wonder about the depth of his pockets, or those of his friends--but what about the costs to our nation's image, to our sense of well-being, to our fragile hopes for a peaceful resolution to our political travails?

When I first encountered Antonio Trillanes, it was as Secretary of Tourism. He and his men had taken over the Oakwood Apartments in July 2003 in full view of the nation and the world, and it fell on me--among other government officials--to repair the damage he wrought.

That he was able to do that once is remarkable enough; that he should be allowed to do it twice leads me to question the sanity of our political system. Do we have a national death-wish, some deep-seated urge to coddle those who have sworn themselves to our destruction?

On another level, Mr. President, the most disturbing aspect of this incident for me is how some Filipinos--many of whom you would expect to be more intelligent than their pronouncements--continue to venerate the likes of Antonio Trillanes as a hero.

We Filipinos are a theatrical lot. Rather than appreciate the lifelong struggles of a Nelson Mandela or a Mahatma Gandhi, or for that matter Jose Rizal, we like to applaud and to deify individuals who immolate themselves at the altar of politics in one brief, dramatic moment. We neglect or forget the kind of quiet, consistent, substantive heroism that others do--of Filipinos who improve themselves so they can improve the lives of many others; of Filipinos who toil, obscure and unheralded, both here and abroad for their families and communities.

I could not help thinking about this when I met with some OFWs in Geneva after we had all heard about what everyone thought was an unfolding coup. One of them asked me, "Mr. Senator, what good are our efforts here if someone at home keeps undoing them?" Indeed, Mr. President, can we not consider misadventures like these a slap in the face of our millions of foreign workers who labor so mightily to shore up our economy, the OFWs are the ones that buy the prepaid cards--OFWs prop up the economy only to have their gains erased by the megalomania of a few?

I find it extremely ironic that this stand-off happened on the eve of what we celebrate as Bonifacio Day. I majored in History and Government in college, Mr. President, and one of the things we learned from our history was that the Magdalo faction of the Katipunan to which Senator Trillanes and his men pay homage to was associated with General and later President Emilio Aguinaldo, while Andres Bonifacio led the Magdiwang.

By his actions, Trillanes acted more like Bonifacio at his petulant worst--willing and able to jeopardize the revolution on account of a personal plaint. I can understand the dismay of many of Trillanes' political allies and erstwhile supporters, who now find their principles compromised by one man's impetuousness. ...and destroying our tourism efforts and our business efforts and put many people in harms way - including the police, including the media, including private citizens - is not the way.

History also reminds us, Mr. President, of the example set by none other than Adolf Hitler who, in another November 84 years ago, staged the infamous beer hall putsch in Munich. Flanked by a few cohorts, the young Hitler held some people hostage in a bar in Munich and declared himself the leader of Germany after intimidating the leaders of Munich at that time--only to find himself pathetically bereft of military and public support. The putsch collapsed within hours. Advised by a sadly misguided old man, General Ludendorff, Hitler marched out onto the streets of Munich--only to be met with a hail of police bullets.

Thankfully, the parallels end there. It was not to be the end of Adolf Hitler, and he went on to become history's worst and deadliest dictator. Trillanes may be no Hitler--but we have too many old men willing to play his Ludendorff. I hope they will remember how, in his last years, Ludendorff himself, saw Hitler for what he was, and denounced him as "one of the greatest demagogues of all time." In fact he even told the President of Germany at that time that by appointing Mr. Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, that would be his greatest mistake and the greatest error in Germany. By then it was too late to be sorry.

Let me remind my distinguished colleagues that had this man's putsch succeeded, you and I in the Senate, would not be here today, and we would all be at the mercy of a revolutionary government whose composition would be as muddled and confused as Senator Trillanes' thinking.

While we are on the issue of accountability, Mr. President, let us take a moment to reflect on the events that day. You may call it Monday morning quarterbacking and I'm glad the local government Secretary and the police are here. If news reports and footages are to be believed, then it must have taken Trillanes and his group more than an hour to walk from the RTC to the Manila Penninsula Hotel. The media covered the whole event and broadcasts were uninterrupted. It was even shown in Geneva on BBC and on CNN. Police should have been alerted by the incidents. I know they were, if these were so, then why were they not apprehended at anytime while they were en route to the hotel? Why did it take so long for the local police to arrest Trillanes and his group? Televised pa yan. Ganyan ba yan pagka may hinoholdup na bangko matagal dumating ang pulis? Iyan ba sinasabi natin dito? Etong nasa telebisyon na, nakikita na nang buong mundo, ang tagal pa dumating ng kapulisan. Although nung umabot na sa Manila Peninsula Hotel, Subo na, kailangan umaksyon nang talagang matindi para maramdaman nang mga nananaginip na ito na seryoso ang gobyerno na hindi sila papayagang makalamang sa ating bansa sa pamamagitan ng karahasan. Pero, hindi na sana umabot doon, kung doon pa lang sana sa papunta sa Peninsula ay naharang na. The forceful attack employed by use of an APC - on international television, on BBC, on CNN and everywhere in the world - to demolish the lobby of the hotel would have not been necessary if the local police acted promptly.

Where was our police force? The prompt resolution was important, and there would have been no need for an APC to demolish private property and endanger lives had the local police been able to act swiftly and decisively.

I urge this chamber to conduct an investigation on the events that transpired on 29 November, so that accountability will be properly attached to persons responsible. After all there was a local police force in Makati the last time I heard. After all Fort Bonifacio is not too far away from Makati area.

Media and the Law

Mr. President, this incident sparked a debate on the extent of media's constitutionally-protected right to press freedom. During the incident, media practitioners covering within the perimeter of the Manila Peninsula were requested to evacuate the area. Thereafter, media men and women were herded like cattle and led to a bus, some of them hand-cuffed, and detained at Camp Bagong Diwa. The actions of the police forces displayed the lack of parameters of proper engagement under similar sensitive incidents.

In this light, I urge this chamber - as I urge in Geneva - to express its sense that a dialogue between the media, military and police is immediately necessary. During incidents such as the one in Manila Peninsula, swift resolution, with the least damage to property and loss of life, is the intent of the police. Tungkulin ng pulis iyan, ipagtanggol ang tao at kailangan respetuhin din nila ang tungkulin ng Media na pagreport ng insidente minu-minuto sa ating bansa. Pero dapat talaga mayroon tayong rules of engagement na hindi lang gagamitin pagkatapos nito mangyari nagunit tuwi-tuwina dapat gagamitin ng pulis at ng military ang meeting sa media kahit na once every semester para sa ganoon, kung may mangyayaring ganito ay hindi na maulit iyong pinapakita sa mundo na pati mga media nakaposas isinasakay sa bus. This is done in a constructive manner so that we don't have to be the laughing stock of the world. Napakahalaga ng Media na nandoon. Kaya nga tayo nagkakaroon ng question because the death of so many journalists in our country should be enough for proper mechanisms and procedure to be put in place to avoid cases where they stand to be at crosshairs with the police force tasks to safeguard their persons. The representation proposes of rules of engagement among the media, the military and the police be drafted, must be drafted and must me implemented right away. A balance must be struck in coming out with these rules within the rights of the media and the duty of the police force to serve and protect the people and contain the situation as professionally and swiftly as possible. Media, the military and the police must sit down together to draft the rules for their mutual benefit. We are fully aware that the police have to do their job - kailangan walang tatamaan private, ke media or public. But on the other hand, media must understand that they could be putting also the police in harms way, pagka sila ay pumasok at may mga nakaharang na tao na puwedeng I-hostage nang mga taong ganito The deaths of so many journalists in our country should be enough for proper mechanisms and procedure to be put in place to avoid cases where they stand to be at crosshairs with the police force tasked to safeguard their persons.

The incident, while resolved in a day, has done considerable damage to our country's reputation as the international community bore witness to the atrocity of the attack both to the government as an institution, and media as the fourth estate. With economic development on the upswing - kanina nabasa ko yung Namura securities. They are going to adjust positively their recommendations about the Philippine Economy. We cannot afford to shoot ourselves once more in the foot by blunders in the handling of similar incidents in the future. We cannot afford a Trillanes incident. We cannot afford the mistakes done after or during and after the Trillanes incident

This is why, while we are here--and because we are here as representatives and hopefully conscience of our people--I seek your support for an unequivocal denunciation of this failed revolt of November 29, 2007, of its plotters, its supporters, and their objectives. I ask for this chamber's unity behind the rule of law, and for the full application of that law against anyone who would put this nation's well-being and image at risk through violent means, for their own aggrandizement. Not just our image, but our democratic way of life.

Finally, Mr. President, let me say that Senator Trillanes and I--as well as all of us here, I'm sure--are in agreement on one point: that we need genuine political, social and economic reform. Nobody won that day. Everybody lost. Tourism, business, and the economy lost - the OFWs lost, the common man lost. Even as the aggression was quelled that day, it must send a strong message to the Administration. They have to be more forthright with their actions and platforms. Government should improve transparency, governance and accountability. While the Senate continuously investigate them here, it only-- the President or the Administration to continue its efforts to try and minimize graft and corruption and to try to be forthright at all times on the matter of questions being asked upon the government.

The President should not brush this incident aside even as the country enjoys the strengthening of the economy. The lack or absence of civilians' support for the call for her resignation at the Manila Peninsula should not be interpreted as an approval, but a challenge to put in place reforms that are needed and called for. But that reform will not come from the barrel of a gun, in one afternoon's revolt. It will come from patient, hard work over many years. That is why we are here. That is why I have risen to speak today.

Thank you, Mr. President, for your attention.

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