Trillanes has successfully diverted attention from the heart of our political problem – it is the geopolitical rivalry between US and China for hegemony in our region.

The Philippines, because of its strategic location is at the center of it. Filipinos should come forward and change the subject of the dialogue. It is not and should not be Trillanes. Too many have fallen for the trap.

But the President himself has said it – there is a plot to assassinate him and it will be made on Sept. 21, the anniversary of the declaration of martial law by Marcos.

This was corroborated with the news that PRRD’s National Security Hermenigildo Esperon went to Langley, Virginia, the headquarters of the CIA, to talk to the American officials before joining the President on his visit to Israel.

What to make of it? Trillanes came into the picture when he sought shelter in the Senate while attacking Duterte to blame him for the falling peso, the rice shortage and the high inflation. The Senate became his stage with the mainstream media covering his attacks on Duterte.

Duterte has a large following, 16,601,997 votes in the last election. But with Trillanes and the Senate protecting him an overthrow or an assassination cannot be discounted. A great number of Filipinos are politically illiterate and will not make the connection.

The assassination plot, Trillanes and his tirades could sway Filipinos away from nation building that we began to take seriously when Duterte won the 2016 elections.

It is time to revisit Stephen Kinzer’s book “Overthrow,” on America’s history of regime change. One of the chapters of that book was titled “Catastrophic Success.”

President Bush was practicing a speech on the invasion of Iraq in the Treaty Room. He told those around him why he decided to invade – “The purpose of the invasion is to “disarm Iraq, free its people and defend the world from grave danger.” That sounds noble enough if it were true.

But political writers described it as “the speech that ripped the United States away from a long tradition of cooperative diplomacy turning it into an arrogant power that assumed the right to determine which foreign governments could live and which one must die.”

It is relevant to us in these times and the Trillanes caper.

As for the assassination plot on Duterte he got the ire of some American policy makers in Langley because he declared in China that the Philippines would hereon chart an independent foreign policy. This was, of course, unforgivable because in that one statement, he strengthened China in the contest for hegemony in the region.

There is a painting on the wall of the room where Bush was practicing his speech. The painting is about “The Signing of the Protocol of Peace Between the United States and Spain on Aug. 12, 1898 by the French artist Theobald Chartran.

“That painting illustrates how “regime change” by arms or cunning became a habit with America. “The Protocol of Peace” is a misnomer. It is not about equal states agreeing with each other to achieve peace,“ writes Kinzer.

It should be called a “Protocol of Surrender” because it is about how the US forced Spain to surrender after its military defeat in Cuba.

It was the beginning of “catastrophic success” for America on what its role should be as a superpower. Having taken over the Philippines successfully in the 19th century was a precursor of other regime changes that would take place for a century.

More important it was a declaration that the United States was now able and willing to depose foreign governments, adds Kinzer. It is the attitude and the policy that would make the Philippines an American colony. The invasion of Iraq and the US taking over the Philippines come from the same roots – it assumed it now had the power to dictate the fate of weaker countries.

It is doubly hard for the Philippines because it did win the revolution against Spain which gave it the right to their own country. They fought for their own freedom and independence but that victory was snatched from them by deception.

Kinzer, Bush and McKinley were motivated by the same reasons – patriotism and religious fervor when American corporations were looking abroad for new markets and sources of raw materials.

Not all Americans agreed with these attitudes and policies. But in the political struggle of what should be adopted, the imperialist side won. Political candidates won elections simply by promising that it would use military strength with “extreme care.”

The candidates hid their imperialist intentions by saying it would not be seeking advantage for itself but for humanity’s sake. It is important that we recall this past or we will be led astray by those who want to continue the history and policy symbolized by the portrait of McKinley on the wall and Bush making his speech trying to justify its invasion of Iraq. They may succeed but it is an empty success and we now know in hindsight that it is an evil lie.

That is the animating principle of the attempt to overthrow President Digong as well. And Trillanes is a useful tool. It is not about “human rights” that is being protected but once again a show of force and cunning of how a powerful country treats weak countries. Bush and McKinley used words that would deceive those who know nothing of the governments they overthrow and why it would not make the world more free and peaceful. McKinley, the man in painting in “the Treaty Room knew next to nothing about the Philippines. Bush, on the other hand recklessly justified the invasion of Iraq by saying “I rely on my instincts.”

The parallels between Bush’s invasion of Iraq and McKinley’s invasion of the Philippines as Kinzer rightly said are startling.

More disturbing is the reason why we will never be able to change our Constitution. I used to think that it is our politicians’ fault. Indeed it is one of their oldest traditions and it is hidden behind false humanity and religion.

It stayed with us until the disastrous presidency of Benigno Aquino III. Yet, some Filipinos want more of the same by overthrowing Duterte and making sure that we are not free from the clutches of imperialism.

Regime change should be foremost in our minds because President Digong dared to break away from American imperialism. He is undertaking the revenge for all Filipinos when Americans stole our revolution in the 19th century.