EDSA

It was mostly a blurry memory for me, the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

Perhaps the only vivid memory I have about it came weeks before, on Feb. 11, 1986. I was in third grade and our Science class was disrupted because one of my classmates had to leave. Her parents came to fetch her because of a family emergency.

Some 500 kilometers away from Manila, her uncle, Evelio Javier, governor of Antique, was gunned down.

“Evelio Javier, director of Corazon Aquino’s campaign in the remote province of Antique, was sitting on the lawn in front of the capital building, taking a break from a debate over contested votes in his region, when a white vehicle pulled into the driveway. Without warning, a man in a black knit ski mask leaped out and started shooting. Javier jumped up and ran. Zigzagging across the building’s broad concrete plaza, he tried to escape the relentless barrage of bullets. At least one hit its mark. Javier stumbled and fell into a small fishpond. Somehow, though, the fleeing man struggled to his feet and staggered across the street. By this time, other gunmen had begun to close in. Two approached from the left. Another, brandishing a .45 pistol, appeared in front of a warehouse. Javier ducked into an alley and tried to hide behind an outhouse door. But the masked killer found his prey and finished him off with a burst of gunfire,” according to Time Magazine. He died at 10:00 in the morning that day.

I can’t remember what happened the next day. Or the day after. But the days and nights that followed seemed tense; my parents talked almost in whispers, as if more people died; or are about to die.

I would later learn about  Javier and how his death helped spark the revolution. I would later learn about how EDSA unfolded into a once-in-a-lifetime historic moment for our country.

As Nick Joaquin wrote, “One can only pity those who missed that thrilling recognition scene on EDSA because what they missed was history itself. ‘Bliss it was in that dawn to be alive,’ sang another poet of another apocalypse, ‘and to be young was very heaven!’ But on EDSA it was very heaven to everyone, because even the old were young again, were hale again, during that most Christian moment of our lifetime: the four glory days of the tiger moon revolution.”

Indeed, we were the toast of the world, standing together to put an end to the Marcos regime and fight for a better tomorrow for the country.

Disappointment

But sadness and disappointment came not long after the bloodless revolution, when the ideals the people fought for on EDSA slowly faded with the passing of time, as the changes that People Power revolutionaries strived for didn’t really last.

The much-touted liberal “yellow” legacy would unravel in the years that followed; infighting and power struggle among the officials of the Corazon Aquino administration became a drag to whatever progress we were trying to achieve at the time.

There were coup attempts soon after, mounted by disgruntled soldiers who felt the Aquino administration lacked policy direction while the Left, caught up in its own ideological crisis, gave birth to different factions, which left a trail of killings and chaos, assassination of individuals and businessmen, turning off foreign investors and contributing to the economic mess.

But it wasn’t just the administration of Corazon Aquino or that of his son, Benigno Aquino III, that was criticized. Every post-EDSA president failed to address the country’s structural problems, and worse, got mired in his or her own crisis or scandal.

Against this backdrop, the Philippines after EDSA saw the birth of a new set of powerful elites, reminiscent of cronyism that became synonymous with the Marcos era.

There were significant victories, of course, such as the return of democracy in the country and the commitment to national sovereignty, but structural problems such as graft and corruption and political patronage are still very much alive, up to now. Especially now.

The system seems impossibly crooked, which is why the country’s next president will need to really implement serious reforms to bring about real, lasting change.

For now, here we are 36 years after EDSA – still very much a divided society with wide income inequality and still struggling for self-realization.

Come to think of it, EDSA itself is the perfect metaphor to describe our country today – surprisingly fast moving at times, but slow most of the time; chaotic, noisy and dirty.

The 24-kilometer highway is lined on both sides by sprawling malls and condos, one after the other, owned by the country’s richest. Those struggling to survive walk kilometer after kilometer just to get a ride on EDSA, while those lucky enough to be inside air-conditioned vehicles endure the still unresolved traffic. A privileged few travel with police escorts to get ahead of everyone else. As for the corruption, you’ll see it in the potholes, the stinky urinals, and the sometimes inefficient MRT.

And yet, and yet, we hardly notice how much of a gauntlet run EDSA can be because we’re easily distracted by the giant flashy billboards of our favorite celebrities, politicos, and no less than the Appointed Son of God, staring right at us. Just like in  our everyday lives.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com.