Edsa 2 Killed Edsa 1 and the Left Buried Them Both

I was driving by the Edsa People Power Monument along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue near Camp Crame in Quezon City late Sunday morning (yesterday). AM Radio mentioned that earlier, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Fidel V. Ramos were there to commemorate the events of 1986 that ushered out the fascist dictator Ferdinand Marcos. But no one else showed up, not even the Leftists that have for twenty one years tried to call back the Genie of People Power. Certainly not even the Catholic Church or Juan Ponce Enrile and the rebel soldiers that made 1986 possible. Even the trash of shredded confetti left scattered about had the desultory look of those tiny Philippine flags festooning the small stone crowd of the monument itself.

Various pundits, analysts and editorial writers, are scratching their heads, or even beating their chests, over the people's singular lack of enthusiasm for such "a glorious moment in Philippine history" as the "peaceful Edsa People Power Revolution of 1986."

A few days ago, PDI, (a mass organization that only masquerades as a newspaper) wrote an editorial about this in which we find the following bit of angst--

Today, when observers speak of “People Power fatigue,” they are seduced by an essentially meaningless, if catchy, phrase. It might be more accurate to say that collective action in terms of the “parliament of the streets” has evolved into many kinds of collective action. Gawad Kalinga, for example, is how Couples for Christ, which was present in the streets during Edsa People Power II, channeled its energies into activities more difficult for politicians to subvert and less liable to disappoint its participants.

Yet, neither "fatigue" nor "being jaded" nor finding "many kinds of collective action" to channel the energies of the "parliament of the streets" into, rings true as an explanation for the apparent death of People Power as these folks and their Leftist Comrades now are mourning.
I've come to the conclusion that indeed, it was Edsa 2 that killed Edsa 1 and the Left has buried them both by trying to resurrect and repeat a unique and perhaps ultimately inexplicable original event, (a "miracle" they used to say). They have tried to turn People Power into a euphemistic label for their "parliament of the streets" hoping to make "revolution" the "peaceful way."

You would not agree with such an assessment if you still do not see Edsa 2 for what it was--the death of democracy in a judicial coup d'etat cum conspiracy by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Chief Prosecutor Joker Arroyo, Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes, Vice President GMA, and those who lost to the only democratically elected leader in living memory -- the plunderer-blunderer Joseph Estrada. As Rene Saguisag recently observed in a recent email, we did not listen to Celing Palma about preserving the Constitution in 2001. Now we are paying for it because the People, are not fooled by what really happened. They know that the mandate they gave Erap in 1998 was simply erased by a Fascist in Chief Justice's clothing who had absolutely no business showing up at that partisan political activity called Edsa Dos in order to abort the only valid means of ridding the stage of Erap--the impeachment trial. The people knew that the elites and losers of the 1998 elections had gathered to exercise their own power. If there ever was a Left-Right Alliance to illegally bring about regime change, it was indeed, Edsa Dos.

If there should have been another flashpoint for People Power, the Hello Garci controversy and the cheating of the 2004 elections ought to have been it. But the Left and its hypocritical supporters in the Media did some crazy things like that Kangaroo People's Court with its Presiduum and thinly disguised Stalinesque intentions (patterned after the International Tribunal in the Hague), only convinced the people it was another end-run on Democracy and the Rule of Law.

People Power has been completely coopted by the same people that brought us Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in cooperation with those who also want to bring us Joma Sison or some other demagogue revolutionary. Of course the most laughable rationalization of their failure is this sentence from the editorial:

But while the mass actions of the past couple of years lack the colossal scale of 1986 (and people power in Eastern Europe), they remain comparable to 2001. ... x x x ... We have, perhaps, simply become jaded over time. Our government has also become less willing to continue permitting what we once assumed was part of our democratic rights...It took foreign concern over human rights violations for Marcos to even make token attempts to rein in his death squads. We see the same give-and-take today. Is it any wonder then that these and many other similarities to what came before have embarrassed our government into silence when confronted by the achievements of 1986?

The achievements of 1986 were destroyed by the coup d'etat of 2001, still justified and adulated by PDI. It continues to be destroyed by the obvious attempts of the Left to use people power as revolutionary mass action for their own benefit.

All that's left of their illusions are to be seen in the scattered confetti around the monument whilst Filipinos decide to vote with their feet and ignore the impassioned please for one more people power.

But I liked the editorial's ironic title: "Inconvenient Truths" although "State of Denial" might have been more apt.

Previous posts on this topic:

Acquiescence Invents Reasons That Reason Knows Nothing Of

Not Even the End Can Justify People Power As A Means

The Real Coup D'etat

Remembering the Edsa 2 People Power Coup