EDSA is almost a blur.
Yes, the surviving players are going through the motions of reenacting the milestone events of those four days in 1986.
Yes, the calls for unity are there along with the strains of ‘Magkaisa’ filled the airwaves.
But one wonders ruefully if indeed the spirit of EDSA be being revalued and given more meaning as Filipinos prepare for what should be watershed automated elections.
Or do the unmitigated political bickering and erosion of democratic institutions serve to further devalue EDSA’s lessons.
It is most telling that the regime now in power is being pilloried as having exceeded the record of the dictatorship in human rights abuses and corruption in half the time it took Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.
One only needs to canvass the sentiment of the man on the street.
Yes the Arroyo administration touts economic progress as its most visible accomplishment.
But the reality is the economy would have long gone under without the sustained blood and sweat earnings of Filipino contract workers abroad.
Yes, Filipinos must recapture the spirits of selfless heroism, the power to turn back menacing tanks and the return of authoritarian rule through prayer.
But this can happen only if we find leaders ready to forswear their narrow material interests, and shed their lap dog loyalty to political patrons who gave them political favors.
Only leaders such as these can breathe new life, new meaning to people power.
This is not an empty admonition.
In some dark alley there is an emerging scenario that the coming leadership change in the military leadership could portend could be the opening moves of a draconian plot drawn up by men close, very close to a top ranking political power holder.
The democratic space we cherish so dearly must be preserved and continually enriched.
Popularity: 3% [?]
When will this seemingly endless cycle of family feud end?
how i wish the neps are’nt fighting for an ideology…how I wish they were fightin for the filipinos…we need a third force, a force that will unite patriotic filipinos
The real filipinos, the patriotic ones, need to unite and be prepared for whatever it takes, bloody it may be, to effect a real change…
The EDSA has dimmed when its ‘heroes’ made it their prerogative to use people power to remove a duly-elected leader. The same heroes have since gone full circle…Priceless!
I blame Hilario Davide, the impeachment prosecutors who walked out, Cardinal Sin, and Cory Aquino for diluting EDSA 1 with EDSA 2.
Institutions and due process could have been strengthened but inexplicably God talks to these people directly and so EDSA 2 was a apparently a good thing.
I sense a passion within Filipinos, but it gets expressed in emotional blasts unattached to a positive goal. In the US, years were spent rallying around equal rights, and instituting laws that banned hiring on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender or any criteria but job-specific abilities.
I have spent the better part of a week arguing that the Philippines needs a fair employment law to end nepotistic hiring that prevents careers from developing, encourages corruption, and plugs the economy up with mediocrity: family, friends and favorites rather than the PRODUCTIVE people. From the reactions, I determine that there is absolutely no Filipino on FV who shares that view, or sees it as a profound block to progress that can be removed.
Until you can get tangible, and change, protests are just spitting into the typhoon for distance.
Joe
I agree with a fair employment law but it is simply IMPOSSIBLE with an OVERPOPULATED country.
Nash,
Why? I don’t see the connection? Seems even more important to me, to get the economy humming.
Joe
In an Overpopulated country it’s in your best interest to have your ilk employed. Otherwise, you will have to support them.
There’s just soooooo many of us Filipinos and because we really love sex and are good lovers and the church bars us from using condoms there will be 135M of us in 10 years.
nashman,
I want STATS that sex education and condoms work. I hear your constant advocacy but I want to see good grounds for it.
The population/AIDS control in Africa failed but ironically boosted what they were trying to control. It’s effectiveness remains in logic but not in result.
Joe, when I first started settling in the U.S., my most remarkable impression was the unfenced, neatly manicured lawns and almost identical rows of similarly architectured homes that perfectly lined the streets. And I thought that Americans are truly independent as it is shown in the nature of the community they live, which is made possible because each one is truly economically independent. This is the indpendence that allows free choice of alternatives, controls personal lives and dictates on social and political events. It seems intellectual independence presuspposes economic independence.
macapili,
True, but it is done within a set of laws, laws being rules which constrain independence for the good of the community. Americans have a high regard for laws and an excellent court system.
Within that, individual initiative is prized and promoted. I suppose it has something to do with the bold initiative the immigrant populations brought with them, a willingness to aspire toward something better.
Oh, how I wish the Philippines could unleash the power of its greater minds for achievement on the home turf, rather than chase those minds abroad and suffocate ambition. I really dislike seeing all the uninspired people in government offices and stores.
Joe
“I determine that there is absolutely no Filipino on FV who shares that view…”
Huh? Perhaps u should’ve asked me, Joe. I absolutely agree with fair employment. In fact, I’m working on a piece on incorporating domestic workers into the labor code and in our bilateral labor treaties with other countries (like Saudi Arabia) so their human rights r protected right now…
My choice of Noynoy is not inconsistent with this view because it is not his family background (or his kamaganaks) but his honesty that interests me. Bro Eddie might be honest but he’s not a secularist; Perlas is slightly megalomanic and rarely brooks disagreement; and Gordon is too emotional by far. And the rest? Well, the rest r pretty corrupt, so…
Lila,
We had an endlessly repetitive discussion on a different thread where I mentioned this, and I detected little enthusiasm on your part for ridding the Philippines of the practice of hiring ng and promotifavorites instead of the highest skilled people. Rather, I detected a higher interest in alerting me to the unfairness of my generalizations.
Your work sounds constructive, indeed, and I hope it bears fruit.
How does one light a broad fire under Philippine productivity? Not by chasing the best minds overseas and cutting off the opportunity for the talented and ambitious to occupy important jobs here. It’s too easy here for members of established families to “succeed”. Succeed is in quotes, because I rather fear it is not the kind of success that built America, where a person like Barak Obama, with no particular connections anywhere and considerable strikes against him, could rise on his abilities.
Joe
Then u clearly misunderstood me, Joe. I also don’t think it’s a good idea to lump everyone who disagrees with u together in one basket. My point was distinct from Bert’s (I think it was) but u seem determined to think that everyone here doesn’t value a foreigner’s insights (wrong, as far as my personal opinion is concerned; I actually value the insider/outsider view very much and use it in my own research quite a bit) and that I don’t believe in hiring the most skilled people for any given position. If I believed the latter, I wouldn’t have bothered getting an MA or working on my PhD; I would also not have wasted my time slugging it out in the US job market. I would have just asked a few folks to make a few phone calls on my behalf. If I believed the former, I wouldn’t waste my time engaging with u. Clearly, my actions speak louder than words, don’t u think?
I responded to your generalization about everyone in the Philippines being corrupt because it made me balk. Not because of nationalism in my case (I have a fairly complex response to the issue) but because I happen to believe that generalizations tend to be messy. So I would have responded in a similar way to anyone else’s generalizations, except for those who routinely generalize, in which case there’s no point. Given your generally thoughtful and layered responses to most things, it surprised me — hence the immediate response. This is not to say that I did not respond to your other points. My silence often indicates agreement, in such cases.
I have said several times now that I value your insights. Surely I can disagree with u once in a while, without your assuming that I don’t value a foreigner’s opinion? I even qualified at one point that I wasn’t sure what identity meant and if u should even be considered a foreigner — given your enormous personal investment in this culture. But if you’re balking at the criticism, then perhaps you’ve imbibed more from the Philippines than I had thought. Because people here tend to over-react to even the most constructive feedback — more’s the pity.
So there’s nothing to be defensive about, as far as I can see, because there was certainly no attack, at least from me. I continue to maintain that cultural generalizations as a rule do an injustice to whatever culture is being discussed. Maybe that’s a more academic approach than u might be used to, but I think many people would agree with me.
Lila,
Point taken that I oft resist when I ought not. And I ought not take all resistance as caused by my being an alien.
Joe
See, I was right in thinking u were thoughtful and reasonable. Thanks, Joe.
Heheh, you guys are hinting at something I am not. I am not against foreigners making opinions about my country, good or bad. I respect people’s opinion. What I am against are generalizations and biases against people’s cultural infirmities as if there is a perfect society. The records here in FV will attest that I’ve been bickering not only with my friend Joe but more so with the anti-pinoys who are themselves patriotic Pinoys.
I am not even speaking from a standpoint of being nationalistic, though hearing from you guys gave me the impression that loving ones country and people is a shameful compassionate act.
EDSA, like Martial Law, was another lost opportunity for Filipino greatness, similar to Aguinaldo’s chance to capture the flower of them all, the city of Manila, before August 13, 1898, that was lost because he listened to Dewey. Cory, too, blew her chance. She governed very loosely. The oligarchs crawled back to their elitist position and wealth and reimposed their monopolistic business practices. The kurakots and carpetbaggers hid for a while and came back with a vengeance, and became respectable again. Her yellow army swarmed and feasted on the sequestered companies, and hardly any graft or economic sabotage case was won. No economic development program was initiated. The energy plan of Marcos to harness nuclear power and thousands of untapped MWs of cheap geothermal energy in Tongonan and Palimpinon was shelved that brought us to the electricity crisis of Ramos, whose knee jerk reaction through BOT gas turbines and thermal plants costs us the expensive electricity rates we have today. Peace and order worsened with the rightist plotters and Islamic separtists grabbing attention from the Communists. I hope I understand why there is such a phenomenon as the Cory Magic. Perhaps her simple mindedness, her clear record of honesty and dedication to public service were all that Filipinos saw and for which she was loved for, even if in reality, she wasted what was clearly the noblest of all revolutions. But life must go on and Filipinos have to learn from these experiences for the next opportunity that may come again.
I dont dwell on EDSAs. Filipinos are too much tied to the past.
Work for the present and look for the future.
And yet we know so little of our past. That’s probably why we are lost now, and cannot find the way out.
you need to consider your past to have a future…and that is what is lacking in us…sense of history..
I agree. There’ what people call historic pride which are affecting us. We are too much tied to the past to feel good about ourselves.
EDSA is not just about the past.
True but dollar remittance obligates the current administration to implement its financial strategies including keeping the peso high in value, maintaining currency rates, bond rates and interest rates. the Arroyo administration was able to supervise it objectively or in satisfactory terms matching international standard. We all know that GMA’s administration has inherited a huge number of unemployed labor force from the previous administrations who were making babies while waiting for the guava fruit to fall. During GMA’s term , many were able to exit the country and in 2007 , the fruit of their labor paid off- GDP grew almost 8% , the fastest growth in 31 years. Thanks to corrupt Senate and Congress in assisting Arroyo’s administration to loosen up it’s foreign policy. Indeed, more house bills were passed NONE however originated from Noynoy.
When I was home for 4 weeks last December and attended Cebu Sinulog in January this year, I had observed progressive economic activity in Cebu, Bohol and the many other islands in the Visayas and Mindanao. Lots of my friends no longer look like hell but actually they were all willing to go with me to see becky bello at their expense. Children in my hometown were not begging for money and they all looked healthy , happy but innocently poor. It’s OK , better than the children in Manila who sold roses to my ex at 3 AM in Ayala.
In my view, lots of growth is coming to our country. We need GIBO’s national security policy to improve employment rate and enhance peace and order.
Question: If Arroyo was truly corrupt, how come Villar and Noynoy did not come together to stop it. What did Noynoy do in the Senate to suppress corruption? Why didn’t he gather support , founded rapport, reinforced his party and persuaded the lower house to impeach Gloria? Since GMA is still in office, Noynoy is contributory to the fact and negligently consented to her wrong doings. Just like the rest. kawawa talaga ang pinoy.
Go GIBO GO !!!!
I’m trying to follow your train of thought, my friend.
Do I understand it that you feel GMA is spic and span?
LOL, ding. I like your recent updates in facebook though. you’re hilarious.
this part i dont get:
“True but dollar remittance obligates the current administration to implement its financial strategies including keeping the peso high in value”
but foreign currency is more valuable if the local currency is less valuable? if it were to implement a strategy at all, it would be for a weaker local currency relative to the dollar.
I, too, am trying to figure out what is being talked about. From what I understand, the term foreign currency is used to refer to a basket of major currencies – dollar, euro, yen, remnimbi, won, and many other, not just the dollar. Currently, the peso is better positioned against the dollar, but not against the other currencies, euro, for example. If dollar currencies are remitted from U.S. by OFWs these will yield less pesos, thus penalizing the OFW. But using dollars to pay dollar-denominated debt comes out cheaper for the country. This explains why the fiscal position of the government has improved considerably because what used to require valuable dollars to service huge dollar-denominated foreign debt now requires cheaper dollars. In other words, what the OFW lose comes back as gain to the government.
True Macapili but it must be administered properly, right? Can you visualize a strong dollar against a weak peso? Without the accepted tools and abilities to carry out monetary policy, mang juan and pedro who have no families from overseas could have been the first to suffer and the principal recipient of inflationary consequence. and how many OFW in comparison to 70 million poor? The current administration and the OFW are both fair to the poor.
also consider imports and US dollar as the important international reserve currency.
I remember during our strategic planning sessions in the old days our boss used to say there are two ways to meet a target. First, set your aim at the target correctly and fire. There other way, fire and then move the target.
Ding, what does this mean exactly? “In some dark alley there is an emerging scenario that the coming leadership change in the military leadership could portend could be the opening moves of a draconian plot drawn up by men close, very close to a top ranking political power holder.” If u care to share, I would love to read (or hear) an elaboration, my friend…
When we EB, my friend :)