http://www.bworldonline.com/main/content.php?id=6828
February 25, 2010
By Sonny Coloma
Nearly a generation after the historic EDSA People Power revolt,
Filipinos continue to reflect on its meaning and how it could
possibly serve as a beacon of hope and inspiration for future
generations. I was a student activist in the First Quarter Storm of
1970. I was among those who were arrested and detained after the
imposition of martial rule in September 1972.
Through the long, dark night of the dictatorship, I wondered if the
day would ever come when we could enjoy our basic freedoms again --
after more than a decade of oppression beneath a faáade of normalcy
that lulled our people into tacit acceptance of an unjust regime.
The snap elections in February 1986 gave our people the opportunity
to express their real sentiments. Corazon Aquino, widow and
housewife, became the rallying point of a long-suffering people who
finally stood up to assert their sovereignty.
When it was all over, there was dancing in the streets. It felt so
good to be a Filipino. "Everything's right here in the Philippines,"
proclaimed a new advertisement of Philippine Air Lines. Notice the
double meaning. It was not just the tourist destinations that the
flag carrier sought to promote. It was the righting of a wrong
signaled by the return to democracy.
Democratic institutions were restored. We began to enjoy the vast
democratic space that allowed us to express our ideas without fear of
arbitrary arrest or detention. From negative growth, our economy
achieved positive GDP numbers barely 10 months after EDSA. But it was
not, by any reckoning, a seamless transition.
President Corazon Aquino faced and quashed at least seven coup
attempts, with the support of the armed forces then led by Defense
Secretary Fidel Ramos, one of two leading heroes of EDSA Uno. In
1992, Mr. Ramos rode on the crest of Mrs. Aquino's endorsement and
eked out a slim victory over the feisty Miriam Defensor Santiago and
business tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco in a tight race where the
eventual winner received 23.2% of all the votes. It was the first
peaceful transition in the presidency after 27 years -- a period
spanning an entire generation.
But how did the Marcos dictatorship end and how did the march of
People Power begin?
It began with the arrest of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. on the night
of September 22, 1972. He was then widely considered to be a leading
candidate for president after the end of Ferdinand Marcos's second
term in December 1973. But the declaration of martial law changed the
entire political landscape. It also changed the course of the lives
of the members of my generation.
I was in grade six and barely 12 years old when Mr. Marcos was
elected president. I was already 33 years old, with a five-year-old
daughter, by the time he was swept out of power in February 1986.
Ninoy Aquino opted out of a brief interlude of comfort and normalcy
in Boston after he underwent heart surgery. He bravely came home in
August 1983 against all dire prognostications and stern warnings. He
was killed as he stepped onto the airport tarmac. His sacrifice
triggered the reawakening and resurgence of an entire nation.
What was it like for him and his family through almost eight years of
incarceration and becoming virtually a voice in the wilderness? We
only caught glimpses of his old fiery form when he led the Laban
slate in the sham 1978 Batasan elections. Only much later did we
learn from his wife Cory the extreme pain and suffering inflicted
upon her and her children.
It was the massive outpouring of grief and outrage at Ninoy's funeral
that sent shivers down the dictator's spine and forced his hand to
gamble on a snap election that he eventually lost. When our people
cried, "Ninoy, hindi ka nag-iisa," they finally claimed his erstwhile
lonely, and seemingly futile, crusade as their own.
We are told that while detained in Fort Bonifacio (now better known
as The Fort or The Global City) Ninoy and Pepe Diokno sang "The
Impossible Dream" if only to assure each other they were still alive
while in solitary confinement. This was also the theme song of former
Antique Governor Evelio Javier when he campaigned for Cory Aquino and
was brutally murdered (barely two weeks before EDSA Uno) while
protecting her votes.
These are the essential elements of history that are largely unknown
to large segments of our population, especially those in the
25-34-year-old bracket, who are the children of parents that may or
may have not personally witnessed or appreciated the full
significance of the events of February 1986.
Ninoy Aquino declared in Boston that "The Filipino is worth dying
for." He defied all warnings and insisted that he would talk to Mr.
Marcos to convince the latter that there was still time to stem the
tide of a violent revolution, if only he would dismantle the
dictatorship and restore democracy.
Cory Aquino stepped into Ninoy's giant shoes and continued the good
fight. Their idealism and commitment to democracy were vindicated
when the people heeded their call for peaceful transformation at EDSA Uno.
Our people's quest for the unreachable star continues.
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