‘When EDSA ended up being more of an oligarchic restoration than an honest-to-goodness societal upheaval, then the result is what we see in today’s political surveys that leave so many of my friends aghast…’
THAT, among others, is one of the most common “attacks” that the “Dilawan” lobbed against non-Dilawans — whether in 2010, in 2016, or even in this election year of 2022.
Of course, there no longer are “Dilawans” because for some strategic reasons stalwarts of the Liberal Party chose to wrap themselves around the color pink. I don’t blame them, because in the 2019 mid-term elections the senatorial slate identified with the “Dilawans” was massacred at the ballot box and no one was left standing.
But the magic of the “Dilawan” had long been undergoing a fading away process. This was best exemplified by the shrinking number of people attending EDSA Anniversary rallies.
How could this be when the EDSA Revolution ushered in by the “Dilawans” was such an example to the world? What’s wrong with the Filipino?
I was at EDSA in 1986, a 23-year-old student of law who was working for one of the closest political and law profession partners of then Defense Minister Enrile. But here is where the “Dilawans” commit their first mistake — they’ve always assumed that everyone at EDSA was a Dilawan, who believed in their cause and in their leadership. This wasn’t the case with me. I was at EDSA not because I believed in Cory Aquino but because I was appalled at what was happening to the country and I believed that it was time for change.
I was also aware that, unable to achieve this change at the ballot box, what we were doing at EDSA was effectively aiding and abetting a coup attempt that even the Americans couldn’t help but meddle in.
After EDSA, I saw how the “Dilawans” had no issue with PCCA taking “dictatorial powers” to abolish the legislature and trash the 1973 Constitution in order to convene a handpicked body of men and women to author a new Charter.
Dictatorship, it turns out, isn’t all that bad in certain cases.
I debated against the draft Constitution but it was approved anyway — with such provisions as renouncing nuclear weapons and damning political dynasties. I was disappointed though that the President, in all her moral glow of authority, never went to Congress to demand that it enact a law giving life to the anti-dynasty provision.
Dynasties, it turns out, aren’t all that bad in certain cases.
But after that it was downhill, albeit in a very unnoticeable way. The restored oligarchs were back in business, the cronies had been banished, but the poor remained poor. EDSA, it seems, wasn’t for them.
So here we are today, with a segment of the population agitated that the May polls will be a fight between “good and evil.” Really? That’s the type of language that guarantees that there will be no healing afterwards — because how can you embrace someone you characterize as evil? No difference of opinion is allowed — you’re either with us or you’re with the dark side.
And “bayaran” at that.
The “Dilawan’s” second mistake.
It’s too early to guess what the outcome of the voting on May 9 will be but there is a better than equal chance that the “bayarans” will emerge victorious while the losing side will return to their corners licking their chops. Are the “bayarans” just idiots who do not see the truth when it is right in front of them? Are they brainwashed after years of social media fake news about the 1970s being the golden era of the Philippines? Or are they just jaded — tired of the lofty promises of a “revolution” that meant very little to them — other than the democratization of corruption?
When EDSA ended up being more of an oligarchic restoration than an honest-to-goodness societal upheaval, then the result is what we see in today’s political surveys that leave so many of my friends aghast, blinded by the romanticization of a coup that only made things better for those at the top but hardly changed anything for the majority at the bottom.
