The so-called Power People or EDSA Revolution marked its 37th year yesterday. The four-day military uprising was headed by then Secretary of National Defense Juan Ponce Enrile and former renegade Colonel Gregorio Honasan, together with most of the latter’s mistahs in Class ‘71 of the Philippine Military Academy and supported by hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who trooped to Camp Crame.
It was at Crame where the rebels holed up and announced their withdrawal of loyalty to the Marcos government, responding to the call of the late very political Jaime Cardinal Sin. They eventually ended the 21-year rule of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, the father of the current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The celebration of the EDSA revolt was being held yearly for more than three decades, except only during the two-year Covid-19 pandemic. The crowd that attended the festivities in the past to mark the occasion waned as the cause for celebrating it appears to have lost its meaning.
The people perceived corruption, military and police abuses, plunder of the nation’s wealth by the heartless oligarch and the politicians under their payroll, the behest loans of the cronies of the late President, and the government’s neglect of the industrial workers’ welfare. The daily street demonstrations led to violent dispersals, angering the people some more and driving many of them to the embrace of the New People’s Army. The slow implementation of land reform also fanned the fires of discontent among the farmers, ditto with the bourgeoning unemployment and the increasing poverty rate.
Meanwhile, the intense anti-government propaganda of the radical left and the insufficient delivery of basic services, and many other peripheral perceived government’s failed responses to their needs — all of these contributed to inflaming the people’s hatred and galvanizing them to unite to overthrow a ruler. Except that the ruler had great visions for his countrymen which prompted him to establish socio-economic programs and infrastructures, thereby laying the foundation that could have built a robust economy.
The reforms, it must be said, could have helped the nation rise up from its third-class country category, except that the circumstances aforementioned conspired to frustrate bringing to fruition his magnificent dream for his country. His beloved son and namesake could always continue what his father had started.
The victors and those who shared their political aspirations were convinced that the political upheaval in February 1986 would bring about a change in the political and social landscape. So the great masses of our people were misled into believing the beautiful rhetorics dished out by the new powers that be. Quite the contrary, the aftermath of the change of political power saw the unprecedented pillage of the country’s wealth by the cronies of the new governors and corrupt officials who were appointed to sequester the alleged ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses.
Until now, the Presidential Commission on Good Government and its officials have not accounted for the billions they have confiscated. The Supreme Court has been dismissing graft cases filed by the PCGG against the late strongman and his family. There emerged a new power elite that continued the same pattern of corrupt and incompetent governance that left our economy in shambles, making the poor either poorer or in an unaltered state of poverty contributing to the rise in criminality. Corruption in the bureaucracy became endemic. The communist rebels found new strength and expanded their forces. The terrorists brought despicable terror and fear to the people. The Muslim separatists launched violent attacks against the armed forces.
The vehicle for change that was the EDSA revolution became a useless, unproductive, and destructive mode for change. No change came about. If there was, it was from bad to worse. Thankfully, the Duterte presidency came in the nick of time to arrest further deterioration and aggravation of the social and political ills. But while Duterte’s achievements surpassed the record of his predecessors, he could only do so much, owing to constitutional restrictions as well as his own aberration to be perceived as desirous of staying in power beyond his term.
So this writer asks: What exactly are we celebrating every 25th of February?