IN THE RUN-UP to the 22nd anniversary of the First People Power Revolution on Feb. 25, 1986, opponents of President Macapagal-Arroyo have drummed up the mystique of Edsa I to try to bring down her administration. The President tried to demystify it by redefining it as a neutral non-event so that the Edsa spirit can't be harnessed by the opposition for a call for mass action against the regime.

In preempting the Edsa spirit, the administration plans to celebrate the anniversary with a reunion of four presidents--Presidents Arroyo, Corazon Aquino, Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada--all creatures of the most turbulent two generations of the presidency from 1986 to 2008. The administration said the purpose of the celebration is to "relive the spirit of Edsa." Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said, "We are celebrating a very important national event, the restoration of democracy and everybody wants that. We have to celebrate because we must call the people's attention to the spirit of Edsa." The spirit of Edsa I, he said, "is the spirit of oneness, unity of purpose, it's the spontaneity of the people's movement known as people power."

In defining national unity as the theme of the 22nd anniversary, the administration seeks broad public support for the government, which is being rocked by the allegations of corruption in connection with the $329-milllion National Broadband Network contract, now canceled. There is mounting public pressure for the President to resign over the scandal.

Only a week ago, up to 10,000 people marched in Makati City to demand the resignation of President Arroyo, following the testimony of a key witness, Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., who said former Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos demanded a $130 million commission from the NBN contract with China's ZTE Corporation and coordinated with Jose Miguel Arroyo, the President's husband, on the broadband contract. Lozada also charged that he was kidnapped by four military men at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport upon his arrival from Hong Kong last Feb. 5, and taken on a trip for more than four hours against his will in an attempt to prevent him from testifying before the Senate.

The rally at Makati was the biggest anti-government protest since 2005 when demands for the President's resignation were sparked by the disclosure that she had asked Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in a phone conversation to ensure a one million vote margin in the 2004 presidential election.

In an effort to build up momentum to the Makati rally on the eve of the Edsa anniversary, around 60 former government officials last Feb. 17 called on Cabinet members to resign, declaring, "It's time to cut clean. It's time to go." This pressure came a few days after 10 former Arroyo Cabinet officials, who resigned en masse in 2005, over the so-called "Hello, Garci" tapes, urged incumbent Cabinet officials to withdraw support from the Arroyo administration. They asked Environment Secretary Lito Atienza and Commission on Higher Education Chair Romulo Neri to quit. Their call, as well as that of the 60 former government officials, was intended to shame the incumbent Cabinet members into quitting, initiating a mass breakaway.

Their calls went unheeded. The reason is probably not so much that the Cabinet members are steadfastly loyal to the President as that they did not observe a huge groundswell of public outrage that would give them an incentive to abandon the President. In 2005, the resignation of the 10 officials at Hyatt Hotel pushed the government to the edge. It was former President Ramos who helped save the government from collapse.

Last Sunday, former President Aquino, the beneficiary of Edsa I, used her prestige in leading a Mass and prayer rally organized by anti-Arroyo civil society groups at De La Salle Greehills to manifest support for the harassed witness, Lozada, and to call for the resignation of President Arroyo.

There are doubts whether these efforts would generate the momentum to mount a rally on the scale of 1986 during the 22nd anniversary of Edsa I. There are also questions whether the Senate inquiry on the NBN deal could generate sufficient public outrage that could send millions of people into the streets, such as Edsa I did.

In 1986, the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin sent more than a million people to the streets to protect the forces allied with Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Gen. Fidel Ramos from the troops that remained loyal to Ferdinand Marcos. In today's setting the Roman Catholic hierarchy is less unified than during the time of Cardinal Sin. The Church also does not have a leader as influential as Sin.

The strongest statement of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines called on the religious rank and file and the people to take "communal action" in the search for truth. It was hardly a call to arms for street activism by the faithful, led by priests and nuns who spearheaded the Church's involvement in mass action in 1986.

Although there are signs of increasing public outrage over the NBN scandal, a higher state of outrage is needed to send huge numbers of people to the streets. The military is watching the size of the crowd before it makes a move either to remain loyal to the commander in chief or withdraw support, like it did in 2001, when the general staff dumped Estrada.