After much ado about nothing, the dust settles at the Marine Chapel at Fort Bonifacio. It was a confusing jumble of events, with no clear cause and fuzzy resolution that leaves more questions than answers.

ABS-CBN News and INQ7.net covered the event from start to finish, and MLQ3 posted what he had observed a few hours after the incident. Philippine Commentary has a long and interesting comment thread regarding the same incident.

I hate to say this, but there will be more arrests today, as a logical consequence of what had happened last night. For not doing so would make the government inconsistent. It has no other option but to stay the course, and hope that the Supreme Court upholds its tenuous position. For giving in means it is capitulating, and exposes a weak spot in the otherwise efficient machine. It is in a damned-if-you-do situation, which I must say caused by its own doing.

Also, I think that the government and the media are both testing the waters on what they can and cannot do in the context of the Proclamation 1017 – the media always checking if how far can it present stories, and the government checking if how much restriction can it impose on the media. The incident last night was a good test; this time, consistent with what Michael Defensor had said again and again, he sought for media restraint in the coverage of the Fort Bonifacio standoff. He was saying that, if possible, the media should not cover the said event. Then, the National Telecommunications Commission called on broadcasters to cover the Standoff fairly.

Is the government trying to do what it wants in an incremental approach? Instead of doing everything immediately, it is taking its sweet time, executing plans one part at a time. The TV stations should be wary that soldiers are deployed to guard them. Just like how the PNP guards The Daily Tribune.

Some commenters are already commenting that critics of the proclamation are crying over nothing, that observations on the proclamation curtailing free press are exaggerations and paranoid. That may be a valid observation, but it is too early to be certain, especially if my observation that the government is doing things in increments is true.

In the next few days, we will see both sides pushing the limits, and one of them will blink. Democracy has been reduced to a game of brinksmanship.