Coup or no coup?

The Palace appears complacent telling everyone that the men in uniform are intact and are within the chin of command. But many are asking: Which men in uniform? Those who are warming their butts in their comfortable and airconditioned rooms or those who are sweating it out in the field wearing their camouflage and carrying their heavy bags and rifles?

While administration allies are quick to claim that there is no coup, beans are spilling from the ranks of the armed forces saying a quiet reorganization is going on after the arrest of some suspected soldier-leaders. According to the butterflies and bees from the military camps, if their counterparts in Thailand find it successful, there is no reason why this will not be replicated in Philippines. In the very first place, questions of legitimacy still hang in the air and remain as an axe to grind Gloria Arroyo's head.

Gloria's representative from Eastern Samar, Marcelino Libanan, however, maintains that the coup plotters "tried but failed in the past and therefore has no chance to succeed in the future." Which is quite an understatement for the members of the military. Unless these people are indeed stupid and does not have the capability to learn from their past mistakes.

But a bee who was too careful to buzz said that they are being paid to die for the country. If their lives is the cost of showing that the Arroyo administration is illegitimate, they can take it, he said. At least the next generation will not be a victim of history carved from cover-ups and lies. And in so doing, they still won the battle.