The Philippine Online Chronicles

It may sound strange but reality tells us that this year’s commemoration of the 1986 EDSA uprising has been laced with a star-studded political gimmick, a story-telling stunt and a confession of teleserye proportions.

Today, Feb. 25, Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will lead Liberal Party’s commemoration of EDSA People Power 1 at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Inquirer.net reported. Singers Ogie Alcasid, Christian Bautista, Erik Santos, among others, are expected to perform in the event, starkly contrasting the commemoration in previous years.

In February 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation No. 1017 or the state of national emergency, which spurred arrests of government critics and illegal raids. Protest marches to commemorate EDSA 1 were violently dispersed.

Back to today. Perhaps for the first time, Aquino will stand out as the leading figure of the commemoration of EDSA 1. Since he is running for presidency, he is obliged to come out of the open and celebrate EDSA’s anniversary with the people, after staying away from the tense protest marches in previous years.

By choosing to commemorate EDSA 1 with such fanfare and showbiz glitz, he is not actually commemorating – he is twisting the meaning of the historic uprising. Sadly, Aquino is further leading the people into oblivion of what EDSA 1 really is (which cannot in any way be a campaign sortie). After capitalizing on her mother’s death, Aquino is now capitalizing on the very historical event which propelled her mother into presidency.

Ahead of Liberal Party’s grand activity, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile earlier made use of the EDSA commemoration rites at the EDSA Shrine to reveal what has been hurting him.

“I have long nursed a certain discomfiture at being paraded as an EDSA hero, while those who bravely dared to fight the hard battle with us seemed to have been forgotten, their idealism ignored, and even their heroic contribution belittled,” Enrile said, adding that previous Feb. 25 festivities had seemingly “glossed over” the role of the soldiers at EDSA I.

He also said that “whatever pain I went through, whatever form of prejudice and injustice I may have been a victim (of), is best left in my heart and for history to judge beyond my time.” After 24 years, the tough general is showing off his hurt in EDSA 1. Or was it another publicity stunt?

At the sidelines of the week-long commemoration, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim is running a four-part series in national broadsheet Manila Times on how he defected to the side of the anti-Marcos movement and supposedly helped the People Power uprising. As of this writing, the third part is already published. One cannot avoid thinking if his story-telling stunt has something to do with his mayoralty bid.

To make things worse, the dictator’s son is now claiming that the historic uprising is a failure. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is seeking a senatorial seat under the Nacionalista Party, said EDSA 1 failed to improve the lives of Filipinos and that “poverty has worsened and corruption in the bureaucracy was not eradicated.”

Marcos is correct at pointing out the worsening poverty amid corruption in the country, but he is definitely wrong in saying that EDSA 1 is failure. How could it be a failure if it successfully booted out his father and family from power?

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