Looking back to 40 years ago

By Herbert Vego

HAS it really been 40 years since the four-day bloodless “revolution” altered the course of history?

I find it hard to believe that it’s still fresh in my mind. I am now 76, which is more than double my age of 36 when the “EDSA People Power Revolution” unfolded on February 22 to 25, 1986.

On second thought, how could such an incredible and inconceivable event as toppling a 20-year-old government be forgotten?

Surely, everyone turning 40 years old today was only an infant.

On February 22, 1986, I was listening to my transistor radio and sipping coffee at a restaurant shop here in Iloilo City when the big news broke out: Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Philippine Constabulary Chief Fidel Ramos had staged a failed coup d’etat and were holed up with fellow mutineers at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

In those four days, the eyes of the rest of the world — through the magic of television — focused on the swelling multitude at Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) that would eventually force President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr. and family to flee to Hawaii, paving the way for Corazon Aquino to take over even if she had “lost” to Marcos in the February 7, 1986 snap presidential election.

What happened thereafter is now recorded history. Every year, it is replayed on TV, hence familiar to the youth of this generation.

But are they imbued with a sense of pride that engulfed us elders who witnessed that history in the making?

We can only hope so.

As I was writing this column, Francisco “Kiko” Aquino Dee, co-convenor of TINDIG Pilipinas and nephew of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, was on radio and TV, asking listeners to join another anti-corruption “Trillion Peso March” at EDSA on Wednesday, February 25.

Kiko had not been born yet in 1986.

The march will focus on celebrating the achievements of the EDSA People Power uprising that disabled the Marcos dictatorship and installed the revolutionary government of President Corazon Aquino.

We need to travel back in time to understand how the past shaped the present-day government.

The elder Marcos was Senate president when he first ran for president in 1965, crushing then re-electionist President Diosdado Macapagal.

He ran again in 1969, demolishing Sergio Osmeña Jr. and becoming the first re-elected president of the Philippines.

The Constitutional Convention of 1971 could have passed a provision abolishing the eight-year limit of the president’s rule — four years plus another four years if re-elected.

Had it been accomplished, Marcos could have qualified to run for re-election indefinitely.

The intention of Marcos to manipulate the Con-Con delegates into abolishing the president’s term limit, however, fizzled when delegate Eduardo Quintero displayed before the media a cash-stuffed brown envelope meant to bribe him.

Without waiting for the end of the 1971 Constitutional Convention, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, on the pretext of “reforming society.” It was obvious, nevertheless, that he wanted to occupy Malacañang Palace for life.

EDSA ’86, therefore, symbolizes the Filipinos’ disgust with the dictatorship. While it’s true that Marcos had officially lifted martial law in 1981, he had virtually made himself a dictator.

It was only because of pressure from the United States government and other democratic nations that Marcos consented to call for a snap election.

On Feb. 7, 1986, a snap election was held, with Marcos declared the winner over Corazon Aquino amid reports of fraud, violence, and disenfranchisement.

The People Power Revolution snapped his attempt to claim victory.

On the morning of Feb. 25, 1986, the last day of the four-day “People Power” revolt that forced the Marcos family out of Malacañang, Cory Aquino took her oath as the new president before Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr. at Club Filipino in San Juan.

Incidentally, one of the women who had campaigned hard for Aquino against Marcos in Davao City in the snap poll was the late Soledad Duterte.

It was in the spirit of gratitude that President Cory appointed Soledad’s son, Rodrigo Duterte, as Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Vice Mayor of Davao City.

Duterte ran and won as mayor in 1988.

Therefore, it can be said that Digong has been on top of his political life as president and now at the bottom as a prisoner in the International Criminal Court (ICC) jail at The Hague, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity.