I agree with Dean na "People Power" can be harmful, if it is used as a shortcut to oust a democratically elected president, instead of using the constitutional means available, like elections and impeachment. These are the same arguments Bong Austero and Winnie Monsod have used in the past to defend Arroyo and discourage People Power against her regime.
Pero pwedeng gamiting ang People Power kontra diktadura, para ibalik ang demokrasya sa ating bansa. Pwede rin itong gamitin kung garapalan ang nakawan ng eleksyon (at coverup nito), katulad ng nangyari sa panahon ni Marcos-Cory Snap Election noong 1986, o yung Orange Revolution ng Ukraine noong 2004, nung may dayaan rin sa eleksyon nila. Because stealing elections goes against every democratic principles we believe in.
Me, I always refer to the People's Revolution in 1986 as "The Good Edsa."
Ngayon, focus naman tayo sa reaction ni Kuya Manuel. Sabi nya.
And People Power as a political concept was developed through the “parliament of the streets” in the pre- and post-Ninoy assassination period. The result was People Power as we presently understand it: a non-violent effort at regime change.
That change was accomplished in 1986, totally, and partially in 2001. The problem to my mind is that what took place in 2001 was not allowed to reach its logical conclusion: which was the fall of the existing constitutional order. With Marcos’s fall in 1986 came the fall of the constitutional order he’d manufactured; with Estrada’s fall should have come the fall of the constitutional order born in 1987 but which had failed by the impeachment walkout.
Instead -and this is where Cardinal Sin and Cory Aquino and so on will end up being judged by posterity- the great division between the ranks of the Center and the Left, with the Center preferring a constitutional handover (what Philippine Commentary calls a coup d’etat) and the Left and Left-leaning preferring a march on the presidential palace, resulted in the Supreme Court intervening.
I believe Cory and Sin were trying to do what they think was best at that time. But I don't think they knew the whole picture (what was going on behind the scenes). The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.
And it's not the threat of the Left marching to the palace that worried many people. The police and military still loyal to Erap's government would have been able to manage them.
It was the Rightwing military strike forces of Mike Arroyo and Chavit Singson that probably worried Malacanang even more at that time. It's the thought of military-on-military violence, with civilians caught in the crossfire, that got many people justifiably scared.
"Chavit Singson had Plan B involving elements of the military to strike the first blow. They would kindle the spark by withdrawing from the government, and one by one others would follow: Class '71 would also withdraw, then Class '72, and so forth. But General de Villa warned that the timing had to be precise because one untimely move against the government and the military would automatically defend it. The move must be made at what De Villa called a 'defining moment.'
"You see, General De Villa had his Plan A, which was better than ours, because his was focused on the Chief of Staff and the Service Commanders. At past one o'clock p.m. January 20, Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes defected but we knew that already the night before, when negotiations had lasted until the small hours. By past 2 a.m. we knew Reyes had been convinced to join. His only condition was: Show us a million people on EDSA so it will be easier to bring in the service commanders...
"Our group there was a back-up strike force. In fact, it was our group that won over to our side the PNP first. If Panfilo Lacson had resisted, he and his men would have been repelled: there would have been bloodshed, but not on EDSA. In every place where Erap loyalists had a force, we had a counter-force to face it, with orders to shoot. And not only in Metro Manila. Carillo had already been sent to the provinces; and in Nueva Ecija, for instance, we had Rabosa. This was a fight to the finish...
"I was negotiating with Pardo up to three o'clock in the morning: niloloko lang pala kami. But I told him point-blank: "If by six o'clock this morning you haven't given us the resignation letter, we will storm the gates of Malacañang!' But they insisted on more talk: with De Villa up front, and my back channel debate with Pardo, which even became a three-way contest, with Buboy Virata pitching in.
"But the threat to march to Malacañang was for real. And so was the danger of bloodshed. I wasn't telling Gloria everything: I didn't want her alarmed. So she didn't know about the orders to shoot."
"But they insisted on more talk..." And orders to shoot? Hmmm... may baril bang dala ang mga Bayan Muna at Akbayan activists?
More from MLQ3:
We cannot tell if those whom I witnessed march on the Palace on that January day, would have forced Estrada to bow to public pressure and explicitly resign, or if there would have been a bloodbath and perhaps the first lynching of a president in our history; or if the middle forces at the Edsa Shrine would have melted away soon after or even if both anti-Estrada forces would have reunited for a protracted campaign, or if reinforcements from the provinces would have arrived, to plunge the country into Civil War. All we know is that these possibilities entered the minds of Cory, the Cardinal, the Chief Justice, even the military, with or without whispering from the Wormtongues in the then-Vice President’s camp.
There are multiple what-if possibilities. Let's focus on one: say there was violence, Erap, Jinggoy were lynched and hanged. Ping was captured and executed by Mike Arroyo's strike force.
So hindi na "people power" talaga ang Edsa Dos kundi isang military-civilian coup. Totally unlike the First Edsa in every way, shape and form. It's also precedent-setting. Pwede na palang gawin ito.
Of course, Maam Arroyo promised that this Edsa will usher in a new kind of government, one based on fighting corruption, unity and healing, good governance, and morality... NOT!
First day of office, after Edsa Dos, IMPSA kaagad ang nasa isip ng mga kumag na ito. And the gov't was wracked by numerous corruption scandals ever since. FPJ ran for the presidency in 2004, along with an ailing Raul Roco, pero ninakaw ni Arroyo at Garci ang election, just like Marcos did with Cory.
So ever since that time, Arroyo has been fending off attempts to do to her what they did to erap-- from the military/former civil society allies, from the Left and from erap supporters. Cycle of violence. Because people finally realized that elections under her corrupt amoral admin are meaningless and "democracy" is a farce.
UPDATE: Freedom House: Philippines "Partly Free"
Sabi ni MLQ3: "Courtesy of Publius Pundit comes news of Freedom House’s latest rankings of the freedoms of nations around the world. While the country’s rating (”partly free”) remains unchanged from last year, our levels of freedom, according to the group, show a “modest but ominous” decline, and thus represent a “Downward trend arrow due to a spate of political killings specifically targeting leftwing political activists”. The report says,
Although the factors contributing to freedom’s decline in the region varied from country to country, ethnic and religious division stood out as a major problem in some countries—Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Fiji—and a potential source of discontent in others, including Indonesia, which retained its designation as Free. Perhaps the most disquieting aspect of the year’s developments is the fact that three countries previously considered showcases of Asian freedom—Thailand, the Philippines, and East Timor—experienced considerable setbacks.
Our Economy is "less free" rin, according to the Heritage Foundation. The Tribune Editorial comments.
Just as Gloria Arroyo’s ego was about to soar outside the solar system due to the hosting of Asian leaders in Cebu, an event which she bragged was proof of the country’s world-class reputation, in came the Heritage Foundation’s assessment on the economy under its annual Index of Economic Freedom.
If anything, the annual report would have hit like a guided missile scoring a direct hit to bring Glo’s feet back to terra firma.
The report, which provided a realistic view of the economy, placed the country well out of view of the supposed Second World that Gloria loves to brag as the place where the Philippines now belongs.
Instead, it painted a picture of the economy stagnating after Gloria took over the helm of government in 2001.
The Philippines was placed 97th out of some 157 countries in the annual survey with the economy rating 57.4 percent, or a classification of mostly unfree by the conservative US think tank.
.....
Mediocrity was not always the case for the local economy under the Heritage Foundation index that started in 1995.
In the year 2000, under President Joseph Estrada, the economy was last rated as moderately free with a rating of 62.2 percent.
It was also ranked moderately free in 1999 with a 61.9 percent rating, 1998, 63.8 percent; and 1997, 60.8 percent.
The economy achieved its lowest-ever rating of 53.3 percent, which is close to a classification of repressed under the index, in 2005 under, of course, Gloria.
The Philippines had a constant poor showing in the annual index under Gloria, with all years falling under the mostly unfree classification.
In 2001, after the forcible Edsa coup, the economy was rated 57.9 percent; in 2002, it was 58.4 percent; 59 percent in 2003; 56.7 percent in 2004; 53.3 percent in 2005; 57.5 percent in 2006 and 57.4 percent last year.
What drags the economy under Gloria is mostly corruption, based on the survey, where the Philippines rated a humiliating 25 percent.
UNIFFORS: "Following the suspension of a host of elected officials, Gabriel Claudio, presidential adviser on political affairs, said, “What political harassment are they talking about? Two of the suspended governors are members of the administration coalition. Politically, we are aggrieved and disadvantaged by these suspensions.” Claudio speaks with forked tongue."
Read the whole thing. And this too.
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