“Absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, and the pomposities of it. — Samuel Butler

However, it could happen.

There will be surely coup attempts in the future. Whether they will be successful, that is something else.

To liberally paraphrase former President Fidel V. Ramos, a West Pointer and true believer of democracy, staging a coup is the easier part, it is managing a post-coup nation that is the more difficult phase as history has shown.

It was the brilliance of President Ferdinand Marcos, and the ingenuity of then Defense Minister Juan Ponce-Enrile that enabled the dynamic duo to stage a successful coup d’etat, using the communist bogey as the justification, which the Filipino people had initially supported and welcomed as a novel departure from the pre-martial law traditional politics which persists today, and getting worse.

First, needless to say, the virtuous beginnings of martial law, were short-lived as corruption and tyranny descended. The dictatorship itself had outlived its welcome when Juan Ponce-Enrile and PNP Chief Gen. Fidel V. Ramos staged a counter-coup in 1986. As history repeated itself, Lord Acton had written, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Be that as it may, “agents provocateurs” are at work painting a failure of elections scenario and Constitutional crisis that suggest the entry of authoritarianism and restriction of democratic freedom, supposedly temporary, until the mess is resolved.

Hence, the plausible emergence of a governing “junta” in the interregnum will not be popular or welcomed by the people who remain traumatized by the Marcos dictatorship, and the United States Government will not support any extra-Constitutional moves unless the outcome favors American national interest.

Second, moreover, no purely military coup attempt by disgruntled and disheartened young military officers will succeed if the exercise is not sanctioned, or funded, or supported by the political and economic oligarchy that rules the nation, and controls the levers of power and Congress, with the implicit approval of the United States.

On the other hand, the burgeoning population of which 70 percent consider themselves “poor” will support any upheaval that will give them relief form poverty as well as promises and assurances of hope and plenty from demagogues.

Thus, notwithstanding the current corruptive political system, vested interests would opt for the status quo rather than gamble on the unknown of which they may not have total control.

Third, being an archipelago of 7,100 islands, centralized management from imperial Manila, as the Spanish, American and Japanese colonizers had learned to their chagrin, is near impossible.

It truth be told, neither the doctrine of martial law nor the ideals of EDSA I had filtered down to the grassroots.

When all is said and done, the May general elections will take place regardless whether automation is partial or imperfect, and its conduct is deemed fraudulent when there are so many candidates, and the race is too tight for comfort.

Contrary to negative perception, any attempt at violating the Constitution by extra-judicial means will not succeed.

On the other hand, allegations of fraud and civil disturbances are to be expected which tend to entice military adventurism.

It cannot happen, but it could happen sooner than later if Constitutional reforms are ignored and delayed.

As Carl Sandburg, poet and novelist, would put it, “nothing happens unless first a dream.”

You be the judge.