(Photo source: Twitter)
What is the biggest enemy of economic growth? You guessed it. Instability. It is therefore strange that the Philippine Opposition led by the Liberal Party (a.k.a. the Yellowtards), who are the biggest shills when it comes to pontificating about the ill-effects of “inflation” and attributing the behaviour of this ill-understood economic indicator to the actions of a sitting president, would go on to be the biggest instigators of instability in the country. What Filipinos should do is step back from the circus and think first:
Is “senator” Antonio Trillanes really that relevant to me?
Indeed, while the Philippines’ economic and fiscal managers work hard to deal with the ebbs and flows of global trade and their effects on day-to-day domestic commerce that, ultimately, impacts individual Filipinos’ purchasing power, Trillanes focuses primarily on petty politics. The Philippine Senate has long been hard-pressed to prove its value to ordinary Filipinos to begin with. Characters like Trillanes hardly contribute to propping up that proposition. Instead, he is devaluing the Senate, more so now that he is using the Senate building itself as his personal panic room.
The only real thing at stake in this Trillanes brouhaha is Yellowtard pride considering that it was former President Benigno Simeon ‘BS’ Aquino III that supposedly granted this “amnesty” to begin with. Whether or not that granting actually occurred or, at the very least, followed proper procedure is now under the spotlight. The only assertion that proper procedure was followed comes from the Yellowtard camp.According to Abi Valte who served as BS Aquino’s mouthpiece, “there are physical and hard evidence showing Trillanes submitting his application and taking his oath before the Department of National Defense.” She adds…
We find it quite strange that the actual hard copy of the application for amnesty is now, as the government says, is missing. And obviously you have footage of Trillanes being interviewed back then saying that he did sign the application and there was a corresponding admission of guilt for breaking the rules and admitting there were offenses committed under the Revised Penal Code…
Other reports quote the words of BS Aquino himself…
“As far as our records are concerned, he did apply. And that it was deliberated by the DND ad hoc committee, and it is embodied in Resolution No. 2. And the summary of all these deliberations by that ad hoc committee was sent to me on January 25, 2011,” Aquino said.The granting of amnesty was the last step in the negotiations between the government and the concerned individuals, said Aquino.“This was the last step in a lot of negotiations that we had in precisely how to move on and have the reconciliation aspect. Perhaps it should… bear pointing out that everybody from the rank of Master Sergeant up, were not authorized the proclamation to be reinstated, and actually forfeited certain benefits… including back pay for the time they were… they left the discipline of the Armed Forces,” he said.
Even after reading the above statements multiple times, it is difficult to ascertain whether the full process of granting “amnesty” to Trillanes was actually completed. The only clear takeaway from BS Aquino’s ramblings is that Trillanes “did apply” for this “amnesty”. Whether or not it was actually granted as part of official procedure remains in question. So far there is no concrete evidence that actual approval of this “amnesty” actually transpired or was effected with absolute finality.
The short of it is that none of what’s been said above had so far been corroborated by an objective disinterested third party, nor has physical proof that proper procedure was followed been presented. If the above constitutes the only set of evidence the Yellowtards have to present to substantiate their case, then Trillanes is clearly in trouble.
Because of what so far seems to be a weak case, the Yellowtards have opted for their all-too-familiar approach to getting their way: “people power”. Yellowtard leader Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan is now calling for Filipinos to mass around the Senate building to “protect” Trillanes from “illegal arrest”. This is a familiar tactic. Rather than work towards clarity, the Yellowtards are deliberately adding confusion. They are not out to reveal the truth. They are working towards muddling it.
Filipinos need to take stock of what is going on and what the Yellowtards are really doing. Their aim is to destabilise a duly-elected government because their singular goal is to seize power. This makes them no different from the communists who have a similar objective: to overthrow legitimate governments and install a dictatorship of the proletariat.
“Senator” Antonio Trillanes is no more than the latest rallying point of these economic saboteurs. Much of the shrill messaging the Yellowtards are now frantically fielding on social media amount to no more than mere appeals to emotion. There is practically zero intellectual payload in the actual content of their messaging. Most important of all, the only real and tangible outcome of these circuses being perpetrated by the Yellowtards is instability. And instability, as any economic manager will tell you, makes investors jittery. Filipinos do themselves a disservice by supporting destructive and irrelevant causes such as those instigated by the Yellowtards. It’s time they make a real choice. It’s time they find themselves a real set of truly genuine Opposition voices and leaders — ones that look out for the broader public wellbeing and not just their dishonest political agendas.
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