For De Quiros--it was not the people who forgot the ideals of EDSA

Conrado de Quiros, columnist of the Inquirer wrote an interesting piece today on how we forgot the excesses of the previous Marcos regime. For De Quiros, there seems to be a classic case of widespread amnesia here. After twenty five years, De Quiros wrote, we see the son, daughter and wife of the former dictator holding sensitive posts in government. We have yet to recover most of the alleged loot the Marcoses and their cronies stole during their times, and we seem to have advanced so little in so long a time. 


He blames the people. I blame the very architects of this pseudo-revolt, and that includes him.


Mr. de Quiros should not blame the people for feeling and thinking this way after 25 long years. For one, the very first ones to forget about the ideals of EDSA were those who ascended into power shortly after Marcos. 


EDSA was about Truth, Justice and Peace, never about reconciliation. Yet, those who administered the first Aquino regime did the unthinkable--they entered into compromise deals with the Marcos cronies and even with the Marcos family, hence, negating the people's call for Truth and Justice.


Of course, their defense was the public coffers were left dry after the Marcoses fled to Hawaii, and that, for me, is as flimsy as their thoughts of governance. Various foreign governments were desirous then to give the Philippines a second chance by absolving all our foreign debts, so that we can use what was left of the Treasury to rebuild our country.


But, no. Cory Aquino decided to try and pursue the least available option---pay our humongous debt.


EDSA never really took off after that week-long tension because the ring leaders of EDSA acted like Marcos mini-mes shortly after they conquered Malacanang. For these EDSA "heroes", their concept of revolution was that--a one-week affair done in dramatic fashion. There was never really an attempt to define what revolution really means or what direction the country should take after they seized power. What these people only knew was take power from Marcos and re-construct what Marcos destroyed in 1972--that is, a society ruled by the whims and caprices of the traditional elite families who control most of the resources of the land. 


Jim Paredes would definitely disagree with me and say that, no, there was a direction shortly after Cory Aquino assumed power, but it was derailed by the succession of coups d'etat by soldiers of the RAM. For Paredes, Honasan etal were to blame for the failure of the first Aquino administration. 


Even without Honasan's adventurist capers, the first Aquino regime would have succumbed to the pressures of financial instability. For one, Aquino do not really know how to govern this country--she relied mostly on the counsels of her close-ins who, themselves, do not really know much about governance. What happened was a chopsuey kind of governance, best fit for a mom and pop operation, never of government. That affected economic performance.


With a weak center, definitely those in the periphery would try to get a slice of power themselves, and they did, using the newly found freedoms that the new administration established. With a very weak center administering a slowly expanding periphery, a bigger space was created for those who once supported the regime and those who claimed to have been "reformed" by the EDSA experience and I am referring to the military establishment. This allowed Marcos cronies to again, see themselves back in the corridors of power.


Slowly, after EDSA, government became a garrison state peopled by those in the military establishment. The bureaucracy became a stumping ground of active and retired military personnel who knew nothing of public administration but occupied highly sensitive government posts. 


Liberal economic policies were implemented, causing massive disruptions in economic performance and hence, increasing the incidence of poverty. The non-implementation of a genuine agrarian reform allowed big landlords to keep their holdings to the detriment of the people. 


Worst, government sold most of the assets and industries created to secure the future of this country due to that flimsy reason of government incompetence in operating businesses. 


What the architects of EDSA created was not the one envisioned by the people during that time. These EDSA "heroes" only rebuilt the despicable society which was destroyed by Marcos--a society ruled by traditional elite families espousing a moribund neo-feudalist lifestyle.


Instead of advancing to a next higher social state, we deteriorated profoundly after EDSA. Why? Because we failed to create a new society out of the regime. What these elites did was revive the state of our nation PRIOR to Martial law, and along with this revival came those excesses, like graft and corruption.


Fact was--it was never the intention of the elitist architects of EDSA to really build a new one out of the old. The only intention of the elites was really create an enabling environment for them to continue holding power. This explains why we are still encountering the same old problems which afflicted us prior, during and after Martial law. 


Mr. de Quiros, your friends and mine did not really know what EDSA really means. Fact is, look at the way they "celebrate" the occasion. It shows how shallow they interpret EDSA. 


They celebrate those "occasions" like salubungans and street parties instead of the things which the government did in rebuilding the country allegedly destroyed by the dictatorship. 


There is still hope.


Noynoy Aquino seems to understand what I am writing here. He has six years to correct the wrongs committed by his mother, their kamaganaks and their cronies. 


Noynoy Aquino should lead the charge towards launching a new revolution--a true one--to arrest the fast slide of the country towards perfidity.