MALAYA: EDSA ON MY MIND
MANILA, FEBRUARY 28, 2011 (STAR) JB BAYLON - 'The fall of Marcos should tell us that unless a President is able to institute deep-rooted change in the political and economic system, the elite will be able to return once the President's grip loosens.' IT'S been 25 years since my very first EDSA People Power experience – and that 1986 experience – what some call "EDSA Uno" has been my only one.
I wasn't at EDSA in January 2001. I wasn't at EDSA in May also of that year. And while I have been at EDSA almost every day of my life between February 1986 and February 2011, it is almost always as a commuter, not as a participant in a political event. Just like millions of others.
I was at EDSA Uno primarily because I felt that having an individual in power for 20+ years was not good. Not good for the political system that, like a machine, should constantly be on the move. I didn't share the anger of the radical Left for the US-Marcos dictatorship; nor did I share the personal tragedy of the families of the "desaparecidos" whose loved ones protested today and disappeared tomorrow. And neither did I come from a family whose wealth was suddenly gone, our companies taken over by the Marcos cronies. I was a political science graduate at that time, new in law school, son of two simple-living professors of the State U who saw things from my own perspective, and that perspective told me that when leadership change ground to a halt then the process, like a machine unused, slowly deteriorates.
That Ferdinand Marcos at that time was sick hastened the deterioration, and opened us up to a power struggle between various factions of the ruling elite – from the Vice President-elect to the First Lady to the Defense Minister to the Armed Forces chief.
This is why when I see Libyans and Egyptians hold up placards saying "30 years is enough", I can relate. The State could hold regular elections, and the elections could afford the people a chance to participate, but whether it was Manila in the 1980s, Cairo or Tripoli later, the conclusion was basically foregone. And not because of independent popular will, but because of pre-determined popular will.
The government had the ability to cheat, and did so.
But that's only half of the equation.
The other half of the equation was the restoration of the pre-Martial Law political, social and economic elite that Ferdinand Marcos had displaced because he saw how, from the Spanish or American colonial-era onwards, this country had been ruled by the same 400 or so families that control the economy.
And yes I truly mean ruled rather than led.
These families – less of the Filipino-Chinese then than now – were those with massive interests in sugar and tobacco, coconut and rice, manufacturing and transport, and, yes, communications. One of their patriarchs is said to have boasted at his birthday party that he was more powerful than any Philippine president – and perhaps truly so. These were families that merged business with politics either because they had family members in both or because they kept politicians bought. But their influence was such was when they were unhappy with government policy as it imperiled their interests, their media attack dogs would be unleashed, until government backed down.
These were the families that informally installed almost every Philippine leader chosen either from among themselves or from their politician allies – be they the dictatorial, the corrupt, or even the idiotic. To give the installation a semblance of legitimacy, these were done mainly through the ballots dropped into the ballot boxes by countless hands of the mass of the people.
The ruling class had the ability to cheat. And did so. The birds and bees voting was not an invention during the Marcos years.
Oh! And how could I also ever forget the Philippine branch of the Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church – the religious institution that is and has always also been a political and economic organization! Its greatest contribution to the poverty of this country was the institution of friar landholdings in the Spanish era which helped dislodge so many ordinary Filipinos from their meager "estates". Aggregated together, those small plots became some of the haciendas that a few favored Filipinos "inherited" from the Church, or from friars who had a special interest in their families!
We must never ever forget that the Church is also an integral part of the elite equation in the Philippines. Then, they ran the friar lands. Today they run the elite schools to which the elite families send their elite children wile paying elite fees for an elite education that reinforces elite rule!
I am sure that Ferdinand Marcos was not the first Philippine president to feel the yoke of the ruling elite. But he sure was the first to plot against it, and to, at least for a time, get out of it. But the fall of Marcos should tell us that unless a President is able to institute deep-rooted change in the political and economic system, the elite will be able to return once the President's grip loosens. And in the case of Marcos that grip loosened due to a number of events that came together in a confluence no one could have foreseen. It even had a geopolitical aspect: when the Americans pulled out of Vietnam in 1975 and opened up diplomatic relations with China, the value of propping up strongman government in Southeast Asia as an anti-Communist deterrent greatly diminished.
It can be argued that Erap was the second anti-elite President. Not as politically skillful as Marcos was, and equally blessed and cursed with being far more transparent about his human frailties, see how quickly Erap was out. Again: the elite and the Church riding on the wave of "people power".
That is why, since 1992, I have been in search of a President – even if he were to come from the same elite families – who could be a "traitor" to his own class. Not that he should do a Marcos all over again, confiscating businesses and all that, but that he should see to it that the businesses in this country would not be monopolized by the same families he grew up with.
Difficult? Perhaps, but not impossible, especially not now with so many lessons learned from our history and from the history of so many other countries around the globe.
Until then – and chances are 50-50 that I will get to live to see that "then" – the ordinary Filipino should learn to see EDSA – especially EDSA Uno – in its totality. It did take out a cog in the political machinery that has been working on a regular basis since, but that is a machinery that remains influenced if not controlled by the very interests that were seeking restoration.
Twenty five years later, I now look back at EDSA and have to admit that to me it simply symbolizes a painful Filipino saying: "Iba ang nag-saing, iba ang kumain", which in turn symbolizes the reality that the rest of us will always be cooks – sometimes even fodder – for the very few who truly rule.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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