Transition Revolutionary Council Part 2

The plot to place the Transition Revolutionary Council (TRC) in power started way back in 2007 and it is continually undertaken without the public knowing it. Modifications and adjustments has been done to cope up with hindrances and set backs but the prime movers, which include Sen. Panfilo Lacson, manages to keep it uplift, until now…

Lacson running out of time

Lacson did not foresee the upcoming as the Dacer-Corbito double murder case irretrievably developed in court. This prompted Lacson to act faster so as to get him out of the expected entanglement. Instead of answering the accusations against him, he asked the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the case but his move did not budged the court. The senator’s next move was to file a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on the case. However, preliminary investigation is deemed to take place and the TRC will not play in his favour if there is probable cause to tag him with the murder case. At this point, Lacson is running out of time to make moves, not only to avail support, but rather, to create issues that will help in clouding the Dacer-Corbito case and, at the same time, help in discrediting the administration to pave way for the TRC.

The Neri attempted abduction connection

Before the ZTE-NBN issue aroused the public, it was all too obvious that Jun Lozada, Joey De Venecia III and former NEDA Chief and now SSS President Romulo Neri conspired in an attempt to bring down the present administration. Lozada and De Venecia pushed through with their objective, gaining some public support. On the other hand, Neri decided to stay back and invoked the Presidential Communications Privilege. The SC upheld Neri’s right to invoke executive privilege in refusing to further testify before the Senate. The decision in the case of “Romulo Neri vs. Senate Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations, Senate Committee on Trade and Commerce, and Senate Committee on National Defense and Security.” was penned by Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro. Neri have all the practical reason not to join in the scheme as it will tend to lose his resources, connections with the administration, as well as his position in the government, especially if nothing will happen. He played it safely and his decision was for his convenience. From this point, Neri was clearly a part of a conspiracy. Behind this, Neri already damaged the reputation of the President, the First Gentleman and the First Family even if he stayed out of the mess, considering that he is part of a connivance that ignited the ZTE-NBN allegations. The ZTE-NBN controversy surely created public clamour but it eventually subsided until the media lose interest due to lack of evidence. There was an abrupt discontinuation on the ZTE-NBN controversy even if it remains to be a viable anti-administration scheme.

Lacson perceives that the same issue can be raised once again but on a different approach. Looking at it, if the issue arises once more, the public interest may ignite again. He has already convinced Neri to abandon the executive privilege and spill the beans the second time around to re-ignite the ZTE-NBN controversy. To put these into action, Lacson plotted a drama to place Neri’s in the limelight and from there, some scripts would be put on air.

On October 9, 2009, Neri's home at #28 Palali Street, Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City was strafed with bullets by armed men wearing fatigues and bonnets. Accordingly, six suspects on board two vehicles disarmed Neri's two security escorts before firing at the gate. The suspects fled, abandoned their vehicles, and escaped onboard another vehicle. The incident occurred when Neri was about to go to work. Obviously, the incident was all scripted due to some inconsistencies that the public is not able to observe or know the details. On the plot, Neri is supposedly abducted and will be forced to speak about the alleged ZTE-NBN scam in a dramatic event. However, the supposed abductors bungled as Neri’s bodyguards were quick enough to react and prevent the armed men in barging inside Neri’s residence. The plot was not executed properly when Neri’s personal bodyguards reacted fast enough. On the other hand, the would-be abductors panicked since Neri’s guard seems to be prepared and ready. For the inconsistencies, real kidnappers do not abduct their target/s in their place of residence since there is high probability that it is properly guarded. They prefer doing it while the subject is in transit. Neri’s supposed abductors did not go into this scheme since police encounter along the way may become uncontrollable and may endanger the life of Neri. In addition, Neri have in full control of his people if the abduction will be conducted in his residence. He can immediately order his bodyguard to stand down and heed to the kidnapper’s call, making it look as if to avoid casualties. Another loophole centers on the question on why would the kidnappers rent a safehouse a few blocks from Neri’s residence with a 100K rental. In fact, real kidnappers plot it remotely and they don’t even consolidate in one place before they execute the plot.

Now, the only person who may have the motive, resources and manpower for this plot is Lacson, linking it to his intention to re-open the ZTE-NBN issue. Kidnapping is the senator’s expertise as it can be reflected on similar incidents during Erap’s term. In addition, the abduction team is composed of hitmen based in Central Luzon and Ilongo criminals based in Visayas and professional criminals based in Manila south which has been tapped by Lacson. Meanwhile, the reason why Neri finally decided to heed to Lacson’s call is due to the fact that the Ombudsman is pressing him to answer all the allegations against him. In addition, the administration has virtually abandoned him and refused to make move to get him out of entanglement with the Ombudsman. Neri has no other option now but to play with Lacson’s game.

Behind this scheme, Lacson never even thought that even if Neri succeeded in delivering his pre-fabricated speech, it will be pretty useless since there would be nothing more to say about the ZTE-NBN deal. Much of it has been already said by De Venecia and Lozada way back during the height of the controversy. Technically, none of Neri’s supposed revelations exists anymore since every ounce of the issue has been already brought up in the public. The only thing to expect from this is when the public asks why it is only now that Neri will try to spill everything. Perhaps, Lacson did not even bother to think about what will be the outcome of the incident and if it is worth enough considering that lives have been at stake in the “kidnap me” plot. In relation to Lacson’s latest perpetrated scheme, there is a possibility that Ben Abalos would be next in Lacson’s list since the latter was also tagged in the ZTE-NBN controversy. However, there is high doubt that Abalos would cooperate in any of Lacson’s plot.

The Rolex robbery incident

On October 18, 2009, six men posing as bomb squad personnel overpowered the guards and broke into the Rolex luxury watch store in Greenbelt 5, Makati City. A shoot-out took place between the armed robbers and close-in security aides of Mayor Tiñga, who happened to be taking their lunch in the area. After the heist, millions of pesos worth of expensive watches where taken by the robbers while one of their cohorts lay dead at the store entrance. There is no hard evidence that the incident may be linked with possible attempts to create a chaotic environment and instill that the administration is not capable of eradicating criminal activities, but there remains indications. On criminal professionalism, there is a glaring inconsistency on why would an organized crime group rob the Rolex store and take out expensive watches instead of cash. It is all too common that expensive items like Rolex watches are well documented and serially numbered, making it is easy for authorities to trace them in case they sell it in the blackmarket. It may be just a coincident but Incidents like this usually transpires whenever Lacson is out of the country. Playing safe will always be part of Lacson’s stratagem. As such, it is noteworthy that the Rolex store heist took place after Lacson left the country. Lacson flew to Hongkong on October 8, 2009 and later proceeded to Amsterdam. He is due to stay there until the 30^th of October 2009 with his wife. For now, this speculation is the only thing that connects Lacson with the said criminal act in Makati City.

Lacson and his cohorts

Going back to the impending realization of a Transition Revolutionary Council, activities intended to discredit the administration and formula conception of schemes to create a disordered environment comes through a chain of command. Lacson gives instructions to BGen Danilo Lim. Lim for his part directs Allan Paje to act on the given task. Allan Paje acts a broker with certain groups every time anybody from the anti-administration groups wants to create certain scenarios. Paje is known to have strong links with extreme rightists and leftist groups and has been involved in most destabilization and coup attempts to wreck the administration. In addition to Paje’s background, he was a discharged cadet from the Philippine Military Academy who should have belonged to Class ’76.

With questions on why Lacson keep on pushing these covert plots to destabilize the government, he just merely want to push through with the Transition Revolutionary Council for his own ambition of taking power by 2010 because he does not stand a chance among other presidentiables who really belong to the hierarchy of select, worthy and capable leaders to run the country. As such, the TRC is the only thing which will qualify him to be the country’s next leader.