Arroyo: No more EDSA revolts Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. Edson C. Tandoc Jr. Inquirer
February 26, 2007
MANILA, Philippines -- The world welcomed EDSA People Power I in 1986 and tolerated EDSA People Power II in 2001, but it will reject a third one, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Sunday on the 21st anniversary of the first people power revolt that toppled the Marcos regime.
On both occasions, the military had sided with the protesters.
“The world will not, however, forgive another EDSA but would instead condemn the Philippines as a country whose political system is hopelessly unstable and the Filipinos as among the finest people in the world but who always shoot themselves in the foot,” Ms Arroyo said in her speech at the EDSA I anniversary celebration.
In contrast, she said that “when President [Fidel] Ramos came to EDSA on the first day of EDSA in 1986, and throughout those four days, especially when Cardinal Sin called upon the people to come and the people responded, the world embraced EDSA.”
Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, including priests and nuns, massed on EDSA in the heart of Metro Manila to protect mutinous soldiers from a convoy of tanks and troops loyal to Marcos.
Nuns and unarmed civilians holding rosaries and flowers knelt before the tanks to halt their advance in iconic images beamed by TV networks around the world.
Marcos, who ruled with an iron fist for 20 years, was forced to flee into exile in Hawaii, where he died in 1989.
Sparse crowd
The celebration on Sunday had a sparse crowd with none of the major actors of people power present except for Ramos.
Former President Corazon Aquino attended Mass at the EDSA Shrine at noon but she quickly left afterward.
Nearly 300 policemen were deployed at the shrine, many of them armed with truncheons and shields, anticipating a face-off with protesters.
But nobody came.
Tolerated
Ms Arroyo said the world just “tolerated” EDSA II in 2001.
It was EDSA II that allowed Ms Arroyo, who was then Vice President, to assume power when then President Joseph Estrada left Malacañang amid calls for his ouster by tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the EDSA Shrine.
She ran and won in the 2004 presidential election but was later accused by the opposition of conspiring with others to rig the polls.
Last year, an attempt at a people power revolt in which a sector of the military planned to join the people marching to EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue) failed.
Claiming an alliance of soldiers, opposition politicians and communist rebels was plotting to overthrow her, Ms Arroyo declared on Feb. 24 a state of national emergency and demanded obedience to all her decrees and orders.
The military rounded up some leaders of the rally at EDSA, raided a newspaper identified with the opposition, and detained military officers linked to the failed coup plot. About 30 military officers are facing a court-martial.
Foreign capital
For Ms Arroyo, another people power revolt would turn back foreign and domestic capital.
“Under those circumstances, who would invest in the Philippines? How would we finally bring the gains of the economy to the average Filipino, which at the end of the day was truly meant by people power,” said the President.
Change people’s lives
She encouraged Filipinos to use people power to change people’s lives so that the spirit of EDSA could be kept alive.
The President said the spirit of EDSA should be given a more appropriate meaning in these times.
“People power should not only be a gathering of the public united to topple an administration. Instead, just like the awardees today, we should use People Power to unite responsible citizens in establishing a stable and new nation,” she said.
She said people power was about the future, not just about the past.
Pondo ng Pinoy
“People power should be about new ideas like Gawad Kalinga, Pondo ng Pinoy, and not old complaints. People power should be about fighting for a stronger nation not just fighting, and people power is about the heroism of the many who in their daily labors trust in the Almighty,” the President said.
Gawad Kalinga is a highly successful housing and development project for the poor, while Pondo ng Pinoy is a program of the Archdiocese of Manila that counts on donations of as little as 25 centavos to support antipoverty initiatives.
Ms Arroyo said Filipinos should unite in support of government efforts to bring about economic recovery, calling for the public to back her tough reform policies, including new taxes, aimed at creating jobs and building infrastructure.
“These past years under our government, there was another people power that happened. This is the support of the people and sacrifice for our difficult but necessary decisions to strengthen our economy,” she said.
Ms Arroyo was accompanied by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo to the People Power Monument.
Police truck
Policemen from all of the four police stations under the Eastern Police District sent civil disturbance management teams to the EDSA Shrine, about a kilometer from the monument.
A big police truck and several police cars were parked around the shrine.
Last Friday, nearly 300 protesters gathered in front of the shrine on the corner of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue, carrying posters against Ms Arroyo.
They did not have a rally permit but police officials allowed them to hold a short program. The protesters voluntarily dispersed afterward.
Church officials themselves had asked the police to keep protesters away from the shrine, fearing protest actions would desecrate the church and disturb ongoing Masses.
As of Sunday afternoon, the situation at the shrine remained peaceful.
“We have not monitored any protest actions,” said John Sosito, Eastern Police District intelligence and investigation chief. With a report from Associated Press
