I look back and I realize that it's true, both Edsa's disappointed the people. While Edsa 1 was a means to regain the country’s democracy from Marcos’ martial law and it has its own symbolic place in history, what happened next in the succeeding administrations failed to fulfill Edsa 1’s hopeful promises.
There were so many activists back then, so many real people fighting for real freedom and real democracy. After Edsa 1, everyone had genuine hope for the future. But then, what happened next?
After Cory, there was Ramos and for awhile there it seemed ok. Until, he left the government’s coffers empty and it all went downhill after that.
With Edsa dos, we once again had renewed hope. We thought we were getting a more educated president, a former economics professor, and a person who won’t be such an embarrassment in international summits. But then no one could have predicted or could have expected the ruthlessness and shamelessness of GMA.
She gained her position through a second round of people power, where the youth clamored for change. Everyone were just so desperate for some shred of hope and they took it to the streets. Everyone thought they were ousting an uneducated former actor who had secret accounts (Jose Velarde, etc) and drinking sessions at midnight cabinet meetings.
And, what does GMA do? She takes the people's good will and she spits on it. It did not matter that she got her position on an implied platform of anti-ill gotten wealth, anti-plunder, or being the anti-thesis of Erap.
At least Erap had the decency to leave his post when he thought the people wanted him out, at least he gave the people that much. GMA just refused to leave even when no one wanted her anymore. She just held on. She glued herself to power for a decade, just refused to let go, abused the country over and over again, and blatantly push all the branches of government further into corruption. Her government was marked by so much discontentment. There were the series of attempts at her impeachment. There were all these unscrupulous deals and scandals: ZTE, NAIA 3, Jose Pidal, Le Cirque, the helicopter deal, Hello Garci, the Maguindanao massacre – among many many others.
In the eve of the anniversary of Edsa 1, in the middle of the Corona impeachment trial, and just a day after GMA’s pleas not guilty to electoral fraud charges against here, I think about how exhausted Philippine democracy must feel.
These days, it just feels silly to even dare hope for a new sense of hope.
Amidst the protest of some people of Aquino’s (very ironic) quest for totalitarianism, I wonder how it will all turn out.
I believe that no new government will be able to succeed unless the existing machinery of corruption is broken down first (or at the very least mildly impaired). Well, isn’t it but logical?
Some people have criticized Aquino for being obsessed with his anti-corruption campaign and his anti-GMA efforts. Well, I wonder why? For once, we at least get someone who is actually making an effort to fulfill his promise. He ran on an anti-corruption platform, did he not? Shouldn't he be doing all this?
Or are we used to politicians promising things but never doing them and we expected that to happen here - so now, we want him to just stop?
Personally, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. It is not as if we have any other better option. If it is obsession that we’re talking about, then wouldn't you rather this one, than say, GMA’s or Corona’s obsession to hold on to power?
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