Pacete: Feb. 25, 1986: Beyond forgetting
TODAY is the 34th anniversary of EDSA People’s Power Revolution. On February 25, 1986, President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and his family left Malacañang Palace. The dictator was kicked out of the palace because the Filipinos shouted so.
On this day, 34 years ago, Corazon C. Aquino became the seventh president of the Philippine Republic. She took her oath of office before Claudio Teehankee, senior justice of the Supreme Court at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.
Ferdinand Marcos held his own inauguration at Malacañang and this was televised by TV channels 2,9 and 13 but suddenly it went off the air. The rebel soldiers took over the transmitter of those television stations.
The dictator made an attempt to negotiate with Juan Ponce Enrile, his former cabinet member and ally. He offered Enrile to share power with him in a provisional government. Enrile turned him down for obvious reason... too late the cat.
The astute Marcos then turned to his long-time ally, Uncle Sam. He connected to Paul Laxalt, a Republican senator. Laxalt told him that it was time “to cut, and cut cleanly”. He made a last call to Enrile requesting his “good friend” to provide safe conduct for his family.
At nine o’clock in the evening, four American helicopters transported the Marcos family from Malacañang Park to Clark Air Base. The next day they flew with stop-over in Guam before flying to Hawaii as exiles.
Meantime, that was the story of “Malakas” and “Maganda”. Filipinos (some only) easily forget their atrocities. Members (some only) of the Marcos family are now back in power... holding public offices.
For the younger generation, that EDSA People Power Revolution could have been our way to reform our government through new responsible leadership. When Marcos was cut, it was only Marcos who was cut. His political tails were left behind and now they have scattered themselves in public offices still possessing Marcos dogma in their hearts.
What were the brands of Marcos? There was government overspending. According to my favorite alternative historian Christine Diaz, there was unprecedented extent of graft and corruption in the Philippine government.
This was revealed also by the Transparency International, a global corruption watchdog. Marcos was the second most corrupt head of state in the whole world in the past two decades, having allegedly embezzled an estimated US$ 5-10 billion while in power.
Under his Martial Law Regime, he practiced nepotism and cronyism by appointing his relatives and close friends to positions of power in the government. There was crony capitalism wherein Marcos distributed legal permits, government grants, special tax breaks, etc... to his close friends.
Here in Negros, his allies became political knights who controlled sugar industry, export-import business, land deals, and our towns and cities were managed like cane towns.
There were rampant human rights violations. Opposition leaders were persecuted...Dulag, de la Paz, Jopson, Escandor, Javier, Aquino and more. Widespread poverty, social inequity, and rural stagnation could be felt.
We who are still alive witnessed rising criminality, agrarian unrest and violent student activism. Here in Negros, many priests left the altar to join the people’s movement in the country sides.
Today we still live to tell the stories and remind the younger generation that in choosing our leaders we have to select men and women with commitment and dedication. “Let men be good and the government cannot be bad. If the government is ill, good men will cure it.”