EDSA 1: A shift from Dictatorship to a dictatorship of the Elite, masked as Liberal Demcracy

In his speech before students at the Rizal High school yesterday, President Benigno Aquino III said that EDSA uno allowed a shift from dictatorship to democracy. He said that EDSA 1 was different because unlike those bloody revolts over in the Middle East, God was standing by when Filipinos trooped to the streets and demanded change. The president said it was a miracle.


It was no miracle, though that the Marcoses found themselves in Hawaii, than in Paoay though. As revealed by former Justice secretary Raul Gonzales, the US disagreed with the request of the Marcoses to be flown to Paoay as exiles. Among the elites at that time, there was a request for Macoy to just live quietly in exile in his hometown, which, according to Gonzales, was turned down by the United States. 


It was also no miracle that yes, we found ourselves living in a liberal democracy than in a dictatorship. Noynoy said that it was not true that the Philippines could have turned into a "Singapore", referring to that small island state off the Pacific which turned from poor to the region's most prosperous, had Macoy continued his despotic rule. Aquino said the country was mired under billions of pesos worth of debt when Macoy left. The country, says Aquino, continues to pay off those fantabulous debts.


I don't know about this, but it seems that twenty five years hence, and we have more than US$ 7 trillion in debt, one hundred times over the billions during the Marcos regime.


Everyone know that Macoy was just a living corpse at that time, and it was just a matter of a couple of years more, and the dictator would have died silently in his sleep. Macoy was afflicted with lupus, a debilitating disease, and even without an EDSA revolt, the transition from a dictatorship to a democracy would have happened naturally.


Fact is, Macoy lifted Martial law four years prior to EDSA uno. When EDSA broke out, there was limited democratic space already. The age-ing regime allowed people to express themselves, albeit, in a limited manner. If democracy was not there, how come that Ninoy was able to return home?


Frankly, EDSA uno actually led to a transition---from a one-man rule to the dictatorship of the traditional elites, those elites whom Macoy tried to destroy in 1972. 


And frankly, these so-called "EDSA heroes" were active promoters of the New Society espoused by Marcos. The reason why they defected was simply to wrest power from Marcos, plain and simple. 


Admit it--former Marcos' defense secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile wanted nothing more than be declared Chief Executive. Enrile, together with other Marcos cronies, Eduardo Danding Cojuangco in particular, wanted nothing more than be declared Macoy's successor, which, during those times, was impossible since Macoy intended his wife, Meldy and his cousin, Ver, to rule the country after his death. 


Yes, the elections precipitated the revolt, but, like what former President Ramos said yesterday, the people's resentment has been festering since 1971, the year when students staged the First Quarter Storm. The gains of that historic event bore fruit only after two decades. 


1986 was just the right time for regime change, simply because Marcos was on the throes of death at that time. Had it been that Marcos was as strong as he was back then, the outcome would have been different.


The US saw this happening as early as 1983, when crowds began to swell during Ninoy's burial and the political opposition, composed of Marcos' enemies among the country's traditional elites, started flexing its muscles. The problem of succession began to be discussed silently among the elites, and this was never solved because the "strongman" was still very much recognized by the US as its puppet in the East. The US just realized the futility of still allowing the continued rule of Marcos simply because there was no clear succession policy and the one who Marcos intended to give his power to was a discredited political figure. 


Let us admit it--EDSA is like what Egypt underwent these past few days--from the dictatorship of Mubarak to a dictatorship of a few. We are being allowed to live in a neo-liberal environment to hide the fact that political power has just shifted---from the hands of Macoy and some of his cronies, to a dictatorship of the elite. 


We continually live in an elite-led democracy. We are allowed to exercise our rights provided that we allow the local caciques and their foreign backers, the right to rule us and gain tremendous profits from us. 


Truly, EDSA was never, really a revolution because a true one sees the former dispensation thrown away and replaced by a new set of pro-people adherents. EDSA was a peaceful transtion--from one-man rule to a rule of many. That explains why, before Marcos ended his career, several mediators were sent to Malacang purportedly to strike a deal with the discredited regime.