Did EDSA fail?

“A country can become a colony of its own people,” warned Senator Claro M. Recto in his time. That was what became of the Philippines during Martial Law. It is 24 years since Martial Law. Next year will be our 25th anniversary and, much like past celebrations, we fear that this year and next will be non-starters. The main thing about any celebration is how to commemorate the event itself. We have never really come up with a proper celebration for EDSA I.

The EDSA I Revolution was one of the greatest moments in our entire history. There was a remarkable absence of looting, property destruction and violence during the affair. It was the first time in history that a dictatorship was peaceably brought down. We remember the sense that foreigners and old ladies felt perfectly safe in the crowd. If anything, everyone was helpful. Food and drinks were shared freely. In the Philippines the fiesta is the highest form of community expression. The EDSA I Revolution, on a street named the Epiphany of the Saints, we, as a country, held a spontaneous rally and spontaneously brought the images of the patrons saints of their communities. It was a fiesta, such that it brought down a dictatorship.

On February 24, 1998 we wrote: “The People’s Power Revolution was, in our estimate, the greatest political event of this century. It was when the culmination of the people’s realization that they had become a colony of one of their own countrymen reached its peak. One would imagine that it would by now be the most popular national celebration since the great number of people who participated in that peaceful revolution are still very much alive…But the original participants shy away…Why?” And by participants we did not refer to the senators, presidents or high officials who “led” EDSA I. We refer to the real participants and leaders of EDSA I: The Filipino People.

On September 23, 1995 we wrote: “People’s Power liberated the nation. But we seem to have just made a full circle. Today, we are ruled by the very same people who gave the orders during martial law. No behest borrower has been jailed or made to assume his legal obligations. On the contrary, their private debts have been passed on to you, me and our children.”

And on October 17, 1996: “Senator Neptali Gonzales recently declared, ‘This is no longer the same party I helped found.’ Helped found when? In 1978 or 1986? The original Laban had no room for some of its stalwarts like former Senator Francisco ‘Soc’ Rodrigo. They preferred former Marcos men. In short, they no longer represented strength or a fight. They had become what they had denounced. They were interested in only two things: power and staying in power. They had not only betrayed Lakas ng Bayan, but also the EDSA Revolution. And so now we cannot tell one party from the other, or one politician from the other, even with a program.” We ended this column the same as we would end one today: What the country needs is a new crop of leaders.

Saddest of all, as we wrote in February 24, 1998: “The people who participated in that glorious event now realize that the dictatorship was not just a dictatorship of one man. For they are still under the same oligarchs. We don’t have a democracy. What we have is an oligarchy. We don’t have a government of, by and for the people. What we have is a government of oligarchs, by oligarchs and for oligarchs. This — and not just a conjugal dictatorship — was what People’s Power was supposed to change.”

We do need a crop of new leaders; but we also need leaders who remember who they work for: you, me, our children and each generation that comes after. We should never again be a colony of our own countrymen.

H