“It has been enabled by the political system that the events of EDSA produced.”
Next week, we will remember the joy and hope many Filipinos felt when the Marcos dictatorship fell on February 26, 1986. As a result of the EDSA people power revolt, Cory Aquino ascended the presidency and established a revolutionary government that exercised both executive and legislative powers. As soon as she came to power, Cory’s priority agenda was to dismantle the structures of the dictatorship, repealing repressive laws, restoring civil liberties, and replacing the Marcos Constitution with the 1987 Constitution.
EDSA was all about genuine change through sacrifice, love of country and fellow human beings, selflessness, good governance, and a better life for all. However, despite the Cory government’s initiatives to restore democratic space and dismantle the structures of the old regime, fundamental and structural flaws that have historically plagued Philippine society stubbornly persisted—an economy ran by the elite and oligarchs, patronage and elitist politics, electoral system favoring the rich and the powerful, impunity or those who disregarded human rights and rule of law, and yes continuing poverty, social injustice, and social inequality.
Cory had the singular opportunity to correct the systemic flaws in the political and economic landscape. But this did not happen. Two decades later, her son Noynoy had the same opportunity. Instead, in the PNoy years, our terrible politics—of celebrities, family dynasties, and weak political parties—got cemented and paved the way for a President Duterte, the anti-thesis of Cory Aquino. And now, the dictator’s son Bongbong Marcos is well-positioned to win the Philippine presidency on May 9, 2022. That is not a certainty as there is still time to change the dynamics of the race. But it would be foolish and delusional not to consider that possibility.
The irony of a Marcos return to power is that it has been enabled by the political system that the events of EDSA produced. Bongbong Marcos and the coalition of interests he has assembled represent the cream of our political elite and what they stand for—neoliberal economic policies, militaristic approaches to social conflict, celebrity politics, and political family dynasties.
Marcos’ loyalists are challenging irrefutable facts and expounding half-truths and outright lies about the record of the Marcos dictatorship. There are of course attempts to push back against the revisionism. Among others, the Movement Against Disinformation, of which I am lead convenor, is doing that. We are active in the #FactsFirstPH coalition, led by Rappler, which brings together various sectors that are committed to promoting truth in the public space and exacting accountability from those who harm it with lies.
As a law professor in more than a dozen law schools, I bring as many of the classes I teach to the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani to celebrate the heroic lives of those Filipinos who fought against dictatorship. Those visits are always sobering because of the stories of torture, assassinations, and massacres from the Marcos era.
I also connect these stories to the repression we have seen in the Duterte years. I talk a lot about my clients Leila De Lima, detained unjustly for five years now, and Myles Albasin who has also been unjustly detained for four years already.
Just yesterday a wonderful woman, a doctor who has dedicated her life to the underprivileged in Mindanao, was arrested in San Juan, Metro Manila. Quoting from her brother’s Facebook post:
“Maria Natividad Marian Castro was arrested by elements of the San Juan Police in her brother’s home in San Juan, Metro Manila. The arresting police reportedly forcibly entered the house and destroyed the front door while others climbed over the walls of the house.
Dr. Castro is a health worker who has set up community health centers and programs in Mindanao. She has long served the poor communities of Agusan del Norte who don’t have access to health services. As a health worker and human rights advocate, she was a victim of redtagging and attacks from state forces. On November 20, 2020, tarpaulins tagging her and other human rights defenders as “communist NPAs” were put up in public places all over Caraga by suspected state agents.
She was reportedly accused of fabricated multiple charges of kidnapping and illegal detention, all related to her human rights advocacy.
Several years ago, Dr. Naty was among the delegation in UN Geneva where she accompanied the Lumad (indigenous people of Mindanao) who were victims of militarization. She spoke there to seek help for the Lumad people.
She is Class ‘84 high school valedictorian of St. Scholastica in Manila and in 2001 was awarded one of the 100 most outstanding graduates of St. Scholastica High School in the last century. She graduated from UP Manila – PGH Cum Laude in 1995.”
Some of us think the dark days are only going to begin if a Marcos will return to power on June 30, 2022. Not true. We have been in the darkness for awhile now. It will just get worse.
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