The Philippine Online Chronicles

There should be no debate on whether the EDSA 1 uprising succeeded or failed. Obviously enough, it succeeded insofar as bringing millions of Filipinos into one defining moment and toppling the Marcos dictatorship. The more significant question that must be asked is whether post-EDSA regimes succeeded or failed in living up to the hopes of the throngs who trooped to the streets in 1986.

By looking at the current predicament of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the Middle East, one gets a simple answer: post-EDSA regimes miserably failed.

The irony of the EDSA 1 celebrations stares us point-blank: Are we really free when we are forced to serve foreign masters just to earn a living? Are we really free when we have no option but to work at the remotest desert just to support our families? Are we really better off when more and more Filipinos are desperately leaving the country each day?

What kind of nation-building do we have when we Filipinos, the building blocks of the economy, are aggressively peddled by all post-EDSA administrations to foreign countries? Not surprisingly, we have a jobless economic growth as consequence. The government merely ships labor out of the country in exchange for overseas remittances, skirting its constitutional responsibility to create decent jobs locally.

It is not EDSA 1 which is the Filipinos’ offering to the world, as what the celebration’s official song “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo” suggest. Narrow nationalism should not blind us to miss similar people’s uprisings which recently unfolded in Tunisia and Egypt and which continue to flare up in Libya and other Middle East countries.

Rather, we are actually the sacrificial lambs to the market demands of the world. And this shouldn’t be surprising, considering the fact that all post-EDSA regimes, including the current Aquino administration, all subscribed to the Marcos dictatorship’s Labor Export Program (LEP). And so while throwing diatribes against the dictatorship, all presidents after Marcos retained the labor export policy at the core of their administrations.

This irony has never been more pronounced until recently, when President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III looked back at the fall of the Marcos dictatorship while keeping mum on his subscription to Marcos’ labor export policy, now starkly highlighted by the thousands of OFWs crying for help in Libya.

It couldn’t be less infuriating: the President basked in the yellow glow of the celebrations as he refused to speak on the state of embattled Filipinos somewhere else. Up to now, many of them are still stranded, desperate and hungry. They are neglected by this government that chose to throw a street party rather than focus on a full-blown rescue mission.

Isn't EDSA 1 about compassion, about being in solidarity with our fellow countrymen whose lives and safety are on the line? Helping out our fellow countrymen in the Middle East would have been the most effective way of remembering the spirit of EDSA 1. Yet lamentably, the President chose to commemorate the historic event with hollow fanfare.

As various governments embark on land, sea and air operations to evacuate their citizens, our government has deplorably opted to stretch its assistance by installment, only deploying teams one at a time. It was also discovered that the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has no master list of locations of Filipinos working in the Middle East. How, then, can we believe the President when he said that his government is working to ensure the welfare and safety of our fellow countrymen abroad?

The government may claim that more and more Filipinos are being evacuated from the volatile region. But it should be noted that evacuations of Filipinos as of this writing are mostly led by their recruitment agencies and employers. Equally infuriating is the fact that the Aquino administration went on full repatriation mode in Libya only yesterday, even if the chaos was already weeks in the making.

And when he spoke yesterday during the 25th anniversary of EDSA 1, President Aquino showed not a single ounce of compassion for the OFWs scrambling for their lives and safety in the Middle East. The people were practically left out in his speech even as it was supposedly a venue to recognize the struggles and contribution of the Filipino people.

What the President delivered for the most part were ironically praises for the corruption-tainted Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). He sounded as if he was still addressing the annual rites of the Philippine Military Academy, echoing his previous promise of expanding the housing program for soldiers and lowering their rent.

What about the tens of thousands of the urban poor who were displaced as entire communities burned in the previous weeks? The President has no plans whatsoever for them.

In a tragic twist, the people, which catapulted the Aquinos into power, are now utterly neglected by the President who politically benefitted from the symbolisms of EDSA 1. After raising hefty political capital from the hardships of those who made the uprising successful, Aquino is just enjoying his presidency while millions of Filipinos desperately eke out a living in the slums, in the desert, or in whatever corner of the globe.

The history of people’s struggles dictates however that it is not always the case that this inept President will bask in the yellow spotlight. Who knows, Aquino might suffer from the same People Power which he merely brandishes as a political badge.

^{Carlos blogs at www.chrocarlos.wordpress.com}

Photo by Noemi Lardizabal-Dado. Some Rights Reserved