Friends becoming enemies happens all the time

 

By Al S. Mendoza

HISTORY is replete with stories about friends snitching against each other.

Your friend today is your worst enemy tomorrow.

And, in the end, your partner in crime will squeal and give you away to authorities.

In most times, it happens for a fee—a la Judas Iscariot.

A bit of a Binay flashback.

No, it isn’t true that Sen. Trillanes caused the downfall of Jojo Binay.

Trillanes merely played a cameo role, in tandem with then Sen. Cayetano, in the crushing of Binay’s bid for the presidency in May 2016.

Ask the man in the street today why Binay lost last year and he will readily say the corruption allegations Trillanes and Cayetano hurled at Binay was the key.

But before them, there was Ernesto Mercado, who fired the first salvo of alleged corrupt practices against Binay when Binay was Makati mayor.

Like Cayetano and Trillanes, Mercado became extremely credible simply for one reason:  He was Binay’s closest ally—best friend if you will—for the longest time.

But why did Mercado leave Binay, in the process becoming Binay’s worst enemy?

Binay had committed an elementary sin: Dump Mercado in favor of his son, JunJun, to run for Makati mayor.

Spurned and terribly hurt by Binay’s reneging on a promise, Mercado fought back with all guns ablaze.

Mercado spilled the beans on Binay in his delicately detailed tale of Binay’s alleged corruption in the Senate hearings, in the process demolishing whatever gains Binay had built up in his long quest for Malacanang.

With Mercado’s extremely believable blasts against Binay, the documents-backed testimonies of Cayetano and Trillanes would become mere gravy.

The rest, as we love to say, is history.

And now Trillanes.

He used to be best friends with former Customs chief Nick Faeldon, hatching that failed Oakwood mutiny in 2003.

They shared prison cells and remained undaunted as they pursued their vision of a better Philippines even behind bars.

Then fate intervened for both products of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).

When freed from detention, Faeldon became a Digong believer and Trillanes chose what many now call the role of “an attack dog” unleashed by the opposition led by the “Yellow Army” aka Liberal Party.

Accused by Digong of having accumulated hidden wealth, Trillanes countered by saying one of three persons who “spread the fake news” on his bank accounts was his fellow PMAer.

So, did Trillanes’ own mistah snitch on him?

Almost a hundred years ago, Jesse James, the infamous American outlaw, was shot dead from behind—by his own best friend and right-hand man.

Indeed, history keeps repeating itself.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments