It is true that the immediate cause that forced Marcos to flee the country was the four-day People Power Revolution. But this historic event was the climax of a long series of other revolutionary struggles which I call the Road to EDSA.
For many activists the journey started during the first three months of 1970 when massive student rallies were on the streets demanding reforms. The newly re-elected president found thousands of students rallying outside his 1970 State of the Union address at the legislative building which is now the National Museum.
Although I joined the 1970 rallies as a student, my personal journey to EDSA really started in 1978 during the Batasang Pambansa elections.
There were several debates among the opposition at this time. The first was whether martial rule could be toppled through non violent means. The other debate was whether the opposition should join or boycott the elections that Marcos allowed to be held during his term of office. These were the times that the voices of Ninoy and Cory finally persuaded the Filipino to follow non violent means and to participate in elections despite seemingly impossible odds.
Marcos called for elections on April 7, 1978 for an interim Batasan Pambansa. The Liberal Party, the main opposition, announced it would join under certain conditions. These demands were the lifting of martial law, the release of political prisoners, the freedom of speech and assembly and guarantee that participants in the electoral process would not be arrested. Marcos rejected all these demands and the LP leaders decided to boycott the elections. Ninoy Aquino was still in jail. According to Cory Aquino, Ninoy decided to participate because the campaign was the only forum made available for the opposition to speak to the Filipino people.
The main electoral battleground was Metro Manila where 21 seats were at stake. A new opposition was formed called Lakas ng Bayan; and, its acronym and battle cry was LABAN! It was a battle cry that was and is a manifestation of the Filipino fighting spirit even in the face of tremendous odds.
Their first rally was in the courtyard of St. Andrew’s Church in Paranaque organized by Jaime Ferrer. Only around two dozen or so spectators came to listen. The population was still afraid of martial law persecution. Then on March 10, 1978, Ninoy Aquino was allowed to have his first and only television appearance. It would be taped in the morning and aired at 7:30 p.m. on Channel 4. Somehow news about his appearance spread quickly by word of mouth. There was no social media at that time and the media was government controlled.
That evening the streets of Metro Manila were almost empty as people stayed home to listen. It was a riveting performance. After that evening, the number of people attending LABAN events ballooned to tens of thousands.
On the eve of elections April 6, 1978, word spread that Ninoy had called for a 30-minute noise barrage. I joined a Jaycee friend – Ninoy Gutierrez – and we decided to ride around Metro Manila. Everywhere we went there were people on the streets banging pots and cans; and vehicles going around blowing their horns. It was another non violent form of peaceful rebellion that we discovered – unplanned, spontaneous but a striking expression of what we now call as People Power.
We thought the election was won. I was assigned to monitor elections in Southern Manila. In most schools, gates were closed after the counting started. Opposition watchers were told to leave or face arrest. Soldiers guarded the entrance. It was only in St. Scholastica’s College where the nuns were able to stop soldiers from closing the gates and the public was allowed to view the counting. It was the only place I visited where the opposition won.
The next elections were the same; but, we kept participating because it gave us a chance to keep talking to the people. After the assassination of Ninoy in 1983, people were now joining opposition rallies by the thousands. Then came the snap election of 1986. There were those calling for boycott; but Cory Aquino called on the people to participate. The opposition had no media coverage; but held rallies and motorcades every day. The Marcos forces resorted to the usual tactics of vote buying, intimidation, ballot box snatching, tampered election returns and disenfranchisement of voters in opposition bailiwicks. Volunteer watchers for the opposition and NAMFREL were beaten up.
On election day thousands of volunteers refused to leave ballot boxes unguarded and even protected them with their lives. The Marcos appointed COMELEC showed Marcos with a narrow lead; but the NAMFREL count showed Cory leading by a million votes.
On Feb. 9, 1986 two days after the election, the state run television showed 30 female computer technicians led by Lorna Kapunan suddenly standing up and walking out of the COMELEC tabulation at the PICC with computer diskettes in hand. They later announced that they were protesting the manipulation of elections results in favor of Marcos.
The Filipino people were convinced that Cory Aquino was the legitimately elected President of the Philippines. There were now more rallies and acts of civil disobedience.
The culmination was the four-day People Power People event which finally restored democracy to the Philippines.
Creative writing classes
for writers of all ages
Young Writers’ Hangout on March 21 with Roel SR Cruz (1:30 pm-3 pm; stand-alone sessions) and on March 28, an adult series session on Writing Children’s Stories with Mailin Paterno at Fully Booked BGC. For details and registration, email writethingsph@gmail.com.
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Email: elfrencruz@gmail.com