P-Noy: Abuse of power continues

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty-eight years after the EDSA revolution, abuse of power remains a stumbling block to the reforms needed for the country to achieve true democracy, President Aquino said yesterday.

The President said Filipinos should be proud of the turning point in history when power was regained from a dictatorship.

“But the specter of that era still remains in those who are brazen enough to think themselves above justice, and those who value their own self-interest above the needs of our country,” Aquino said in his message during the EDSA anniversary celebration in Cebu yesterday.

The President was in Cebu for the traditional “Salubungan” or reenactment of the merging of various forces, including the military and civilians, which led to the downfall of the Marcos regime in 1986.

Aquino urged the public to continue defending integrity, truth and values, which his parents – the late Cory and Ninoy – believed were inherent in every Filipino.

“Twenty-eight years ago, our battle against tyranny and oppression reached a tipping point. Our people showed the world that we could emancipate ourselves as a united force without the need for bloodshed. The People Power Revolution has become a cornerstone of our identity. Because of it, we have become a more compassionately assertive and consensus-driven society.”

Aquino yesterday also reminded key players in the EDSA People Power uprising and the public that it was the whole nation, not just Metro Manila, that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.

“It was not only at EDSA where the uprising took place. There were also (uprisings) in other places like in Cebu and Davao. I think it’s time to recognize the contribution of these places.”

Aquino, who was only 26 years old during the first EDSA revolt, said it’s time to correct the mistakes in history, as he acknowledged there are officials more senior than him who should be reminded of what EDSA really was.

“I’d like you to recall there were those who said the uprising against Marcos occurred only in Metro Manila,” he said as he justified the reason for celebrating the EDSA anniversary in the Visayas and Mindanao.

“I want to highlight that it was not only in Metro Manila or NCR. There were similar uprisings in other places, that it was the whole nation that revolted against the dictatorship in 1986.”

He said most of the key players in the EDSA uprising who were more senior than him were invited to the celebration. “I saw former President Fidel Ramos participating in one of the activities. He showed his traditional ‘jump’.”

Sources claimed this year’s celebration was not held in EDSA as the government did not want to invite Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, a key player in the bloodless revolution, who is among three senators the government has charged with plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the multibillion-peso pork barrel fund scam.

Aquino also visited yesterday Cebu’s Bantayan Island, one of the areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon Yolanda and the 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

He inspected at least 100 motorized and non-motorized bancas donated to fishermen whose boats were destroyed in the typhoon.

The boats came from non-government organizations including Gawad Kalinga and the Yellow Boat of Hope Foundation Inc., among others.

The President also led the turnover of checks amounting to more than P5 million under the cash-for-work program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development to 2,200 beneficiaries.

In Tanauan, Leyte, Aquino visited the Tanauan I Central School, which was rehabilitated by the Korean Joint Support Group and the Philippine Army’s 53rd engineering brigade.

He led the groundbreaking for a memorial honoring the victims of Yolanda, and for the rehabilitation of the town’s public plaza.

Permanent relocation sites had been planned for 1,500 houses with multiple sites planned to ensure closeness to livelihood locations.

The first site in Pago Village will accommodate 360 houses and community facilities. By March 8, some 50 families would be moved here.

Two sites in Maribi and Sacme villages will accommodate 460 and 300 houses respectively, while a fourth site is being finalized.

The Tanauan I Central School had been rehabilitated as of Feb. 12 while work on other schools will go on until November this year.

On Monday Aquino visited Cateel in Davao Oriental, which was devastated by Typhoon Pablo in 2012, and Loon in Bohol struck by a powerful earthquake last October.

Don’t lose hope, Pinoys urged

For his part, Vice President Jejomar Binay said this year’s EDSA anniversary celebration was not given much support and attention compared with previous years.

He refused to speculate why the EDSA anniversary was held in the provinces, particularly in Cebu. He merely laughed when asked if he was invited to the Cebu festivity.

Binay urged Filipinos not to lose hope and continue to fight even as reports of graft and corruption persist 28 years after the 1986 EDSA People Power revolt.

“Let us not change our views. What is important is that we will always remember, seeking, searching and hoping for what we had fought for in EDSA,” Binay said during a wreath-laying ceremony at the People Power monument in Quezon City yesterday.

He stressed the importance of commemorating the event, noting that it allows the younger generation to learn about the sacrifices of those who participated in the peaceful uprising against Marcos.

He said the celebration shows Filipinos know how to value debt of gratitude.

Binay said because of EDSA, Filipinos earned the respect of the world. “It is only there that they saw EDSA changing lives through peaceful means,” he said as he urged Filipinos to make sure the spirit of EDSA would never be forgotten.

Workers disgusted

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) warned of another people power revolt as workers expressed disgust over the alleged failure of post-EDSA leaders to bring change and make life better for Filipinos.

“Workers will never give up the union spirit of collective action. With the whole system serving the interest of the few, we have no choice but to keep the people power option our ultimate recourse to effect true change,” said PM chairman Renato Magtubo.

The 1986 People Power revolt, according to Magtubo, gave the country a chance to move forward and provide Filipinos with better lives. Yet, he said the chance was allegedly wasted and bungled by the post-EDSA leaders.

Magtubo said every Filipino who participated in the People Power revolt must be recognized for making EDSA 1 and 2 possible.

He said post-EDSA leaders, however, failed to make life better for the masses.

“Behind EDSA’s democratic façade were indisputable facts about its failed outcomes,” he said.

Magtubo said former President Cory Aquino and her son, President Aquino, were unable to move the country away from influence of business groups. He said Cory left the presidency with a power crisis while her son might finish his term in 2016 with the same problem on high power rates and thinning power supply. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Reinir Padua, Mayen Jaymalin