What a way to mark EDSA I

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor ERIC T. LORETIZO Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

As the nation was preparing yesterday for the 20th anniversary of the People Power-EDSA Revolution of 1986 that will be marked today, we were jolted by flash reports of protest rallies yesterday morning at the EDSA Shrine. What initially started as pocket demonstrations slowly progressed into crowds of thousands coming from vital points in Metro Manila, and converging at the EDSA Shrine. The situation must have been really serious enough for President Arroyo to declare P. D. 1017, or a state of emergency, all over the country.

For our fellow Filipinos who had some activities to accomplish yesterday, the development in Metro Manila came as a surprise, something like a bolt of lightning striking at a most unexpected time. If this was, indeed, the coup rumors and destabilization plots some sectors had been circulating over the past weeks, then the information must already be materializing.

As of press time, some personalities, like political science professor and known street parliamentarian Randy David, had been arrested for leading in rallies that allegedly did not have permits. Former President Cory Aquino did not mince words in reiterating her call exhorting President Arroyo "to make the supreme sacrifice by resigning from her position."

In the middle of all the furor are the talks of Charter change which, incidentally, took place at about the same time 20 years ago when we shelved our 1973 Constitution to give way to a presidential form of government with the signing of the new one in February 1987. Are we now shifting back to what we had taken great efforts to dismantle 20 years ago? Have we become so fickle in our convictions as a people?

We had an EDSA I in 1986 and an EDSA II in 2001. Is an EDSA III in the offing, were the events of yesterday forerunners of one? Whatever the outcome of all these rallies will be, let it now go down in history, not as anyone's EDSA, not Cory's EDSA nor Gloria's EDSA, but the manifestation of People Power, as it originally was.*