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Saturday, February 25, 2006
Carvajal: People Power for people progress
By Orlando P. Carvajal
I was at Edsa twenty years ago and would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the world at that time. It was my proudest day as a Filipino. For one exhilaratingly glorious moment in our history we stood up against the dictator and in a non-violent way ended the violence he brought to bear on many Filipinos who stood in the way of his ambition and greed.
But I never had any illusions about Edsa 1. It was essentially a revolt by a faction of the ruling oligarchy, the Ramos-Enrile-Honasan faction.
The late Jaime Cardinal Sin, another oligarch albeit a Church oligarch, appealed to the people to support the mutineers. He was not asking people to march for social reforms. He was not even asking them to march to end the dictatorship.
He was simply asking the people to protect the rebels and prevent them from being slaughtered by Marcos henchmen. The people did just that and the rest is history.
Hence it came as no surprise when after the dictator left, we handed back the reins of government to the oligarchs, the elite, the ruling class of Philippine Society. Today the ruling elite is back to taking turns running the country to promote and protect their vested interests, using the people only to get them into power.
That is the reason why many years after Edsa we have not empowered the Filipino masses politically and economically. We have never had a government whose top priority is to fight massive poverty head-on. The priority of oligarchs has always been to improve the climate for their business and investment activities, leaving the poor to be happy with the trickle effect of the improved economic conditions for landlords, businessmen and capitalists.
People Power should be used to bring about progress for the people. We must never again allow oligarchs to use ignorant and poor folks to get them into power and use it only to enrich themselves. Look, for instance, where we are now after we helped one faction of the oligarchy (the Arroyo faction) oust the ruling Estrada faction at Edsa 2.
People Power must be used to reform first the electoral system to give the people’s genuine representatives a chance to get into power.
For as long as only the rich can get elected because of the staggering amounts needed to run a campaign, there is very little hope for a People’s Party to become viable and have a chance to represent the people in a government that is truly of the people, by the people and for the people.
For as long as cheating is easy under our electoral system, this country is guaranteed to be run by dishonest politicians, crooks really, who will serve office simply to recover his expenses and make a little more often at the expense of the people.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 25, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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