After EDSA: We are still wanting for reforms!

In a week from now the Philippines will be commemorating the 25th anniversary of the People Power Revolt a.k.a. the EDSA Revolt. Now is a good time to find out whether 25 years after the removal of the Marcos Dictatorship the Philippines has moved forward to realize the “Impossible Dream of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., which by now should have ushered in prosperity for our nation and people. Frankly speaking, we don’t have to search high or low, far and wide to realize that despite the huge change from dictatorship to our current democratic albeit centralized form of government, nothing much has changed for us.

Open any national news daily or any TV network channels and you will see ugly reports of killings, rape, kidnappings, Senate hearings (that doesn’t lead to imprisonment of those charged), our problems with Muslim separatists and the still raging internal conflict waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) through its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA). That promise of change in effect only changed the top leadership of this nation, but the system that could have launched this country to new heights was never put in place. Yes, I’m referring to our shift to a federal system of government away from this centralized form of government.

Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III took the reins of government with tons of hope and reforms that the Filipino nation had long hoped he would pursue. But then those reforms are nothing but a mere politician’s promise designed to fail due to PNoy’s intransigent attitude towards Charter change. Perhaps P-Noy failed to read a quote by the late President John F. Kennedy who quipped “Change is the law of life. And those who look only at the past or present are certain to miss the future.” Are we going to miss another six years of our lives because P-Noy is happy with his Porsche and comfort zone?

We all saw on satellite TV networks, CNN, BBC or Al Jazeera the tumultuous victory of the Egyptian people when President Hosni Mubarak left the Presidential Palace in Cairo and flew to the Red Sea Resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. Then came that historic albeit live announcement on Nile TV of Vice-President Omar Suleiman who announced that President Mubarak had resigned and handed over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. So what began as a peaceful protest on Jan. 25th ended in the removal of the 30-year reign of President Hosni Mubarak. People Power has prevailed!

The big question in everyone’s mind is where is Egypt headed for? For sure, in the past 50 years, Egypt only saw three Presidents, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. But when asked about their future, Egyptians didn’t seem to care as they trust the military to take care of them as they no longer trusted President Mubarak.

I recall that when the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) was looking for a candidate to fight against then President Ferdinand Marcos, we said that between him and a monkey, we’d rather choose the monkey. But we were lucky that we had a housewife named Cory . . . who was a million times better than a monkey! But then the problem with Tita Cory was she listened only to her close advisers who were harboring a Martial Law hangover. Hence she asked some 49 men and women to craft a hastily crafted Constitution and in the end, we’re no better than before.

No doubt, the euphoria of the People Power Revolt in Egypt would wane soon enough and reality would set in and the Egyptian people would have to make hard decisions as to what direction they ought to go. Perhaps they should sent a team of advisers here to study what went wrong in the Philippines, why after two EDSA revolts the Philippines continues to stagnate? Meanwhile, we ourselves aught to ask “What’s really wrong with us? Why can’t we move forward to greater heights?”

Again I point to the wrong system of governance . . . where too much inequity is the norm, where injustice prevails to the greater benefit of the criminals or the corrupt. What we need is change that we can touch and see, a change that we should have done yesterday. If we don’t do it now, even Egypt would soon overtake us. So make this your wake up call!

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I dug up a Jan. 22, 2006 article from The Philippine STAR whereby two lawmakers, Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City and Rep. Exequiel Javier of Antique found a link between former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Lt. JG. Antonio Trillanes when they discovered that the Oakwood mutineers used the Mandaluyong townhouse of Erap beau Laarni Enriquez as the staging point for their ill-fated coup d’ etat. Reps. Cuenco and Javier believed that Erap was behind the ill-fated Oakwood Mutiny. But since Trillanes got his amnesty, he and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada are back on their revenge mode targeting the late AFP Chief Angelo “Angie” Reyes. Who’s their next target?

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]or vsbobita@ gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through http://www.philstar.com.