Tag: Bangkok

By Raul Pangalangan
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Bangkok is literally up in flames—and Filipinos must take note. It could’ve been us. It could still be us.

We have not witnessed such open recourse to violence in urban centers in our recent history. Neither Edsa I nor Edsa II entailed the firing of live ammunition against civilians, and indeed we celebrate both events precisely for their non-violence. If at all, the bloodiest was Edsa III on May 1, 2001, which cost the lives of several Erap followers who protested Erap’s arrest at an agitated rally in Mendiola.

The most recent armed confrontation we’ve seen in Manila was the November 2008 assault on the Manila Peninsula when Brig. Gen. Danny Lim and now Sen. Antonio Trillanes walked out of the courtroom, where they were being tried, onto the streets of Makati. That was shocking enough for us—the TV video of an armored personnel carrier ramming through the lobby of a five-star hotel and of snipers and troops positioning themselves along Ayala Avenue. Yet that would’ve been a minor skirmish compared to the “mini-civil war” that Bangkok witnessed the past weeks.