Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007
The weekly Luxid meeting was scheduled for today, and Baby Boy and I planned on going, but it was cancelled and preempted by this event. Most observers say it does not deserve to be called a coup or an attempted coup, but just a mini-coup or a coupette. For the record, Tito Osias has confided in me that he had nothing remotely to do with it.
Anyway, here is what happened. Several former army officers on trial for an earlier coup walked out of the Makati Regional Trial Court with their armed escorts, and stormed and holed up at the nearby five-star Peninsula Hotel, dislodging many of its tourist occupants and disrupting an upcoming wedding. They were led by Antonio Trillanes IV, a former lieutenant in the Philippine Navy who had been elected Senator while incarcerated.
Antonio Trillanes IV
After much posturing and press relations activities, the rebels surrendered when the army crashed an armored personnel carrier into the hotel lobby and lobbed tear gas into the hotel. Trillanes was hauled away unceremoniously in handcuffs.
Only in the Philippines.
Antonio Trillanes IV in handcuffs
Sidebar: As a result of this incident, the government imposed a midnight curfew the next couple of days, slightly cramping our nocturnal carousing these two nights.
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