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| Photo from Goyo Facebook |
Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2018 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
Against
the backdrop of war, doubted youngest and celebrated one-star Filipino general,
shrivelled with agile vocation to save a flawed president flunked to triumph in
his last battle. Gregorio del Pilar’s tactical command in a visceral level of
military strategy diminished a demeanour sauntered out in Tirad Pass, our
nation’s Thermopylae waterloo, beheld by aphids of clouds atop the boundless
vigor of Ilocandia’s mountain peaks. Fear and salvation snapped out from his
stumbling spirit onto a clandestine cloister of inner struggle to fathom his
role in nation-building and venture into odyssey if Aguinaldo’s revolution was worth fighting for.
His
youthfulness and morose death elevated his snap heroism. No pompous burial
bared for him unlike the mad-genius General Antonio Luna flattered with a lush
orchestration of political whims in his funeral to mantle white lies about his
murder.
Insert
post-modern Philippines. Our history has been coated with episodic military adventurism.
This euphemism of instigating a war of aggression to the government is mostly
not won over by romanticized soldiers when Filipinos deem that our Constitution
remains the fundamental law.
This
is a great lesson that we should learn from the past.
Charismatic
mutineer Colonel Gringo Honasan, now a senator, led five coup d’état to the
first Filipina president Cory Aquino during his heydays as rebel against putschists,
thieves, and opportunists. Enamored Lieutenant Senior Grade Sonny Trillanes IV, a
sitting senator, copied the same military adventurism against the second
Filipina president Gloria Arroyo due to alleged rampant corruption in the
government. Both former military officers rallied for change, turned out politicians
by demand, but aspired to become the second highest official in the country in
recent national elections. President Fidel Ramos granted amnesty to Honasan
while President Benigno Aquino III endowed amnesty to Trillanes.
Hypothetically
if Goyo heeded to his own demon and altered a courageous narrative of defiance
against bad governance of a blemished commander-in-chief, could he embody the
ideals of Honasan and Trillanes in his trying time? Albeit underlying
the historical context of his state at that time, the colonizer came out to be
the primary adversary, notwithstanding the Tagalog president and his northern ethnic
armed warriors. But if he were alive today, the vicious cycle of Filipino feeble
governance and fragile defense posture sum up the Philippines’ corrupted system
that may inspire pampered PMAers to stage a coup to the government.
Goyo
might end up guilty of a morbid political offense. Banish or die. Or suffer murder just like what Bonifacio and Luna ended up like.
