Washington ‘insurrection’ no EDSA ‘86

WHAT the pro-Trump protesters did last week in the Washington D.C. Capitol, to the shock of the world — but was Beijing singing joy to the world? — was clearly seditious. “Sedition” I did not find being widely used though. (Same feeling I have on “pestilence; I think what is going on with Covid-19 is one, but the term identifies with the dreaded Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; I have not read it used by anyone but me, either. Just what makes a pestilence anyway?)

Now we see, linked to the D.C. tragedy, terms like insurrection, sedition, direct assault, coups, resistance, attack and disobedience and even tumultuous affray (which could occur in a bar, an encounter of frats, attempted seduction, etc. without political content). A certain amount of such content is required under Article 134 of our Revised Penal Code, on “rising publicly and taking up arms.” Labo-labo means tumult, with nothing political. Article 135 (1) of our RPC outlaws attempts to overthrow the duly constituted government or to maintain an overstaying one.