One can fairly say the 29th anniversary of the people power revolution was a roaring success insofar as traffic was snarled, man-hours were lost and precious fuel wasted. Other than these, this year’s people power anniversary was dismal as dismal can get. Except for the president, the vice president and some government personalities, together with the police and military men who were ordered to march to the EDSA shrine, arm to arm, the attendance was puny.
One might ask where the key players who used to religiously attend the EDSA 1 people power anniversary were. I am not just talking about former President Fidel V. Ramos whose deliberate non-attendance in the anniversary made news as he expressed his dismay over the leadership of President Benigno S. Aquino III. I am referring more to the Filipino people who, in reality, were the real heroes of EDSA 1. They are those who kept vigil on the streets around Malacañang and EDSA calling for Marcos to step down; those who courageously acted as human shields to stop tanks from moving forward; and those who went to the military camps offering roses and food to soldiers to persuade them to join the revolution and withdraw support from Marcos. I myself was on EDSA on all the days that led to the flight of Marcos and the beginning of what I believed then would be real democracy. I took pride having taken my oath as a new lawyer under a new regime in 1986.
Why has attendance in the commemoration of EDSA 1 been dwindling each year? People see it as a useless exercise because nothing has changed. Comments in the social media say that all that the people power revolution managed to do was remove Marcos. Netizens also say we have delivered in a silver platter the power to rule the country to two Aquinos yet, we are still where we have always been. Corruption in government has not been eradicated. If at all, the methods and modes of stealing from public coffers have only become more sophisticated and convoluted. The economy still basically subsists on the remittance of Overseas Filipino Workers. Economists say that little progress has been made in changing a structure that, for decades, has been one of Asia’s worst rich-poor divides. Cielito Habito, a former economic planning minister, said back in 2013 that it is obvious that something is structurally wrong. The elite 40 richest families on the Forbes wealth list in the Philippines account for 76 percent of the country’s gross domestic product growth. This is the highest in Asia, compared with Thailand where the top 40 account for 33.7 per cent of wealth growth, 5.6 percent for Malaysia and just 2.8 percent for Japan, Habito said. He added that the path to riches for the few is helped by a political culture that allows personal connections to easily open doors.
Foreign observers say the Filipinos are not ready for real democracy. For instance, one said, we tolerate a president who has been lying to us and who has betrayed the Filipino people by entrusting a critical police operation to a suspended police chief who happens to be his friend, resulting in the death of 44 Special Action Force men. The Filipino people do not seriously demand that the president step down only because many of them do not wish the next in line to take his place, a writer said. We forget that rules under a democracy are there to be enforced no matter the consequence if only to send a message to would-be presidents and leaders that they cannot trifle with the people’s trust.
We are not happy and feel that our system of government has failed us but we do nothing and tolerate everything. We are a people who rile but accept things with a frightening sense of fatalism. By not attending the celebration of EDSA People Power 1, we think we have done enough to express our protest. But, the Filipino people must do more if they want change. Many opportunities, for instance, have been presented to us to make way for change through constitutional reforms but we have consistently rejected them. We have always feared the unknown more than the reality that there is something seriously wrong with our political structures that is inherent in the centralized form of government which we have. Rather than withdrawing to our cocoons we should understand what seems unknown and weigh our rights vis-à-vis what we now have.
At 32 per cent of income tax, ours is the highest in nearly much of the rest of the world. Yet, we do not get the infrastructure that could make life better especially for the broad masses of people such as a good mass transit system and a railway system from north to south that can help farmers bring their produce to markets, without falling prey to abusive middlemen. We also do not get the peace and order we deserve because the protectors we pay with our taxes sometimes turn out to be our tormentors. I could go on and on but unless we realize that what democracy demands of us is to take an active part in ensuring that our elected leaders do what they are paid to do, we will always be where we have been for the last 50 years.
Email: ritalindaj@gmail.com Visit: www.jimenolaw.com.ph