‘…this is why four years short of four decades the Philippines faces the prospect of electing the son and namesake of the very president who was ousted from office because of the mass action on EDSA.’
THIRTY-SIX six years ago this week, a million or two Filipinos gathered in different parts of Metro Manila, mainly along Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA), to support then-Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos.
Why were they there? Well, history tells us that Enrile and the young officers under his wing who had formed the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) group were actually plotting to oust Marcos by capturing him and his family. Now, when RAM members assigned to the security detail of Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin were detained, followed by other RAM officers within the Presidential Security Command, Enrile and the RAM leadership started to fear a crackdown and so barricaded themselves in the Defense Ministry at Camp Aguinaldo. Enrile then called Fidel Ramos, a blood relative of Marcos, to appraise him of the situation. Ramos decided to join the group. The date was February 22.
The duo, with a handful of loyal soldiers and aides, encamped first to the AFP General Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo and later moved to the much-more defensible Philippine Constabulary HQ across the street while they battled with AFP Chief Gen. Fabian C. Ver for the loyalty of the rest of the AFP scattered all over our archipelago.
The odds were stacked against Enrile and Ramos at the outset, but things turned their way once the Roman Catholic Church, through Jaime Cardinal Sin, threw its lot behind the embattled duo, followed no less by Corazon Aquino herself and her “yellow army” of supporters. But the coup d’ grace came in the form of US Air Force helicopters that landed on the grounds of Malacanang Palace some time on February 25; once the Marcos family was safely on board and on their way to parts unknown, the initial impasse at the corner of EDSA and Ortigas was decided in favor of the people rallying under the banner of “People Power.”
I was a 23-year-old UP student at that time, working for then Assemblyman Renato Cayetano, an Enrile law partner and political lieutenant. That is why in the early hours when EDSA was still open to normal traffic, I was already at the gates of Camp Aguinaldo trying (with the rest of the Cayetano family) to get in, ahead of what everyone felt was going to be some form of a last stand that could not end in any other way than in bloodshed.
Things didn’t pan out that way, thankfully, as the United States intervened.
But, 36 years later, it is also clear that things did not pan out the way those who were so inspired by EDSA 1 thought it would. The promises of a new beginning and a right when tomorrow turned out to be more empty than real for most Filipinos. Corruption was democratized; the Constitutional provision on dynasties could not be brought to life: presidents were limited to six years in power and yet within those six years they could still abuse their powers and find ready enablers everywhere. Only the continuing export of manpower provided a silver lining for the economy and for families that would otherwise be struggling to survive. In many ways it was as if EDSA 1 did not happen.
And this is why four years short of four decades the Philippines faces the prospect of electing the son and namesake of the very president who was ousted from office because of the mass action on EDSA.
As early as 2016, though, the writing was on the wall. Thirty years after EDSA, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as vice presidential candidate swept all the LGUs of the National Capital Region save Taguig (which went for its favorite son). As early as 2016, the NCR was already sending a message that it was not EDSA. Six years later, while the younger Marcos may end up once again losing in Taguig as well as in Manila and maybe Quezon City, it is still undeniable that he will sweep all other LGUs in what was once the heart of the anti-Marcos opposition, on his way to what appears to be victory in May.
Today’s NCR is no longer the Metro Manila of 1986, and the EDSA of the People Power protests is but a memory.
And the biggest irony?
In 1986, the “EDSA Revolution” jingle was a song entitled “Magkaisa”: in 2022 the catchword of the Marcos campaign is “unity.”
Unless fates change, the NCR of 2022 will erase the memories of the EDSA of 1986.