Bring back the moral stamina that propelled Edsa ’86

Today we mark the 35th anniversary of Edsa ’86. That was when the people, with awesome moral and physical stamina, with entire families massed at Edsa, faced tanks and ended 20 years of Marcosian misrule.

Edsa ’86 was not about Cory Power, Church Power, Military Power, Commie Power, US power, etc., but People Power.

It certainly was not RAM Power, but RAM Powerlessness, until the People realized that its failed coup try was genuine, and rescued RAM, to whom we should also be eternally grateful for those four glorious days when they were on the same page with the People.

The Commies sat that one out, after helping build up the momentum but defaulted sa huling paglalaban sa Edsa, erroneously thinking it was an FVR-Cory dog and pony show.

President Ronald Reagan was supportive till the end but realized and accepted that further resistance was futile, abandoned his cockamamie power-sharing scheme, and asked Sen. Paul

Laxalt to tell Macoy the time was up. Time to cut and cut cleanly.

But, there was enough credit for everyone—1986 and 1987 were proud times for us, admired by a shocked and awed world.

Early 1988, local elections returned, with all their faults. There are those who say that Edsa ’86 was too bloodless (only four deaths reported, fewer than the Jan. 6, 2021 fatalities in the Capitol siege in the US) for the cleansing process.

Heaven forbid. But, we do need our moral stamina back.

Where have all the flowers of Edsa ’86 gone? Long time passing? In 1986, the polls were fatally, unacceptably flawed. Edsa ’86 hero Juan Ponce Enrile confessed on national radio-TV that in Cagayan Valley alone he had cheated by 300,000 votes.

May we regain our EDSA ’86 moral stamina to check and block tanks that could have crushed bodies but proved no match to that kind of foreign intervention we do not mind: Divine, through the People.

RENE A.V. SAGUISAG
Makati City
ravslaw@gmail.com