Militants: Post-Edsa admins have selves to blame for resurgence of Marcoses

THIS IS FREEDOM Young participants in Thursday’s commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the 1986 People Power revolt enjoy a rarity on Edsa: no traffic, only confetti and photo-ops to mark the historic event. JOAN S. BONDOC

MILITANT groups on Thursday heaped the blame on the post-Edsa administrations for creating a political atmosphere that allowed the Marcos family to return to power and possibly take hold of Malacañang once again.

Bonifacio Ilagan, spokesperson of the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacañang (Carmma), said government officials who led the country following the toppling of the dictatorship in 1986 were to be blamed for the political resurgence of the Marcos family, after they betrayed “the basic spirit of Edsa.”

“They lacked political will. Those who were elected did not pursue truth and justice,” said Ilagan, a multi-awarded writer who was imprisoned during martial law.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said the blame solely rests on the politicians since they were the ones in the position to introduce societal change.

“But they did not do that. Their politics of accommodation created the condition that allowed the Marcoses to return to power. They didn’t respond to the democratic aspirations [of the country] after Edsa,” Reyes said.

Carmma, Gabriela, Karapatan, Bayan and other allied organizations raised these points in a rally held at the corner of Ortigas Avenue and Edsa. Numbering around 500, the marchers managed to evade police as they held their own commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Edsa People Power revolution.

The Marcos family went into exile in Hawaii, following the toppling of the dictatorship on Feb. 25, 1986. Two years after the dictator Ferdinand Marcos died in 1989, his wife Imelda and their children were able to return to the country.

Imelda and daughter Imee now hold the congressional and gubernatorial seats, respectively, in their Ilocos Norte stronghold. The dictator’s only son and namesake Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is a senator making a bid for the vice presidency in the May 9 elections.

Should Bongbong win as vice president, Ilagan said that would send a message that the Marcoses have been “redeemed.”

“He can insist not to talk anymore of the bloody years of martial law and just talk about the future,’’ he said. “[And later] if he becomes president, all our gains in Edsa will vanish.”