Twenty-seven years after the Edsa People Power Revolution toppled the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, the government of the restored Philippine democracy is in the hands of the son of the late President Cory Aquino, whose family is descended from the country’s wealthiest political dynasty.
Filipinos mark today the 26th anniversary of toppling a dictator without bloodshed. That flower-in-the-gun-barrel model is refracted in Gandhi’s march to protest the Salt Tax in 1930, Czechoslovakia’s “Velvet Revolution” of 1988 and Tunisia’s “Jasmine Revolt” last year.
Many Filipinos saw images of Libyans stomping on Moammar Gadhafi’s photo in Tripoli and at its embassy in Makati. That led some to retrieve People Power I clips that record Edsa crowds ripping from a Malacañang wall the Filipino dictator’s portrait. Then, there was Renato Chavez. Renato who? A daily-wage mason, Chavez was among the [...]
THIS IS a point-by-point reply to Amando Doronila’s column titled “Marcos burial resolution tears to shreds Edsa mandate.” (Inquirer, 4/11/11) 1. There was no Edsa mandate. A key player of the Edsa revolt objectively computed the number of the Edsa participants to be more or less 600,000 only. Many went to Edsa for food and [...]
UNLESS A decisive national govrnment intervenes, Crame Crame, headquarters of the 135,000-strong Philippine National Police, faces possible demolition by backhoe—that demonic machine that buried under mounds of earth more than 50 innocent, unarmed civilians slaughtered in Maguindanao by gunmen of the Ampatuan clan’s private army. Last April 25, the National Historical Commission unveiled a marker [...]
THE FIRST EDSA has often been called the “Unfinished Revolution” because while it achieved its immediate objectives, which were to oust the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and restore democracy, it has not achieved its long-term aims, which were principally to bring about good governance and stamp out corruption.
FIDEL RAMOS had some very interesting comments last week. Reflecting on the EDSA uprising and the various uprisings that were taking place in Libya, Bahrain, Algeria and Yemen, he said: “Why is their people power bloody? Why is it protracted? What did we have in 1986 that they don’t have?
