“The rot will forever be with us, because the system sucks. It allows the least among us to lead us”
Last Tuesday, Feb. 25, was the 39th anniversary of the EDSA uprising which came to be known worldwide as the bloodless “People Power” revolt.
In clearly calibrated measures to downplay its historic significance, the Marcos administration decided to pay no heed to its being a special non-working holiday, commemorated by all presidents from Cory to Duterte, whose mother was one of the staunch leaders of the “yellow” movement in Davao, yet who in his time directed the internment of Marcos Senior’s remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Many Metro Manila universities and colleges nonetheless declared Feb. 25 as a no-class day so that students can troop to the commemorative rallies, yet police forces deployed by government outnumbered those who trooped to EDSA.
The Marcos revision of what it deems unpalatable history will continue, such that by the time PBbM exits from power, EDSA One will be just a memory shared by those who were active in the fight against the dictatorship.
The reason for this lack of appreciation stems largely from the fact that the “democracy” EDSA promised has failed to effect meaningful change in the lives of the people and the fate of the nation.
Democratic space is abstract to hungry stomachs and hopelessness.
One telling reason behind this failure is the sad fate of the “unity” that was forged between Cory Aquino and her vice-president in the snap elections, the manipulation of which by the dying regime sparked massive unrest on top of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino two years and a half before.
It was a forced political marriage between the widowed Cory and her husband’s best friend who even before Ninoy’s death, had painstakingly rebuilt the political machinery opposed to the dictatorship.
As is usual in such brokered political union of forces, promises were made by Cory Aquino to Doy Laurel. Those promises were broken on Day One, Feb. 25, and thereafter, Doy felt like an unwanted presence within Cory’s Cabinet.
(Details of the negotiations leading to the 1986 snap elections are in a forthcoming book of this writer, now being edited.)
Do we see déjà vu in the BbM-Sara political marriage billed as the Uniteam that is now hopelessly shattered?
In fairness to the vice-president, she hardly made any recommendations for key positions in the PBbM government. She accepted to be the DepEd secretary even if then candidate BbM said during the campaign that she wanted to be the defense secretary.
Of course, no president would give that position to the Constitutionally “designated” successor in a country whose politics is marked by treachery and instability.
But she got the department with the biggest budget, again Constitutionally-mandated, until Congress in 2024 manipulated the 2025 budget upon which she will no longer preside.
Sara probably thought that DepEd was launch pad for 2028, it having the biggest budget and an army of teachers. She should have opted for DSWD instead, with its 4Ps and ayuda-distribution mandate. That would have made greater political sense.
Doy Laurel eventually resigned from the Cory Cabinet, and became increasingly isolated in the political conversation leading to the 1992 elections. Inday Sara has been impeached by the HoR, and will soon face trial in the Senate.
The first mass turncoatism after martial law occurred right after EDSA One.
UNIDO, the party which was vehicle to the Cory-Doy campaign against the dictator, was decimated, and the dominant party became the PDP-Laban, later decimated by the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino under the leadership of no less than President Cory’s congressman-brother.
This time, owing to practice started under Cory’s presidency, fPRRD’s PDP has been deserted, with just about a handful of incumbents left, most having transferred to Lakas or it’s allied parties, Partido Federal, NPC, NUP and NP.
In the current mid-term electoral bout, PDP could only field a slate of nine, half of whom are virtual unknowns. The Alyansa of PBbM on the other hand has 12 well-known political brands, even if half of these do not deserve to be in the Senate.
Political dynasties and turncoatism, on top of a useless party-list contraption are the end-products of a confusing Constitution which adopted a multi-party system in a presidential form of government.
Unless a real leader with no ambition to prolong his power or perpetuate himself through family or proxies leads this benighted land, and revises the 1987 Constitution or hammers out an entirely new one that fits our nation of tribes and exorcises the demons of our corrupted politics and controlled economics, déjà vu will always occur.
The rot will forever be with us, because the system sucks. It allows the least among us to lead us.