ON Saturday morning last week, several hundred left-leaning demonstrators took over a religious group’s march to the Marian Shrine on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), and set the tone for this year’s celebration of the military revolt that ousted the strongman Ferdinand Marcos on Feb. 25, 1986.
However, instead of chanting slogans against Marcos, who had been the Left’s rabid enemy for 20 years, the marchers turned to President Rodrigo Duterte, with their new mantra: “Tayo ang EDSA, tayo ang pagasa, labanan ang diktadura.” —“ We are EDSA, we are the hope, fight the dictatorship.”
A street no more
This gave a significant twist to the meaning of “EDSA.” From the street which in 1986 and 2001 saw a successful uprising against the government, EDSA, according to this new language, now means the people rising in protest against the government. Although their small number still obstructed the traffic, they were saying they did not have to physically occupy EDSA in great numbers anymore; all they had to do was simply march against the government. EDSA had become a noun, if not a verb, of resistance, if not revolt.
This indeed is a significant development in our language of politics. Before the 1986 EDSA revolt, the government was obliged to validate its claims before the fiercely adversarial press and the even more adversarial interaction with the masses. Plaza Miranda, the public square in front of the famous Quiapo Catholic Church in Manila, became the nation’s most popular testing ground for political ideas—it was there, even more than in the halls of Congress, where the most important national questions could be debated before the electorate. For Ramon Magsaysay, the popular seventh president of the Philippines (Dec 30, 1953 to March 17, 1957), the litmus test of any government idea was whether “one could defend it in Plaza Miranda.”
Plaza Miranda
It was in Plaza Miranda where national candidates spoke to the nation to sell themselves and their programs of government. And it was here where the most brutal attack on free speech and the democratic electoral process was inflicted on Aug. 21, 1971, when communist agents bombed a senatorial campaign rally of the opposition Liberal Party, killing nine and wounding 95 others, including the party’s most prominent LP personalities like Gerry Roxas, Sergio Osmeña Jr., Jovito Salonga, and Ramon Bagatsing, who was running for mayor of Manila. Then-Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, the most important party official who was absent during the explosions, automatically accused Marcos of having ordered the bombing.
But Marcos rejected the accusation and rapped the communists instead as the actual perpetrators. He suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus throughout the country to round up the suspects. One year later, he proclaimed martial law to turn back the rebellion, which had spilled out into the streets and threatened to overrun the government.
Some of the perpetrators ultimately confirmed Marcos’ claim; this was documented by Gregg Jones’ Red Revolution: Inside the Philippine Guerrilla Movement, among others. The late former Senate President Salonga, one of the most, if not the most, seriously wounded of the victims, said he had come to the conclusion that the real architect and author of the crime was not Marcos, but the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines Jose Maria Sison, with “the possible knowledge of ‘Ninoy’ Aquino.”
Mutating to EDSA
This was the last time Plaza Miranda was described in political texts as the place where political ideas were validated by the Filipino people. On Feb. 25, 1986, a military mutiny, supported by the civilian population that poured out on EDSA, and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, which issued a powerful pastoral statement that set the moral basis for the move against Marcos, forced the strongman out of Malacañang after 20 years in power. It was a bloodless uprising that ended with the strongman and his family being flown by the US Air Force to Hawaii.
Instantly, EDSA became a household word for changing an unwanted government.
The military installed Mrs. Corazon Aquino as revolutionary president, even though she had failed to overcome Marcos in the snap presidential election of Feb. 7, 1986, and had gone into hiding with the Pink Sisters in Cebu as the EDSA revolt broke out in Manila. Despite the props provided by external actors, Cory’s government could hardly mute nor mask its inherent dysfunctions. Lacking an authentic constitutional mandate, Cory had to face an EDSA-type revolt from the same forces that had installed her in power, for at least seven times during her six-and-a-half years. The deadliest of these nearly toppled her, were it not for the timely flyover of US jet fighters at the height of the coup attempt.
Biggest gatherings in the country
Due to mass gathering crowds of five to ten million at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, such as the Feast of Santo Nino weekend every January, the anniversary celebration of the Catholic Charismatic group El Shaddai, and the birthday of its founder Bro. Mike Velarde in August, the anniversary of the Evangelical Charismatic Christian group Jesus is Lord Church and the birthday of Bro. Eddie Villanueva in October at the Quirino Grandstand, nine years before the January 12 to 16, 1995 visit of Pope John Paul II for the 10th World Youth Day, when the most significant papal crowd in history, the Centennial celebration on June 12, 1998 attended by more than four million people and the State Visit and Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis closing mass on January 18, 2015.
At WYD 1995, five to ten million people gathered at the Quirino Grandstand, Luneta Park in Manila, Philippines, an event recognized as the largest crowd ever by the Guinness World Records.
It was surpassed by the 4th and 10th-anniversary celebrations of Catholic Charismatic group El Shaddai to coincidence with the 49th and 55th birthday celebration of it's founder Bro. Mike Velarde at the same venue last August 20 to 21, 1988 and August 20 to 21, 1994 and the 16th-anniversary celebration of Evangelical Charismatic Christian group Jesus is Lord Fellowship to coincidence with the 48th birthday celebration of its founder Bro. Eddie Villanueva last October 9, 1994.
No other than the presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos was the guest of honor during the El Shaddai gatherings.
The participants crowded the 58-hectare park and adjacent areas-Roxas Boulevard, Padre Burgos Drive, Taft Avenue, Pablo Ocampo, Paseo Palisoc, Julian Felipe, Fernando Ma. Guerrero, E. Makabenta, Magdalena Jalandoni, Leandro Locsin, Vicente Sotto, Pedro Bukaneg, Zolio Hilario, Manuel Argilla, Leona Florentino, Atang dela Rama, Jose W. Diokno Boulevard, Senator Gil Puyat Avenue, Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard, A. Mabini, Adriatico, Asuncion, Leveriza, Balingkit, Bagong Lipunan, Maginhawa, Lawin, Fidel A. Reyes, Castro, Quirino Avenue, San Andres, Remedios, Julio Nakpil, Alonzo, P. del Carmen, General Miguel Malvar Street, Dr. J. Quintos, Pedro Gil, Padre Faura, U.N. Avenue, Maria Y. Orosa, Churucca, Jorge Bocobo, San Carlos, Arquiza, Grey, A. Flores, Cortada, Marcelo H. del Pilar, L. Guerrero, Plaza Nuestra Senora de Guia, Alhambra, T.M. Kalaw Street, Escoda, Apacible, Leon Guinto Street, Felipe Agoncillo, General Luna, Gonzales, United Nations Avenue, Padre Burgos Avenue, Finance Road, Ayala Boulevard, Bonifacio Drive, Port Area, Jones Bridge, MacArthur Bridge, Quezon Bridge, Rizal Avenue, Carlos Palanca Sr., P. Casal Street, General Solano, Nicanor Padilla, Gonzalo Puyat Street, Evangelista, Ronquillo, Estero Cegado, Germinal, Trinidad, Mabolo, Sales, Padre Gomez, Platerias, Palma, Carriedo, R. Hidalgo, Plaza Miranda, Villalobos, Z.P. de Guzman, F.R. Hidalgo Street, Carcer, Pasaje del Carmen, Concepcion Aguila, J. Nepomuceno, Arlegui, Fraternal, Vergara, Castillejos, Duque de Alba, Farnecio, Antonio Villegas, Natividad Almeda-Lopez, San Marcelino, Ayala Boulevard, D. Romualdez, Padre Faura, Apacible, Mahatma Gandhi, Angel Linao, Calixto Dyco, Syson, San Jorge, Nieto, Narra, Apitong, Dao, Lauan, Yakal, Mahogany, Tindalo, Narra, Guijo, Cristobal, Paz, Zulueta, Cuevas, Yangco, Leroy, Alfaro, Salvador, 13 de Agosto, Sto. Speulcro, Lopez Jaena, Santiago, Sagat, Felina, Icasiano, Lanuza, Anak Bayan, Singalon, Tirona Benitez, Modesto, San Pascual and San Pedro.
Some of them came to the venue as early as three days before the event. They came not only from Metro Manila, but also from Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, Pangasinan, Abra, Baguio City, Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga-Apayao, Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Aurora, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Marinduque, Quezon, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Palawan, Rizal, Romblon, Albay, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, Sorsogon, Antique, Aklan, Bacolod City, Guimaras, Iloilo City, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Bohol, Cebu City, Cebu, Mandaue City, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Biliran, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Northern Samar, Samar, Southern Leyte, Basilan, Zamboanga City, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Bukidnon, Cagayan de Oro City, Camiguin, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Surigao del Norte, Cotabato, Davao City, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Sarangani, South Cotabato, Surigao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. Also present were from Abkhazia, Afghanistan, Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Åland Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Clipperton Island, Cocos Islands, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Federal Dependencies of Venezuela , Finland, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Melilla, Mexico, Federated States of Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nagorno-Karabakh, Namibia, Nauru, Navassa Island, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Northern Cyprus, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Nueva Esparta, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Andrés and Providencia, San Marino, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Somaliland, South Korea, South Ossetia, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Transnistria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In an initial comment immediately following the event, Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, stated that over 4 to 10 million people had participated.
Pope Francis has celebrated an outdoor Mass in front of unprecedented crowds in Manila.
Six million people attended the ceremony or lined the Papal route to Rizal Park, city officials estimate.
That would be a record for a papal event. About five to ten million welcomed Pope John Paul II in Manila on January 15, 1995.
The Vatican said Pope Francis had dedicated the service in part to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the country in 2013.
The Mass will be the Pope's final full day in the Philippines, where there are 80 million Catholics, concluding his six-day tour of Asia.
It was Friday, June 12, 1998, a public holiday. Thousands of spectators flocked to Rizal Park awaiting the start of festivities for the Philippine Centennial Year celebrations.
They came by the busloads – couples, families, friends, even whole villages – donning caps, holding umbrellas and wearing Filipiniana attire amid the morning heat. Others wore the nation’s colors and carried various sizes of Philippine flags.
It was a field day for many, and the beginning of a long weekend. They laid mats and cardboard on the grass, brought out packed lunch in Tupperware and exchanged small talk.
For some, the park became an instant classroom for parents to give impromptu lectures to their children on Philippine history, culture and tradition.
One parent, Elizabeth Montecillo, brought her two sons and a nephew so she could tell them about the country’s heroes and the important events of the past. “Earlier, they inquired about the Rizal Monument,” she said. “It’s good for them to learn history at an early age.”
The children had a lot to look back to; it was, after all, 100 years of Philippine history. The festivities commemorated the day when Filipino revolutionaries, led by then-president Emilio Aguinaldo, declared the country’s independence from Spanish colonial rule in Kawit, Cavite on June 12, 1898.
A 42-float parade depicted the country’s history during the celebrations at Quirino Grandstand, which was witnessed by President Fidel Ramos, Vice President Joseph Estrada, members of the government, the diplomatic corps, and other guests.
One float featured a life-size caravel, which showed the arrival of the Spanish colonizers in 1521 led by explorer Ferdinand Magellan. A mock battle was performed reenacting the Battle in Mactan between Magellan and the island’s natives.
The 300-year Spanish colonial rule was portrayed in the succeeding floats. It showed the country’s conversion to Christianity, the people’s enslavement to serve the Spanish empire’s economic needs, the revolts against colonial rule, the period of nationalist enlightenment, and the bloody revolution that it brought forth.
At the apex of the parade, a two-story replica of the Aguinaldo Mansion slowly made its way along the parade grounds. On the balcony, actor Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., an actor who starred in numerous action movies, played the part of President Aguinaldo.
With a solemn expression, Revilla held the flag from a long pole as he stood along with two other actors, Dante Rivero and Juan Rodrigo, who read the Declaration of Independence. When the declaration was read, he slowly waved the flag to the cheers of spectators wearing farmer costumes.
He then went downstairs, walked out of the mansion with the flag, and went up the stage to the awe of government dignitaries. As the drums rolled, Revilla handed the flag to Ramos, who then raised it with one hand before planting it on a stand at the stage.
Ramos had reenacted the same event from the balcony of the Aguinaldo Mansion in Kawit, Cavite, earlier that day.
In his speech during the celebrations, Ramos addressed the crowd. “Today, we have grown into the responsibility and the glory of nationhood. We are prepared to account for ourselves in the global community. We have begun to make our own history.”
“We, Filipinos, are rejoicing in our coming of age — in the final proof of our ability to understand, to use, and to protect the liberty our heroes won for us a century ago,” he said.
The celebrations culminated with a military parade that showcased our armed forces’ might, including a fly-by of air force jets. The evening was capped by a 30-minute fireworks display at Manila Bay — the largest and longest the country has seen — in the colors of the republic: red, white, yellow and blue.
Ousting Estrada
Fifteen years later, under then-President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, EDSA made a dramatic reappearance. Led by then-Speaker Manuel Villar, the rich property developer from Las Piñas, the House of Representatives impeached Estrada for bribery and corruption without much of a fight, and the Articles of Impeachment promptly went up to the Senate for trial. Estrada was represented by some of the best lawyers in the profession—Andres Narvasa, former chief justice of the Supreme Court, Estelito Mendoza, former solicitor-general and secretary of justice, Raul Daza, former deputy speaker of the House where he had served three consecutive terms as congressman for the first district of Northern Samar. Then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. presided over the trial. But the case was to be decided not on legal merits alone.
In the course of the trial, the prosecution threatened to walk out every time it moved for anything and feared its motion would not be granted. The walkout finally came after the court refused to admit and open an envelope that had been volunteered by a bank, without the need of a subpoena, and whose contents were totally unknown to the court. Not getting what they wanted, the prosecution walked out, and instead of recalling them back to court, the presiding Chief Justice joined them at EDSA, together with the other Supreme Court justices, the members of the Cabinet, and the commanding generals of the Armed Forces, and swore in Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the 14th president of the Philippines.
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| Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is sworn in as the President of the Philippines by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. |
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| Ousted president Estrada waves goodbye as he and his family leave Malacañang on January 20, 2001. |
This was the second time EDSA became the venue of regime change after 15 years.
On March 2, 2001, the Supreme Court, voting 13-0, upheld his ouster from the top post.
Thereafter, he was charged with and convicted of plunder on September 12, 2007, but was pardoned on October 25, 2007, by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The next day, October 26, 2007, he walked free.
He ran for president in 2010 and placed second to Benigno Aquino III, but he bested early favorite Manuel Villar and six others. Undaunted by the only defeat in his long political career, he ran and won as Manila’s mayor on May 13, 2013, and assumed office on June 30, 2013, or 15 years since he assumed the presidency.
Delayed countermoves
Estrada tried to reclaim the presidency by pointing out he never resigned and that Arroyo was merely sworn in as “Acting President.” But the Supreme Court, through the former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, ruled that Estrada resigned “constructively” when he vacated Malacañang. Normally, a President loses the presidency when he dies, is permanently incapacitated, is removed upon conviction in an impeachment trial, or resigns. In each of these instances, a formal document attests to what happened. Estrada’s resignation was the only such resignation, from the presidency at that, without the necessary supporting documentation.
EDSA under GMA
There were several moves to mount a counter-coup to recover Malacañang for Estrada, all without avail. The Oakwood mutiny was the biggest such project, but it proved to be an utter failure. Some people may still be hoping that one big EDSA push could remove DU30 from power, even without a suitable successor. But with the military and the police eating out of his hands, DU30 may be the only one who could remove himself from his constitutional office, through a military junta or a revolutionary government.
In the absence of a committed constitutional and ideological opposition, the idea of great numbers massing on EDSA to oust the dictator may now be a pipe dream. For the same reason that no serious senatorial candidate would dare to debate any of DU30’s minions on any national or international important issue during this campaign, no one would dare entertain the idea of challenging DU30’s right to continue in office, even in poor imitation of the Venezuelan Juan Guiado who declared himself interim president without any constitutional process, even while President Nicolas Maduro resigns.
Today’s street marchers probably know this only too well. That’s why the best they can do is to proclaim “Tayo ang EDSA, tayo ang pagasa, laban ang diktadura.” They have to assert that the actors, no matter how few, have now become the first and ultimate venue of the “revolution.”
