The celebrations for the past four decades had been concentrated in that small piece of land named EDSA and never once in the wider planes elsewhere all over this country. The limited celebration has practically placed in the dustbin of the forgotten, those real heroes who really fought the dictatorship to regain our lost freedom and democracy. We have been captivated by the big event at EDSA that we lost sight of the essence of the long struggle.
It is really inaccurate to celebrate the People Power Revolution as a mere EDSA incident.
The portrait of opportunists who sneaked through the thick crowd that converged at EDSA just to grab the limelight at the hour of victory is simply revolting. Those who managed to be at center stage to be acclaimed heroes were in truth the cowards who holed themselves hiding in fear at the most dangerous moments. These are the people who defected from the dictator but instead of leading the people in confronting the enemy, they hid in fear and called on the people for protection, only to come out when the despot had flown away in defeat and claim credit as heroes of the peaceful revolution.
A year less than two scores since the successful ouster of the conjugal dictator of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the title of the book written by Primitivo “Tibo” Medrana Mijares (November 17, 1931 – disappeared 1977) was a Filipino journalist, author, war hero, and former press censor and propagandist. He served the Marcos dictatorship before defecting in 1974 to testify before the US congress about the despotic rule of the conjugal dictatorship.
Over the years, the Marcos family managed to return to the country and eventually regained power using the riches they have from the dictator who was hailed for the greatest robbery of a government by the Guiness Book of World Records. Mysteriously, the link in that Guiness Book of World Records disappeared and could no longer be accessed since 15 March 2022. Meanwhile, the namesake of the late dictator is now the magical president that is being tagged by the former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte as a dictator, such allegation coming after the breakup and eventual impeachment of his daughter vice-president. They too have managed to surreptitiously bury the dictatator in the Libingan ng mga Bayani by the grace of then president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
The true spirit of that People Power Revolution is now being waylaid by the very people who shamelessly grabbed power and the accolade of that historic event. It is indeed a catastrophic landslide of misfortunes to have one doubtful leader who rose to power by the second staging of People Power desecrate the spirit of that peaceful revolution. This was followed by the rise to the presidency of the magical president who is the namesake of the ousted dictator. A déjà vu of the evils that People Power defeated more than two decades ago are confronting us once more because the leaders who are but mere opportunist pretenders had kept abusing EDSA.
comments to alellema@yahoo.com
