Last year, Feb. 26, I wrote that 90 percent of those who were at Epifanio delos Santos Avenue the previous day, Feb. 25, 2016, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Edsa People Power were not at the original revolution. Not President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III, not Senator Bam Aquino who was barely 10 when the 1986 coup erupted, and indeed, not many of those who were at the commemoration. They were either too young or too far away from the scene of 30 years ago to have influenced it.
Last Saturday, Feb. 25, 2017, the same absentees from the original Edsa I were again celebrating a myth. Noynoy Aquino joined a handful of his dwindling Yellow supporters to mark the 31st anniversary of Edsa People Power I.
The Cojuangco-Aquino family of now former President BS Aquino III has appropriated Edsa People Power as if it were their brand, their franchise, their business. That’s a lot of BS.
Corazon Cojuangco Aquino was in Cebu hiding in a convent during the first and most dangerous night of People Power —Feb. 22, 1986. Her son was too engrossed with many other things to have participated, too. I was at People Power I as a foreign correspondent. I covered the four days of the revolt.
The Aquino family has been the biggest beneficiary of People Power I. They were awarded two presidencies totaling 12 and a half years, more than enough compensation for what opposition leader Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. did in his political lifetime, which was to heckle and needle President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr., during 17 of his 20-year presidency. Ninoy died from a military bullet in August 1983.
What did the people get for having two Aquino presidents?
Nothing. Except political divisiveness. Vindictiveness. A worsening insurgency, by the communist New People’s Army and by the separatist Muslim rebels.
Plus the worst poverty incidence in Southeast Asia, the highest unemployment, the highest inflation rate, the worst infrastructure among the major countries of Southeast Asia (the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand—the countries which founded Asean 50 years ago), the worst kind of cronyism (only two families own the telephone systems, the water system, and the electricity distribution system), the worst human development index metrics in Asean Five, and among the worst income inequality ratios in the world.
Among some 187 countries, the Philippines ranks 115th in Human Development Index (HDI), meaning the country is below average or poor in three basic dimensions of human development— life span, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
Singapore has an HDI ranking of 11, Malaysia 62, Thailand 93, and Indonesia 110. Within Asean Five, Filipinos have the shortest life span —68.2 years. Compare that with the average life span of Indonesians 68.9 years, Thais 74.4, Malaysians 74.7, Vietnamese 75.8, and Singaporeans 83.
Life in these beautiful islands of 7,107 is stressful. And if you are poor, you have 30 times the probability of being visited in your dwelling place and killed by anti-illegal drugs operatives compared with the chances of the rich.
HDI is a tool to measure the overall achievements in three basic dimensions of human development, namely, longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
During the last quarter century which covered the two Aquino presidencies (1986-1992 and 2010-2016), more countries and more people moved up from low human development category (our present status) into high and very high human development category (from 47 countries with 1.2-billion people in 1990 to 84 countries with more than 3.6 billion people in 2014).
During the last 25 years, more than half of mankind (3.6-billion people) and 84 countries improved their standing, moving up—from low human development into medium and high human development status.
During the same period, 1990 to 2015, the Philippines stagnated at HDI Rank 115—low or below-average human development. Some 100 million Filipinos were left behind by mankind (3.6 billion) and the Philippines by 84 other countries, in improving their quality of life.
Corazon Cojuangco Aquino had six years and four months as president. BS Aquino had a full six years as president. That’s a total 12 years and four months—nearly half of the period (25 years) covered by the HDI annual surveys. Thus, one can conclude that half of the blame for the below average quality of life of Filipinos should be traced to the two Aquino regimes.
Cory never won the snap election of February 1986. There is no record of her winning the presidency by democratic means.
After Cory grabbed the presidency, Namfrel made recount of the votes cast in the February snap election. The tally still showed Marcos was the real winner, not by two million votes, as officially canvassed by the Batasan, but by 800,000 votes as recounted by Namfrel.
In the Comelec-sanctioned official count, the legal and official winner was Marcos, by a margin of 1.7-million votes.
It was thought Marcos had cheated because his Solid North votes were transmitted very late to the tabulation center at the PICC. Two Namfrel volunteers were hanged in Ilocos. The Ilocano votes were enough to overwhelm Cory’s lead in Metro Manila and other places. The canvassers claimed Marcos was cheating and so led by the wife of a RAM major, walked out, as if on cue. The day before the celebrated incident, we, foreign correspondents, had been alerted about the planned walkout and to be there to cover it.
Cory Aquino didn’t have any participation in the four-day People Power revolt of Feb. 22 to 25, 1986 or Edsa I. There is not a single picture of her with the Edsa masses during those four days. Her people feared an assassination. On the first of night of Edsa while she was hiding, in a convent, in Cebu, courageous Cory asked Enrile “what can I do for you?”
Enrile’s curt reply: “Nothing. Just pray.”
I was in Cebu covering Cory’s boycott the cronies rally afternoon of Feb. 22, 1986. That night, I took the last PAL plane for Manila from Mactan to join the Enrile-Fidel Ramos rebels the first night of the rebellion at Camp Aguinaldo and covered it for the next three days.