STOP THE HERO-WORSHIP PLEASE!

Finally, someone brought us back to our senses. DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman said it best from this news article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Lt. SG Antonio TRillianes and the rest of the Magdalo group were never heroes and they never will because of what they did last Sunday. I am on the process of writing an article entitled "The Hero He Never Was", for the meantime, here's the news article:

Social welfare chief: Rebels
anarchists, not idealists
Posted: 0:56 AM (Manila Time) | Aug. 01, 2003
By Volt Contreras
Inquirer News Service

SOCIAL Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman is bitter at the mutinous Magdalo group.

"Even the vendors of isaw (barbecued innards) whom we provided with seed capital can now lose their market," she said Thursday, and warned the public from regarding the mutineers as "idealists" or "heroes."


Soliman, who is directly tasked with helping the poorest of the poor, said she felt "not just frustration but [also] anger" over the economic consequences of Sunday's failed uprising.

"I'm passionate about this because whatever hope we [in the Department of Social Welfare and Department] have generated by helping a significant number of people in a concrete manner is now backsliding," she said in a phone interview wherein she made a rare display of resentment.

She said that the mutiny leaders had a "political agenda" and that she was worried they would be "hero-worshipped."

"I'm not saying there is no graft and corruption in the government for indeed there is [graft] even in the private sector. I'm concerned about the model it presents to the young people-a romantic notion of how problems can be solved at the barrel of the gun and by threatening lives," she said, adding:

"Excuse me, but you just pushed us back two to three steps behind."

Soliman also said the mutiny leaders were "not honest enough" to tell their recruits about their motives and financiers.

She said the mutiny had political backing, supposedly primarily indicated by the rebels' very demands, foremost of which was the resignation of President Macapagal-Arroyo.

"When you ask for the President's resignation, you cannot not know who's going to be the replacement," she said. "Otherwise you're just an anarchist."

She said the mutineers' allegations, like the sale of ammunition to Moro separatists, "only serve the interest of political players if they are unsubstantiated."

She wondered aloud how the mutineers managed to get satellite phones, velcro pads on their armbands, and flags made of relatively expensive material when they were griping about the military's insufficient funds.

"I think part of their agenda was to erode the economy and government authority even if they don't succeed in grabbing power," she said.

Soliman said she was particularly concerned about the people the DSWD had tried to help become self-employed under its "micro-financing" program.

She said the DSWD had released some 143 million pesos as seed capital for close to 30,000 families nationwide so they could put up small businesses like sari-sari stores.

"What [the mutineers] did was hurt the poor ... and in fact lends more to corruption because more people will now be pushed deeper into poverty," she said.