Day after the escape, Mrs Arroyo’s spokesman described Faeldon’s escape as ‘well-planned and well-coordinated’ and surmised that the putschist was “now being coddled by some shadowy groups and personalities for their self-serving destabilising activities.”

The spokesman voiced sadness over “ how far political exploitation poisoned the mind of this young officer and led him astray" and later, optimism that Faeldon "would soon realise his mistake and put his idealism and courage in proper perspective and path." But perhaps Mrs Arroyo and her deputies grieved too much too soon. Last week, the news media reported that Faeldon has been spotted at the headquarters of the Armed Forces’ western command, egging soldiers to renounce allegiance to the government. Yesterday, Faeldon mounted his rebellion on the deep, boundless bosom of the worldwide web (http://www.pilipino.org.ph). With time on his hands and rebellion on his mind, Faeldon posted on his web site a story on the myriad, merry ways Filipinos could push their popular, cause celebre — oust Mrs Arroyo.

With all due apologies to Sun Tzu, Faeldon’s ‘Art of war’ manual is hilariously naughty, yet also harmless. That he managed to mount the manual at all, four weeks into the nationwide manhunt ordered against him, is nothing to scoff at.  According to Faeldon, Filipinos should try a variety of safe, zany acts of civil disobedience if they so wish to oust Mrs Arroyo out of shame, if not out of guilt. They could, he said, switch off radio and television channels airing stories about Mrs Arroyo. For greater effect, before tuning out, they could mutter the motto “I will not listen to lies” out loud, every time her face comes up on the boob tube. Too, they could fly the flag at half mast, as if in mourning, and when confronted by the police for desecrating the national colours, feign anger and say: “These are some of the acts of civil disobedience fugitive mutineer Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon wants the public to do to press for Arroyo's ouster.”

"If someone comes and points out it's flag at half-mast, express surprise, promptly take it down, call for an investigation, vow to bring the perpetrators to justice, and relax.” he said. Even better, he advised Filipinos to wear T-shirts and button pins displaying images of the flag at half-mast. As well, they could skip buying newspapers running Mrs Arroyo’s photos, “or yet another of her lies” or that of her deputies. In addition, the Marine captain invited web browsers to submit entries for his ‘Oust Arroyo’ slogan-making and T-shirt design contests.

Finally, to evade the snare of troops dispatched to hunt him down, Faeldon exhorted the public to swamp government hotlines with false reports that they have seen him meeting soldiers, politicians and citizens to purposely lead his predators astray. To be sure, Faeldon’s derring-do on the worldwide web does not sit well with all surfers. Curiously, a government web site features comments from chat participants split about 50-50 on whether the officer deserves praise or derision.

What cannot be denied, however, is that the marine captain has chosen a potent platform for mounting his rebellion. That platform has assured him a significant and receptive market of middle and upper class Filipinos mostly living and working the cities. While cost limits ownership of or access to personal computers to only 1.9 for every 100 Filipinos, access to the Internet is a much better six for every 100 persons.  Over two of every three Internet users in the country browse the Internet using prepaid cards and or from a bevy of small Internet cafes selling access on retail. Faeldon’s experiment with mounting a rebellion on the web is nothing new at all. Still, in doing so, he captures the platform and the audience that catapulted Mrs Arroyo to the presidency, and makes Filipinos, by nature people with funny bones, laugh and scorn the tragedy that her presidency is fast evolving into.