The 29th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution was a first in nearly three decades of remembering the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, as protesters outnumbered those who commemorated the historic event on Wednesday.
The low turnout is in line with the administration’s low-key celebration of the event.
Asked about the thin crowd, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. quoted Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa: “This year’s celebration was made simple in view of the mourning period for those who died in Mamasapano last month. For the first time in five years, the holding of a Mass was a focal point of the celebration.”
“This is to acknowledge that the Filipinos’ faith in God was a major element in the peaceful revolution,” Coloma said.
In fact, the number of presidential guards as well as the VIPs invited to the event nearly equaled the crowd that stood in front of the stage bedecked in yellow flowers.
Coloma added that a “bigger celebration is planned for the 30th anniversary celebration next year, which will be the last to be held in the Aquino administration.”
Under the scorching heat of the sun, about a hundred civilians participated in the “short and simple” wreath-laying ceremony led by President Aquino at the People Power Monument.
‘It was so simple’
“It was so simple. Only a few people attended, whereas before there were thousands,” Luzviminda de la Rosa of the Department of Education (DepEd)-Special Events told the Inquirer.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the DepEd usually mobilized people for the Edsa celebration. This year they were told a crowd would not be needed for the simple wreath-laying, but at the last minute they called some students to join the audience, De la Rosa said.
About 20 teachers and 50 students came, mostly from Camp Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo High School. “Most of our classmates were not allowed by their parents because of possible disturbances due to the rallies,” a student told the Inquirer.
First month of debacle
At the foot of the Santolan flyover on the southbound lane of Edsa, some 3,000 members of multisectoral groups calling for Mr. Aquino’s resignation over the Mamasapano debacle were blocked by a police barricade.
The Edsa anniversary came a month after the Mamasapano debacle, the biggest challenge to the leadership of Mr. Aquino as Chief Executive and Commander in Chief.
The Mamasapano bloodbath has spawned several protests demanding truth, accountability and justice.
Unlike other Edsa anniversaries, the “Yellow Army” was sparse.
Members of the Cabinet led by Ochoa were in attendance and so were personalities like former Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.
Edsa heroes missing
But the prominent Edsa heroes were missing, notably former President Fidel V. Ramos, Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and former Sen. Butz Aquino, the President’s uncle.
Enrile is detained in Camp Crame on plunder charges while Butz Aquino is reportedly indisposed.
Perhaps the most heartfelt reminder of Edsa were the songs like “Magkaisa” that filled the air before and after the arrival of President Aquino, whose mother, Corazon, became the central inspiring figure of the peaceful revolution that ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
In a text message to the Inquirer, Coloma said Ramos presided over the wreath-laying at Libingan ng mga Bayani on Tuesday, “which was part of the official celebration.”
Ramos has been critical of Mr. Aquino following the Mamasapano incident that took down international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” but left dead 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, 18 Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) fighters, and five civilians, and imperiled government’s peace process with the MILF.
Every Edsa anniversary celebration, Ramos would also repeat his famous jump on stage, celebrating the departure of Marcos and his family from Malacañang.
Binay in Atom short
One Edsa veteran, Vice President Jejomar Binay, arrived wearing a yellow August Twenty One Movement (Atom) shirt bearing the figure of the President’s father, Ninoy, prone on the ground with red paint, symbolizing the blood spilled on his assassination on Aug. 21, 1983.
But Binay was apparently sidelined in the event, with organizers asking him to stand with the crowd instead of onstage.
The President arrived at the People Power Monument at 11:30 a.m. and stayed for the 15-minute program that included the laying of a yellow wreath in commemoration of the country’s fallen heroes that include the 44 police commandos.
The highlight of the short event was the unity walk of the 300 policemen and 300 soldiers from Camp Crame to the monument, reenacting the Ramos-Enrile meeting.
Indignation rally
What was supposed to be an interfaith prayer turned into an indignation rally as the police prevented protesters from forming a human chain from Camp Crame to Edsa Shrine.
Religious groups led by the Promotion of Church People’s Response and the National Council of Churches of the Philippines planned to form a human chain as a “link for justice” together with the multisectoral groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
HEROES ABOVE ALL Dwarfed by a sculpture of heroes linking arms to defend freedom, President Benigno Aquino III leads the wreath-laying ceremony at the People Power Monument during the 29th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution on Wednesday. The bloodless revolt saw people massing at Edsa in Quezon City, to protect soldiers and officials who had withdrawn their support from authoritarian President Ferdinand Marcos. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
The human chain was supposed to occupy only one lane of Edsa southbound but the police barricade blocked all lanes and caused traffic congestion.
Freedom curtailed
Leticia Buhawi, Alona Philippines Association secretary general, said the strict security measures somehow “curtailed our freedom to assembly and expression.”
While the group of around 100, composed mostly of women and children in white T-shirts, didn’t have protest materials with them, but they were barred by police from getting near the Edsa Shrine after they started to crowd in front of a mall a few minutes before the President arrived.
“We’re just here to celebrate and commemorate [the] Edsa [anniversary], to hear Mass,” Buhawi told the Inquirer. She added that the San Bartolome, Novaliches-based group, which advocates women’s and children’s rights, wore white as a symbol of the “purity of our intention.”
Business process outsourcing employee Cris felt that “the solemnity of the occasion has been lost.” The 30-year-old asked: “Doesn’t freedom of speech and expression symbolize the Edsa [People Power Revolution]?”
Songs, dances, speeches
The Edsa anniversary was also celebrated in other parts of the country.
Angeles City in Pampanga province remembered the anniversary through songs, dances and speeches at Marquee Mall on Tuesday night.
Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, regional secretary general of Bayan in 1986, recalled the human barricades in the neighboring towns of Bamban in Tarlac province and Mabalacat in Pampanga that blocked the advance of military reinforcements to Manila on Feb. 24, 1986.
Zumba, basketball
Protest rallies urging Mr. Aquino to step down and physical fitness gatherings through Zumba and a basketball tournament that both called for peace and unity marked the dual moods in southern Luzon, particularly in Albay province and in Laguna province, as various groups marked the 29th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution.
Militant groups held protest marches in Legazpi City, in front of the capitol in Sorsogon City, Plaza Quince Martirez in Naga City and the “Elevated Plaza” in Daet town, urging the President to step down.
In contrast, the PNP was in a celebratory mood. Around 200 policemen in Albay and 50 civilian employees of PNP offices joined a “unity Zumba” that formed part of the annual Cagsawa Festival held every February in Daraga town.
SAF widow at protest rally
In Cebu City, Dr. Christine Abucay-Cempron did not usually join protest rallies and was not a member of any militant organization during her student days at the University of Philippines Cebu College. But on Wednesday, she joined militant groups in a rally.
Cempron, 33, widow of PO1 Romeo Cempron, one of the slain 44 police commandos, joined the call for the President to resign.
“They say that this SAF 44 issue is overly emotional. We, Filipinos, are very emotional. They forgot what we are commemorating today, the emotions that we had to deal with. People Power I was made possible because of the people’s emotions at that time, right? This emotion that we feel has united us and allowed us to open our eyes to the different issues that we continue to endure,” she said in front of Camp Sergio Osmeña, the Central Visayas police headquarters.
Cempron wore a black shirt printed with the image of her husband as she marched with protesters led by Bayan-Central Visayas from Fuente Osmeña to Colon Street. Like other protesters, she wore around her head a red ribbon printed with “Resign.”
Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz
In Iloilo City, about 500 protesters led by Bayan held a protest rally along Bonifacio Drive before marching on the city’s main streets.
Youth and student groups also held candle-lighting protests on Tuesday evening in the provinces of Iloilo, Aklan and Capiz to call for accountability and justice for those who died in the Mamasapano clashes. With reports from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon; Ma. April Mier and Romulo Ponte, Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Carmel Loise Matus, Jhunnex Napallacan and Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Inquirer Visayas
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