Failed revolution

As years pass, less and less people are commemorating the historic non-violent EDSA People Power Revolution carried out 28 years ago last February 22-26. Most of our countrymen who joined that uprising see no more reason to celebrate the occasion because they are greatly disappointed at what is happening in our country now.  Those who joined that uprising, already realize that the cause they fought and were ready to die for at that time, are already lost especially under the present regime.

Indeed the Filipino people staged that revolution and staked their lives not only for the purpose of toppling Marcos’ dictatorial regime and of restoring democracy in this country where “sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them” (Section 1, Article II Constitution). It was also staged to get rid of, and never again allow the corrupt and evil practices in government that has brought so much misery and poverty to our people, particularly cronyism, business oligarchy and political dynasties.

But after twenty eight years, we seem to have fallen back to the same situation that led to that historic non-violent revolution. The President and Chief Executive are now virtually controlling, Congress and the Judiciary with the tremendous power and resources at his command that enable him to impose his will on the members of those supposedly independent and co-equal government departments. Cronyism is back although now more notoriously known as the kabarkada, kaibigan and the kabarilan.  Cronies of the late Marcos are slowly gaining a foothold in big business while his relatives have regained political power in their respective turfs with one of them even elected as a Senator. And business oligarchs have become richer and own most of the nation’s wealth.

Actually even right after that peaceful revolution, the situation did not improve any more. The kamaganaks just took over from the Marcos cronies. This is confirmed by a letter of Salvador Laurel, then Vice President of PNoy’s mother and acknowledged heroine of the revolution, Cory Aquino. Said letter was written way back when Laurel resigned as Aquino’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, but it has surfaced only now. In said letter, Laurel expressed his pain in writing it “to the beloved widow of my childhood friend, Ninoy Aquino. But the truth must be told and I cannot avoid addressing this letter to a lady who happens to be President of the Philippines and who as such, cannot escape responsibility for the gross misgovernment of our Republic”. So he wrote in part:

“The true state of the nation must be told. And the painful truth is that the nation has gone from bad to worse, while you choose to stand aside in the puerile hope that the problems would simply solve themselves. The ‘new moral order’ to which we were solemnly committed has been perverted. It has become a haven for assassins and a den of thieves….

“We promised our people morality and decency in government. What do we have instead? The  very opposite. It is now openly admitted by many, including your former Solicitor-General and some of your own close relatives in Congress, that the stench of “accumulated garbage”—I’m quoting your own first cousin, Congressman Emigdio Tanjuatco, Jr. —rises to high heaven; that the past years of Marcos are now beginning to look no worse than your first two years in office. And the reported controversies and scandals involving your closest relatives have become the object of our people’s outrage.”

 This time twenty eight years later, another Vice President, Jejomar Binay, has also made an assessment of the present state of the nation under PNoy, the son of Cory. In his anniversary message commemorating the People Power Revolution, Binay pointed out that this country has not really attained true democracy yet. He said that: “true democracy cannot thrive in a society whose population lives in poverty. It is our duty - government and citizens alike - to make sure that the economic gains of our country are felt by all,”

The he added that the spirit of EDSA “must live on in the sustained triumph of one of the people’s most fundamental freedoms: freedom from hunger and fear.””Government must stand squarely in defense of these rights and citizens must exercise these rights in the service of a greater, nobler goal: a more equitable and prosperous Philippines”.  

Ninety percent of our people remain poor indeed. And one of the main reasons for this deplorable state is best illustrated by this group of lowly citizens in Central Luzon duly accredited to engage in honest business of collecting, hauling, buying and selling of scraps of palochina (Onemigs Scrap Palochina and Out Lumber) from a locator inside Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) particularly an importer of wood from New Zealand (Juken) which manufacture furniture for re-export to Japan.

It appears that the Bureau of Customs in SBMA still imposes and collects taxes and duties on these scraps hauled out of the SBMA despite the fact that the importer has already paid the duties and taxes thereon. Aside from that, they also shell out the usual under the table or “SOP”. And when they tried to bring out some scraps by after being assured that they should only pay the “SOP”, their scraps and the truck they used was impounded and detained. Now they are out of business.

What is so revolting here is that crooks like the big time rice smugglers are raking it in courtesy of the Customs Bureau. The mastermind of the pork barrel scam is given extra special treatment with no less than the President escorting her to her detention cell and the government spending P120,000 for her medical examination. It seems therefore that the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution has really failed. There is no more reason to celebrate it.

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