Of Trillanes and Faeldon

physical science plaque, and the Tambuli Award for electrical/electronics engineering. Faeldon, who is from Batanes, started his military career in June 1989 as a thirdclass trainee of the Naval Combat Engineering Brigade ( formerly Naval Construction Brigade or Seabees). He was called to active in the Philippine Marine Corps in 1992. He has been awarded a Gold Cross Medal, three Mili Military Commendation Medals (MCM), a Wounded Personnel Medal, and Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao campaign medals.

Both stood for something in 2003. Both were with Magdalo. Both were jailed. Faeldon was kicked out of Magdalo in 2005. Trillanes ran for senator from his prison cell in 2007, an opposition banner year. The parting of ways is not that clear and has not been made public but the talk is they involved issues of plea bargain was after all the template followed by another putschist turned senator, Gringo Honasan, a father-like figure for both. Honasan and Trillanes ran for legal cover. Honasan’s amnesty was granted but Trillanes’ remains pending. In fact, he was released under the cognizance of then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, whom he devoured with smoke on his nose, because the then Senate President support for his committees and Trillanes’ request to be made chair of the defense committee.

Trillanes was also “handpicked” by then President Benigno Aquino 3rd to conduct backroom talks with China, setting aside protocol and traveling to China 16 times. His foray into international relations and diplomacy was fraught with so many risks, foremost of which was the country losing Scarborough Shoal, which until today remains a big question mark. Nobody wants to talk and PRRD has been boxed in, giving a lot of leeway to China and not enforcing the arbitral ruling.

Faeldon, on the other hand, spent his time in the wilderness taking positions on various issues online. He set up “Pilipino. org” which aims to “organize Filipinos for the purpose of creating greater national consciousness to achieve nationhood.” He arranged and led the “Kalayaan Atin Ito,” asserting the Philippines’ sovereign claims over the contested region in the South the Japan -Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). He worked in the shadows during came out days before the May 2016 elections, to defend candidate Duterte from the Trillanes allegations of hidden wealth.

I have not met Faeldon but I vis- ited Trillanes while he was in jail. Those were the years you could feel he was anti-establishment, intent on getting things done and questioning the status quo. Watching from afar, he now wields the puppetry baton. Trillanes has evolved. On issues, he may pursue reforms like a true blue propagandist, not concerned at all with the Senate as an institution, but getting the spin out and drilling it in, however vacuous it looks.

Section 21, Article VI of the Constitution, states, “The Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its respective committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation in accordance with its duly published rules of procedure. The rights of persons appearing in or affected by such inquiries shall be respected.” Honasan, has at one time, expressed the need for civility in the Senate hearings. “We can moderate the conduct of our hearings so we can take into consideration the reputation, the name, the future of the children and grandchildren who have nothing to do with this boorish behavior does not have a place in the Senate. “You can ask questions, exercise your right of cross-examination, but you have to be very circumspect in the words that you use in asking the question and the manner you ask the question.”

So, tell me, who between Trillanes and Faeldon has character? Who is the tragic hero? And, who is the tragic waste?