“Absurdist entertainment,” says a scathing Asia Times Op-Ed piece of the Sunday mutiny — and of Filipino politics in general.

Time Asia Mag has an article, from the day of the mutiny, which, on its face, seems to be about Gloria and religion, but barely even brushes the topic after the first few paragraphs.

Now here’s something juicy: a firsthand account of negotiations with the mutineers by Philippine Star editor-in-chief Max Soliven, who was called in to be a negotiator himself. Love or hate the man, the account is very much worth reading. (And you know what I hate about Philstar’s website? No reliable archives. Read that link quick before it disappears, because the archived copy ain’t loading.) Interesting postscript near the bottom: Soliven thinks that the arrest of Erap aide Ramon Cardenas stinks of a setup. I’m inclined to agree. As everyone says, there’s more going on than meets the eye.

One thing that surprises me is how much play the mutiny story is getting in the mainstream international media. This is big stuff for Philippine and SE Asian news outlets, of course, but the auto-generated Google News has mostly had the story in its top spot since it broke, as have CNN.com and MSNBC. (Although I just checked the latter two, and the mutiny story has now been relegated to the inside international news pages.) Why the prominence of an international news story which wouldn’t normally be of interest to the average American pundit? Or would it?