Who stole the
shine from EDSA?

What a horrible way of marking the 20th anniversary of the day in our history when our country gave the entire world the shining example of how to end a dictatorial regime without bloodshed, and doing it by sheer courage, prayers and singlemindedness of a people united. How Filipinos, both in the country and abroad leaped in sheer joy after succeeding in driving away the leadership that had strangled them for more than 20 years.

***

How proud we were then, how triumphant, how euphoric! The three days of heart-stopping suspense, when there appeared to be stonewalling both on the side of the dictator and on that of the masses that had flocked to fill up the most vital portions of the Epifanio de los Santos Highway, better known as EDSA, had ended. The crowds had rushed there initially to protect the two men whose defection from the administration of Ferdinand Marcos was the proverbial straw that broke the back of the suffering citizenry, and gave them hope of attaining the freedom they used to know.

***

How ironic it is that, yesterday, on the eve of the very day that we were supposed to commemorate and celebrate the 20th anniversary of that glorious moment, we found ourselves again confronting what could be a return to the very shackles and repressive measures that EDSA I had liberated us from. All of a sudden everybody was talking about the declaration of the President that the country was already in a state of emergency! And this declaration was contained in her Proclamation No. 1017.

Was it not a Proclamation No. 1087 that Marcos had issued to strangle us all with Martial Law?

***

As of late last night, it seemed as if government had been involved in an overkill in the way it dealt with the alleged "coup attempt" it was anticipating. If one were of the imaginative type, one would even say that the alleged "coup" was a scenario that bright people in the administration had cooked up themselves. Those of us who had gone through the first EDSA Affair can see so many similarities between the antecedent events to those that happened then, and before yesterday. Remember those fake ambushes, those alleged mysterious vessels that were announced, but later proven to have been concocted by Marcos people themselves to justify the declaration of Martial Law? That did not seem too different from the recent "discovery" of documents or lists naming alleged coup plotters in the military. Shall we see a repeat of our history, of an event that took place 40 years ago? Heaven forbid!

***

Oh there was the expected cackle from all the legal minds yesterday about the legality or illegality of the declaration made by the President yesterday. For me, personally, it was a very surprising move, because, for the past few months, all we have been hearing were pledges and avowals of loyalty from both civil and military leaders, and, from the President herself, confident declarations about her full control over them. Did something go very wrong between Thursday morning and yesterday?

***

But it was very interesting and enlightening to listen to the opinions and analysis elicited by some of the country's most popular talk show hosts from our top legal minds, both the more mature and the younger ones. Oh, they would sometimes sound confusing with their references to Constitutional provisions and all, but one of the most articulate and easily understandable to non-lawyers was the head of the Commission on Human Rights, Purification Quisumbing. Without manifesting any bias, even while discussing an act of her boss, she pointed out that the so-called state of emergency is not defined in our constitution but in the International Covenant on Property and Civil Rights, of which RP was a ratifying state.

***

There will be more and more interpretations and analyses coming, but, in the meantime, the statement from the United States government should be of great interest to all. No, nobody talked about cutting clean, but it only called on the government of the Philippines and the Filipino people "to fully uphold the rule of law, protect civil liberties and human rights…" and on the Americans living here, "to take prudent steps to ensure their personal safety during this uncertain time". What? No reassuring personal notes from George himself?*

back to top