HUNDREDS of leftist activists staged an alternative march on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue on Saturday to score the 1986 People Power revolution as a failed revolt that only restored the rule of the elite and imposed hardships on the Filipino people.
“The workers and the poor marches along Edsa not to celebrate the gains of a failed people’s revolt [and the] the restoration of elite democracy. Our rights were reinstituted in our laws but they are illusory in the everyday lives of the people,” said Leody de Guzman of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.
“From Cory to Noynoy Aquino, the people endured so much hardship as succeeding regimes implemented the neoliberal policies of liberalization, deregulation, privatization and contractualization,” he added.
De Guzman also scored President Rodrigo Duterte for using popular discontent against elite rule to win the presidency but failing to deliver the change he promised would come.
“In 1986, the masses were able to topple a dictator. In 2016, they dislodged “Yellow rule” in an election where they perceived Duterte as their champion [but] they [will] soon realize that the Duterte regime is no different from the previous administrations,” said Sonny Melencio, chairman of the Partido Lakas ng Masa.
To distinguish their “independent line” from the “pro-Yellow elite” who joined the Edsa celebrations, participants of the “Workers’ March against Fascism” wore red shirts and carried a huge streamer with the slogans: “Labanan ang pasismo”, “Itakwil ang elitistang paghahari”, “Isulong ang demokrasyang masa.”
“The recent fascist attacks on human rights and to civil and political liberties, are an insult to a people who, in 1986, were able to topple a dictator in the so-called People Power revolution,” said Sanlakas secretary-general Aaron Pedrosa.
“What can the millions of unarmed civilians resort to in the face of injustices and abuses, usually by the rich and the powerful? None other than their rights, enshrined in the Constitution, that are now threatened by enemies of democracy,” he said.
“If left unchallenged, these encroachments against basic human rights and due process of law would lead to fascism in its full form—an absolute dictatorship, the dissolution of elective institutions, the deliberate disregard to any practice of human rights, and military rule,” he said.
''The commemoration of Edsa 1986 is an opportune time to rekindle the people’s fight against fascism. Our rights should not be mere letters in law but a living spirit in the people’s collective struggle for democracy,” Pedrosa added.
