Experiencing the EDSA Revolution

By Herbert Vego

TODAY brings to my memory the four-day bloodless EDSA People Power Revolution (February 22 to 25, 1986) that toppled the 20-year reign of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The government had since then unilaterally celebrated that bloodless uprising year after year until 2016 when President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office. He attended none of the subsequent anniversary celebrations organized by cause-oriented groups.

No doubt most Filipinos today were not alive during the EDSA uprising 39 years ago, considering that the Philippine population was only 55 million or less than half of the estimated 118 million today. But I was already 36 years old in 1986.

On day one, I monitored a radio station. A harried reporter was blaring a flash report: Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Constabulary (PC) chief Gen. Fidel Ramos had staged a failed coup d’etat and were holed in with other mutineers at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, fearing for their lives.

In those four days, the eyes of the world focused on the swelling millions of people from all walks of life, providing a mantle of protection on the mutineers against the incoming battle tanks.

The late Jaime Cardinal Sin was largely instrumental in convincing radio and TV audiences to converge along the EDSA stretch on both sides of Camp Aguinaldo.

Most elements in the military either surrendered to Gen. Ramos or merely stood down in tacit support of the EDSA “revolutionaries,” forcing the Marcos family to fly to Hawaii on February 25, 1986.

Earlier on that date, Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as revolutionary President before the then Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee at Club Filipino. In effect, it nullified the rigged win of Marcos against her in the Feb. 11, 1986 snap election.

One of the urgent acts of Pres. Cory was to appoint officers-in-charge (OICs) of cities, municipalities and provinces. That was how prosecutor Rodrigo Duterte morphed into politics, initially as OIC-vice mayor of Davao City – sort of “accommodation” to his mother Soledad who had campaigned hard for Cory against Marcos.

If only in recognition of that turning point in his life, shouldn’t President Duterte have continued the annual celebration of the EDSA Revolution, as his predecessors had done?

He did not.

It would be presumptuous to assume a government-sponsored celebration at EDSA this week under Ferdinand “BBM” Marcos Jr., who is now marking his third year as President.

Anyway, today’s young generation of Filipinos are not as mad at Marcos Jr. as their parents were at Marcos Sr. In fact, we are glad that unlike Duterte, he has publicly denounced the intrusion of Chinese military and fishing vessels within our exclusive economic zone at the West Philippine Sea.

But we who are now in our senior years still imbibe the “spirit of EDSA” that gave us a strong sense of pride as Filipinos.

-oOo-

‘LOREN DID NOT JUNK ROQUERO’ – PEREZ

FORMER Antique Governor Sally “Inday Sally” Zaldivar Perez called to disagree with my comment that Senator Loren Legarda had “dropped Ray Roquero like a hot potato” as her candidate for governor.

Until then, Perez had endorsed Roquero for governor. I should know because I was present when he came to Iloilo City to be interviewed by the Iloilo media.

“It was Roquero’s decision to back out,” she clarified.

If I got her right, that decision of Ray impelled the senator to opt for Paolo Javier instead to team up with her brother, re-electionist Congressman Antonio Agapito “AA” Legarda.

Paolo, a former congressman, has three opponents for governor, namely Edgar Denosta, Jonathan Tan and Vicente Fedelicio.

Loren thinks that, of the aforementioned, to quote Inday Sally, “Javier is the best candidate for governor.”

Cong AA must really be in need of “the best” team-mate for governor because he is pitted against a strong outgoing governor, Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao, who teams up with Tan for governor.

Where does that catapult Roquero? Sa kangkongan?

Not really. You see, Ray is the No. 3 congressional nominee of Anak-Kalusugan party-list.

-oOo-

REACTIONS TO THE PROPOSED MORE POWER EXPANSION

THREE reactions to my February 21 column on the proposal of Bantay ng Bayan to expand MORE Power’s coverage to the entire 1st District of Iloilo are worth mentioning.

This one from Doods Moragas says, “Yes, but not as business partners of the Gs please, else you may regret it.”

In fairness, Doods, BNB’s proposal is not for MORE Power to partner with anybody. It would only result in competition with ILECO-1, which would be good for the power consumers. To quote the Supreme Court in a ruling supporting MORE Power’s expansion to the 2nd and 4th Districts through RA 11918, without competition, the “ILECOs can easily dictate the price of electricity.”

From Atty. Dominador Tersol: “Expanding the coverage of MORE to First District of Iloilo requires legislation, further amending RA No. 11918.”

Of course, the BNB consumer group is aware that another franchise law would be needed to enable MORE Power to expand to the constituency of Cong. Janet Garin.

In view of that precedent, BNB wants Garin to sponsor a franchise bill at the House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Franchises.

From Hannibal delos Reyes: “I live in the 1st district, and I have been wondering why ILECO 1, a supposed-to-be cooperative, charges more per kilowatt-hour than MORE power, a for-profit corporation.”