YOU-RAM-SFP and the Unsung Heroes of EDSA 1986

Let the True People's Revolt smash the elites!

In 1989, at the height of a struggle against the corporatist administration of former president Corazon Aquino, few people trooped to Malacanang to express their support behind the beleaguered leader.  The soldiers composing the Young Officers' Union (YOU), the Revolutionaryong Alyansang Makabayan (RAM) and the Soldiers of the Filipino People (SFP) were out to get the regime who reportedly renege on its promises of change shortly after 1986. 


Street battles exploded in the streets near Malacanang, reminiscent of American troops battling it out with the Japanese Kempetai during World War two. Explosions rocked Malacanang as airplanes swooped down and bombed several places to smithereens. 1989 was an unforgettable and emotional juncture in Philippine history, as friends battled it out with friends, classmates with classmates, Mason with Mason. 

The societal fragmentation caused by the takeover of the Aquino-Cojuangco clan in the seat of power caused a very serious disorder in the system. Changes were not effected overnight simply because certain elements of the previous dispensation successfully embedded themselves near the center of power. The lack of a clear ideological framework doomed the 1986 event. There was no effort at running after counter-revolutionaries. There was no effort at smashing the traditional centers of power created after several years under martial rule. People who benefitted from the Marcos regime, and those who composed the propertied classes who tolerated the excesses of dictatorship were left unopposed and unpunished. They were left to use their ill-gotten wealth to undermine the policies and desires of the People for change, as reflected in the 1987 Constitution. 


These patriotic soldiers, led by YOU founder Diosdado Valeroso and now Senator Greg Honasan and General Danny Lim and others were slowly being marginalized. Their roles in the historic EDSA 1986 are being blurred and several civilian ideologues tried very hard to describe the 1986 phenomenon as something of a civilian action against an unjust regime. What it really was, was a culmination of several years of struggle led by the leaders of the masses who opposed tyrannical rule. 


1986 was supposed to be a year of change, a period where Filipinos of all shapes and sizes, of all ideological beliefs, of all skills and experience, were supposed to gather themselves and express the true will of the People. The subversion of this "will" was fairly evident, when malevolent societal forces tried to force their will unto a hastily discussed Charter. Like what happened in 1946, shortly after the war, the leaders of this country abandoned their avowed promises to the people, and when it was time to unite and forge a unified platform of government and a clear policy direction for the next succeeding years, they expressed their class preferences instead of minding the true will of the suffering masses.


Class domination became a recurring and permanent fixture in Philippine political history that it now remains as a veritable scourge in this country's development. What had happened during these past twenty six years were events showing inter-elite struggles for power. The opposing Elites use emotional manipulation to urge the middle classes and a fraction of the suffering masses to militate against the ruling elites, and when their time came to rule, these opposing elites immediately reverted to their original natures, a nature despicable and highly toxic to the interests of the Filipino masses.


What has been the culmination of the dreams of the patriotic soldiers who forgot their futures and threw their own lives away just for the sake of the suffering masses became some sort of a copyrighted script turned weapon by an elite whose interest is solely anchored on personal corporatist desires rather than the true desire to help a country recover from numerous catastrophes and disasters.


Where are those soldiers who sacrificed their lives and futures just to forge a true and genuine people's government? 


It is again, time for these patriotic elements to save democracy from utter destruction, caused by this misguided view of several elites that EDSA1986 is a hammer of the elite against their fellow elites.


The phenomenon that was EDSA has been transformed into a weapon of a segment of the elite either to perpetuate themselves to power or cause the downfall of an existing power. 


EDSA 1986 was never intended for the pleasures and whims of the elite. True EDSA is anti-elite, anti-cono, anti-Ilustrado.


Let the enlightened Indio unite as a class, and retake EDSA 1986 from the elites of this country and use this as a hammer to smash them to smithereens. 

EDSA--26 years ago and EDSA now--let the Enlightened Indio start a brand-new EDSA!

"The True Power of the People"

Twenty six years ago, I was in the cradle of my grandmother, watching, with bated breath, what will happen to the soldiers who had encamped themselves in Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame. Many of us back then, saw a glimmer of hope when two of the closest friends of the Dictator, were, themselves leading this brazen act of deviance. 


Those few hundreds turned into thousands and those thousands peaked into a million, as the People themselves went out of their homes and unto a small portion of this 23 kilometer highway just to tell everybody in their government to end what they're doing and pack their bags and go. The million man prayer was heard and the ailing dictator and his brood packed their bags and left in a jiffy.

" The Mestizo revolt"

Twenty six years had past and we now know that the late dictator's son, wife and daughter are serving government. Twenty six years and none of the late dictator's bunch of cronies ever spent a single minute in jail nor the government recovered an estimated multi-billion dollar worth of ill-gotten wealth. Those millions recovered went to fund the farmer's efforts to modernize the agricultural sector and fund the agrarian reform efforts only to see these millions being converted into ghost fertilizers by an Arroyo man.


The closest crony of Marcos now heads the biggest and most successful business enterprise in the Philippines. Eduardo Cojuangco heads the very first company which prys its hands on everything government. IN practically all sectors, Cojuangco and his gang cast their shadows. Make an audit of government assets and those which are earning millions, you'll find a Cojuangco in there. 


Those who even hold the umbrellas for Meldy are now titans in their own industries, quietly working for more money from the capital which they stole from the people's coffers during their hey-day as part of the chuwariwah squad. 


Nothing much has changed these past twenty six years. I would not go to stressful specifics, I would just offer EDSA as an example.

The EDSA HIGHWAY REPRESENTS THE RESULTS OF THAT MOMENTOUS JUNCTURE IN PHILIPPINE HISTORY. Look at it now, and EDSA reflects the primary ideology that remains the dominant paradigm of what this concept of change is. 


From Pasay to the Patriot's monument in Caloocan, that stretch should have reflected what the Supremo intended change to be---a change in the lives of the People. The reason why EDSA ends exactly at the very monument of Bonifacio is the intention of the previous strategic thinkers of this country--that the future generations may always realize that the core pillar, the core ideological basis of change should be that of what the Patriot from Tondo founded several decades ago in the persona and principles of the Katipunan.


Change should have benefitted the collective, not a small group of propertied elites. Change should be for the benefit of the entire polity, not a small privileged few. Change should point to the North where this monument stands, meaning, that the straight path which our forebears intended for us to tread is the Katipunan route, not the other way around.


Notice that EDSA ends at the very corner of Roxas Boulevard in the South. Notice that there is a stark difference, that the builders of EDSA intended us to go North towards Bonifacio and not South, towards what "Roxas" symbolized, which is elite-dominated rule. 

EDSA symbolizes the Filipinos taste for order in chaos

IN between these two points lies the symbol of oppression that for centuries, the Filipinos look into both with hatred and admiration--the EDSA icon. 


EDSA uno happened at the very crossroads of this historical highway, as if to say, that the People chose not the Katipunan nor the Ilustrado way, but Its Way. Had it chose the North, the people would have chosen the Katipunan route, the straight path envisioned by Jacinto. Had it veered towards the South, the people would have expressed its intention of being ruled by the very same oppressors that the colonialists use to subdue the freedom spirit of the People.


By choosing the middle way, the architects of EDSA only showed how mestizo they are. This explains why we, twenty six years hence, is treading a path that is neither here nor there. This explains why EDSA remains a pathwork, and why it is so confusing when, if you look at it very closely, it is an ingenius product, an excellent highway, showing the Filipino ingenuity and technical excellence. 


EDSA is a larger version of Divisoria. In fact, EDSA is our own Divisoria, made bigger and made even more confusing than the first because it signifies order in the midst of chaos, our interpretation of what democracy is and what capitalism is.


We chose the middle route because it shows you the character of the people behind those who claimed to have engineered this caper. They did not realize the consequences of their actions--that this middle road is fraught with errors. That change, to be really what our forebears intend for us to have, is change from chaos to order, and not a mixture of order and disorder.


EDSA, TWENTY SIX YEARS HENCE, HAS NOW BECOME A TOOL OF THE VERY SAME ELITES WHICH THE KATIPUNEROS WANTED EXPUNGED FROM THIS SOCIETY. 


By being claimed and trademarked by those now in power, EDSA has lost its efficacy. It has now become a discredited animal, something of a creation of pseudo-revolutionaries who want nothing more than the continuation of elite domination.


The true EDSA should never be mestizo, or never a mixture of politics and religion. The next EDSA, I still don't know what name to describe it, should be pure struggle---a struggle from the very loins of the still enslaved and still chained Filipino People.


The true EDSA should emanate from the very bowels of this society's most neglected parts. Gone are the days when priests or priests turned rebels, lead this movement. It is time for the enlightened Indio to lead the true revolt, resist the temptations of becoming an Ilustrado and effect a program of governance that will truly pursue the very demands and aspirations of the suffering people.


EDSA was never intended to be institutionalized. Change can never be institutionalized. It goes against the laws of nature. 


The true EDSA uno is not an EDSA uso. True struggle will never go out of style. Change will never go out of style.