The Diabolical August Moon

August 6 is the calendar day when there’s going to be a full moon. It is also the day that marks the imposition of emergency rule, according to Oplan August Moon, a plan that is rumored to be the handiwork of “hawks and ideologues” within the Arroyo government upon the order of President GMA herself.

The plan is to position military generals friendly to GMA in a self-coup that would bolster the administration’s bid to amend the Constitution before the end of the year, or before the 2010 elections. The charter change is ultimately designed to extend GMA’s stay in power either as a “transition president” or the first prime minister under a parliamentary government.

Major details of Oplan August Moon have been circulating in the Internet in the past few days. [For full disclosure of Oplan August Moon, see attached an e-mail that was passed on to my address.]

PNP Director General Jesus Versoza and other government officials have laughed off the plan as preposterous and a creation of some opposition “propagandists”.

But what makes Oplan August Moon believable to many has been the sequence of events that preceded the leaking out of the plot, and more so, the wave of bombings that are happening today which have been predicted in the plan.

‘Revolutionary’ transitory government

A week before Oplan August Moon was leaked to the media, GMA’s national security adviser Norberto Gonzales floated the idea of declaring a revolutionary “transitory government” composed of the leadership of the two houses of Congress, the judiciary, and the Church. It will be a collective leadership under the helm of GMA herself. Virtually, it is an extension of GMA’s presidency.

According to Gonzales, the transition government will amend the Constitution and put in electoral reforms before the 2010 elections. The transition government is ‘revolutionary’ in the sense that it will have to dispense with any Constitutional impediments related to Cha-cha and the prerogatives of the president.

The Gonzales’ proposal is clearly a ‘palace coup’ in line with the Oplan August Moon. The plan can be seen as the implementation of the proposal, with a clear military’s role as back up to the ‘transitory government’.

Now, the bombings

Oplan August Moon also indicates the intensification of an environment of chaos and confusion leading to the declaration of emergency rule. The scenario involves “bombings, assassinations of key government officials and members of the media”. These operations will be blamed to the Jemaah Islamiyah or the Al-Qaeda members who were reported earlier on by the media as being in the country already.

As of today, there has been a wave of bombings in Mindanao, beginning with a Sunday blast outside the Cotabato cathedral which claimed the lives of six persons. On Tuesday, three more bomb attacks occurred in various parts of Mindanao – an explosion hit Jolo and Iligan City, killing two more people and injuring scores of others. The bombings have not only hit Mindanao. A bomb was detonated near the Ombudsman building, and another one was found near the Department of Agriculture.

At first, the military pointed to the rogue elements of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) as perpetrators under a supposed “grand plan” to sow terror in Mindanao. The MILF has quickly denied the charges. As of today, the military and police forces have declared red alert in Metro Manila. The chief of military’s NCR command, Maj. Gen. Leo Fojas, now declares that the bombings were undertaken by a “terror group” composed of three to four members of the Abu Sayyaf bandit group, a rogue unit in the MILF, and the Jemaah Islamiyah of the global Al-Qaeda network.

A few days after the Cotabato bombing, former ISAFP member and whistle-blower Vidal Doble declared that only the government could be behind the bombing.

Insiders’ expose

Oplan August Moon and the diabolical plan to impose emergency rule in the country have fanned deep divisions among factions of the ruling elite.

Former House speaker Jose de Venecia condemned the bombings as part of an administration plot to impose emergency rule, or martial law, as envisioned in Oplan August Moon. De Venecia even exposed that during the Manila Peninsula hotel siege in 2007, GMA had almost declared martial law. “If she nearly did it once, she could do it now,” the ousted speaker lamented.

Prior to de Venecia’s bombshells, former senate president Franklin Drilon has also linked up the bombings to GMA’s plan to impose emergency rule. If these people, who were formerly part of the inner circle of the Arroyo administration, are now warning the people of the plot to impose emergency rule, then Oplan August Moon seems to have been already put in place.

People’s vigilance

The Inquirer editorial today sums up the sinister situation developing today. While the government seems to be whipping up paranoia to justify martial rule, it is a virtue for the public to also act paranoid. Not to fall into the trap of the government’s line, but to understand that there are indeed many enemies of our democracy, starting from the snakes and vultures at the Malacanang palace itself. The Inquirer said, “They exist, and are waiting only for the people’s vigilance to weaken.”