Edsa and history

I would like to congratulate lawyer Rodolfo A. Parreño, who was unanimously elected president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Negros Occidental chapter. His vice-president is lawyer Gina Mirano Jesena, daughter of outgoing president William Mirano.

If no one wanted to contest the presidency with Rudy, it's because many do not want to succeed Mirano whose administration had many outstanding projects. Now, the challenge is with Rudy.

Twelve of the 16 past IBP presidents were there. And I was told Rematche, William, and Andy (Hagad) got together and enjoyed the laughter.

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So many of our people are forgetting the memory of the Edsa Revolution, which had its high mark when President Marcos was plucked by a U.S. helicopter in Malacañang and flown to Hawaii.

The big complainer was former President Fidel Ramos. But, he should have not. For Edsa has been a great failure. Cory, FVR, Erap, and GMA should be the ones to answer why Edsa failed.

Life before Edsa was much much better than life after Edsa. The percentage of hungry people has increased by leaps and bounds saved only by millions of us slaving it out in other countries to save the country from economically collapsing.

Restored democracy? Only a handful of activists and journalists were killed before Edsa. Compare this with the many hundreds killed after Edsa.

Graft and corruption? There was only one thief before Edsa. There are hundreds of thousands now, including barangay leaders who are paid payrolls to steal people's money. This happens in all barangays.

What have we to be proud about Edsa? It's a big shame.

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We pride ourselves in having the first people power. No! The first people power was on July 14, 1789 on the Storming of the Bastille in Paris that launched the French Revolution.

France, after this, was rocked by terrible conflicts from the National Assembly, then the Constituent Assembly, then the Convention, and then the Directory that ended in 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte took over.

It was just ten years. We are now 21 years but the country keeps on sinking. Those 10 years in France was also troubled by extravagance then rampant corruption, and inflation. But a new hero who came home winning battles in the foreign wars took over.

We need our own Napoleon. Who can he be?

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Contrary to what have been written Bastille did not have the prisoners people expected it to have and the people killed were not the revolutionary martyrs. But victims of poor crowd control as a result of a hunt for some missing barrels of gunpowder.

That July 14 the mob killed Paris Governor Bernard Rene de Launay, his head cut off, stuck to a pole and paraded around.

The beauty of the French Revolution is that it corrected governance by abolishing absolutism, abolishing privilege for the few but poverty for the many and abolishing unjust and heavy taxation. Absolutism was the unlimited power of the king.

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Powerful writers of the era provided the strongest influence to the Revolution. Voltaire attacked the absolute powers of the French kings, Montesquieu advocated for a government patterned after the U.S. with the check and balance among the executive, legislative, and the judiciary.

Rosseau advocated people sovereignty based on the popular will of the people on his book, "The Social Contract."

The French Revolution was influenced by the English Revolution of 1688-89 and the American Revolution of 1776-83.

I am a history buff and the difference between Bastille and Edsa is the passion of its leaders. The French were passionate in their desire for a better government. The quarrel between the Girondists and the Jacobins led to the death of their leaders, Marat, Danton, and Robespiere. Our leaders' passion is money. Too corrupt.

On the killing of Danton, French author Georg Buchner wrote, "A Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children."

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And there was another beautiful thing that happened. The Austrian and Prussian kings, believing the French people did not like their government, invaded France.

The French people, though they disliked their king and other leaders, loved France and resisted. Government called on the people to resist and they did. They drove the foreign invaders away.

French statesman and poet Rouget de Lisle composed a stirring song the "Marseillaise" and it became the French national anthem. It became a rallying song that instilled patriotism in the French.

Then Napoleon led the French Army driving and defeating those invaders, coming home a hero, when he passed through the Arch of Triumphe which was just put up hastily, he was named the leader.

Napoleon made France great.

As I wrote earlier, can we not look for a Napoleon as our savior?*

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