‘But yes, in some ways we are back to where we started, because in some ways the Filipino of today is still the Filipino of 1986 in terms of many aspects of his character and his values.’
IT’S been 37 years since those heady four days in February when hundreds of thousands of Filipinos — myself and my UP Law classmates included — gathered outside the gates of Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo along EDSA in a show of people power.
The result was the airlift of an ailing strongman and his family out of the presidential palace and into exile in Hawaii; in place was established a revolutionary government that everyone hoped would usher in a renewal of the Filipino spirit and become an inspiration for a new Filipino dream.
And yet, 37 years later, the son and namesake of the leader who had left the country in disgrace is the duly-elected president of the country, while the dreams, hopes and ideals that the “EDSA Revolution” was supposed to have sparked lay in tatters, suffering an overwhelming electoral defeat the likes of which have not been seen in the Philippines in a long time.
Yes, I was there at EDSA in 1986 and as I have always said, I was there because I felt that the wheels of democracy had stopped turning, with a certain political elite firmly ensconced in position and stagnating the flourishing of a vibrant policy that was the linchpin of a vibrant economy.
Maybe I was young and naive then. Because after all that has been said and done, I’ve come to realize that the years after 1986 only led to the restoration of the same warped process that we call democracy, Philippine style, which churns out political leaders who end up only helping to hold up the status quo while the marginalized remain marginalized decade after decade after decade.
Nothing much has changed. Only some names and many faces with familiar last names.
But heck — they are the product of a relatively free and honest (if not inexpensive) political exercise that surfaces the “interests” of the majority. No matter how ill-advised that interest appears to be in the eyes of a segment of society that seems itself more discerning. Vox Populi…
So, after 37 years, are we back to where we started?
Not really, because much has changed in the country and in the Filipino over the almost four decades since EDSA. The fact that more Filipinos have traveled the world — albeit some as employment-seeking travelers — has opened the eyes of more Filipinos than ever to what the rest of the world looks like and which in turn raises the inevitable question of “why can’t we be as good, if not better?”
But yes, in some ways we are back to where we started, because in some ways the Filipino of today is still the Filipino of 1986 in terms of many aspects of his character and his values. And that’s the tougher nut to crack. Because of the character and the values that made the excesses of the past possible still exist in us today — and when I say past, I mean every moment of time before today – then the excesses of every government before and after EDSA will only be replicated in the blink of an eye with almost nary a serious consequence for the offenders.
Could we have done better over the last 37 years? I will die wondering.
