Edsa 1986: All for nothing?

The election of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to the presidency in

2022 has been jarring enough to Filipinos who thought the 1986 Edsa
People Power Revolution was the final deliverance from authoritarian
rule. It had come at a great sacrifice, not only for the whole nation but
for those thousands who chose to stand up against the dictator,
notably Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. who was brutally murdered in
1983.

From the mammoth 12-hour funeral display of the people’s anger to

the people power revolt, it took the Filipino people just three years to
gather the storm that would sweep the Marcoses from Malacañang.

It is clear we are now waging an Edsa 2. This is a battle for the memory
of Edsa and against historical revisionism, of upholding the meaning of
all the sacrifices the nation suffered and the risks the people took. The
return of the Marcoses during the term of President Fidel V. Ramos was
the Trojan horse moment.

From then on, the Marcoses squeezed all that the 1987 Constitution
offered by way of civil, political, economic, and social rights to
rehabilitate their name and restore their political power. It was not a
difficult task—they had all the plundered wealth to invest in the grand
scheme.

For the financial support the Marcoses provided, Rodrigo Duterte

allowed the burial of Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani in 2016,
a mental dissonance of epic proportions. Chased out of the country, the
dictator is now ensconced in the pantheon of Filipino heroes.
Edsa 2 is about protecting our memory of Edsa, of our people voicing
their abhorrence of authoritarian rule. It is about pushing back against
the Marcos administration’s gambit to consign Edsa to the dustbin of
insignificance and oblivion.

Beyond the symbolism and significance of Edsa, however, there are

patterns of collective will and action that have taken root because of
Edsa. No matter that some glib-tongues talk about “Edsa-pwera,” it
remains true that Edsa has brought back formal democratic institutions,
with functioning institutions such as a free press, an independent
judiciary, a multiparty system, and three co-equal branches of
government kept by a checks and balances system.

The Philippines has witnessed significant economic growth since 1986

even though poverty and inequality have festered. Civil society has
been vibrant and the media free despite herculean efforts during the
Duterte administration to muzzle it. Sure, Philippine democracy has
visible dents and signs of corrosion, but it has worked.

There was even enough political elbow room to experiment with

dangerous outliers like Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Duterte. Perhaps the
best legacy of Edsa is Marcos Jr., who, defying preconceived notions he
will be as dictatorial and kleptocratic as his father, has surprisingly
abided by the available political, legal, and other controls of the
Constitution.

Even his “New Philippines” does not spell the imagined malevolence of
his father’s New Society. The Charter change attempt initiated by his
minions was checkmated, even if it meanders looking for an extra-legal
pathway to fruition. Malacañang’s official bypass of the
commemoration of Edsa did not prevent the resounding ridicule of the
Edsa-pwera salvo that initiated the media campaign to change the
Constitution.

Most of all, the Marcos Jr. victory in May 2022, no matter how
grotesque to many, can still be seen as the normal functioning of a
democratic system where voters are free to choose their leaders,
notwithstanding the imperfections of the Philippine electoral system.

But the best legacy of Edsa is how it has eventually returned the
military to the barracks. Those uncertain days of six successive coups
under Cory Aquino’s presidency tapered off after the Oakwood Mutiny
against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2003. The military today
singlemindedly finds pride and meaning in its role of protecting
Philippine sovereignty from both external and internal threats.

The legacy of Edsa is how the military, even with blandishments from
Duterte, refused to join his war on drugs without a legal written order,
in stark contrast to the Philippine National Police which went along for
the ride with nothing more than verbal urgings.

When one looks at nations, including in Asean, experiencing

excruciating turmoil as the military takes over democratic governments,
one realizes that the legacy of Edsa is the Filipino people doggedly
stumbling, fumbling, and jostling peacefully toward the possible dream
of a Philippine democracy of all, for all, because by all.