Palace allots P1 M for EDSA rites; Leni saddened

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang will spend only about P1 million for a simple and quiet celebration of the 31st EDSA people power anniversary this year.

Despite the austere preparations, Palace officials said it would respect the intent of some groups, including the critics of President Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.

But Vice President Leni Robredo believes it deserves more than a simple and quiet commemoration as she underscored the importance of reverence to the past in order to “ensure quality of direction in our future.”

“This anniversary is an event that to me deserves a more dignified treatment than a ‘quiet celebration’ in the guise of ‘moving on.’ I believe that the truth of our past will ensure clarity of direction in our future,” Robredo said in a speech at the Ateneo de Manila University yesterday.

“Moving on and forgetting may leave us in danger of making the same mistakes all over again,” she added.

Presidential adviser on entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion III said there is a need to set aside the issue on the burial of former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, which the Supreme Court allowed.

Concepcion, who was appointed deputy chief of the EDSA People Power Commission, lead organizer for this year’s commemoration of the 1986 revolt, said the event is meant to be a day of reflection on the lessons of that peaceful revolution.

“So, whether we will be able to formulate the right process to really pass on this legacy that EDSA has created, will really have to be well thought of. We cannot look at certain incidents that are happening in our country (in relation to) whether Marcos’ burial is a true reflection that people have forgotten what has happened or whether it is an act that shows people don’t care,” he added.

For him, addressing poverty among many Filipinos is more important than issues that tend to divide the nation.

“At the end of the day, democracy would have been useless in a sense if we have so many people in this country at the poverty level. So in the end, this change is really creating greater prosperity for more Filipinos,” Concepcion added.

Cecile Quidote-Alvarez, a member of the organizing committee who opposed the dictatorship, said the pains of the dictatorship cannot be forgotten but it is also time to move on.

Although President Duterte has not hidden his closeness to the Marcos family, he has always been “sensitive to the sentiments of his people,” she added.

The organizers denied that the simple rites were because of this closeness. Invitations have been sent to former presidents Fidel Ramos and Benigno Aquino III.

President Duterte has been tapped to be the keynote speaker but his attendance remains uncertain, depending on his availability.

No traditional salubungan

There will be no reenactment of the “salubungan,” which depicts the meeting of Ramos, then head of the defunct Philippine Constabulary, and former defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile at the current EDSA Monument site. Both played key roles in the revolution.

Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the rites will be held inside Camp Aguinaldo “because that’s where actually it all began.”

He added that the administration will respect the people’s right to freedom of expression and is not keen on suppressing mass protests.

“This is exactly the freedom that EDSA, the EDSA revolution wanted us to have. Freedom to express yourselves, freedom to rally,” Guevarra said. – With Helen Flores, Alexis Romero