Category: cory

EDSA@40 Recalling the Boycott

Top of my Facebook feed 22 Feb was a video posted by quo-warranto’d CJ Meilou Sereno —  “Paano Kaya Nangyari ang EDSA People Power” — na tungkol lang sa Enrile-Ramos-RAM defection after Marcos cheated in the snap election, and how the people came to support them and stop tanks.  Di man lang nabanggit si Cory and her audacious non-violent civil disobedience campaign and the six days of crony boycotts that had the economy reeling in the run-up to EDSA.

Pinapalabas na all it took for the people to march to EDSA was Cardinal Sin‘s permission, hindi na bale si Butz Aquino na unang nag-call for a non-violent response, at nag-second-the-motion lang sort of si Cardinal, as in, “those of you who wish to help should do so…”  makalipas ang twenty minutes of pagdadalawang-isip. Walang acknowledgement o pagkilala na may pinanggalingan na higanteng protesta ang milyon-milyong Coryista; wala ring paliwanag kung bakit nga ba kumilos ang mga Coryista para protektahan si Enrile na “architect” of martial law — siya ang sumulat ng Proclamation 1081 — at kilalang crony ni Marcos.

Sa totoo lang, kung hindi sa higanteng protesta ni Cory, kung hindi siya nagtawag ng boycott of crony businesses to bring down the economy and compel Marcos to step down, na agad sinakyan ng milyon-milyong Coryista, malamang ay nilangaw ang EDSA.

Salamat sa biyuda ni Ninoy, kakaiba na noon ang ihip ng hangin. Mapanghimagsik na ang timpla ng taongbayan, punong-puno bigla ng pag-asa, sabik sa naamoy na pagbabago, noong bisperas ng EDSA. Kung walang naganap na defection, malamang ay sa Mendiola at Malacañang nagmartsa at umeksena ang People Power.

From Himagsikan sa EDSA–Walang Himala! (2000)
Mahalagang isaisip na noong nag-aklas sina Enrile at Ramos, pitong (7) araw nang nag-aaklas ang mga Coryista. Ibang klaseng pag-aaklas nga lang – hindi armadong pakikibaka kundi simpleng pagsuway sa Awtoridad at di-pagtangkilik sa mga produkto at serbisyo ng crony economy. Tandang-tanda ko pa ang maigting na sigla at tensyon ng panahong iyon. High na high at sakay na sakay sa kampanyang boykot ang sampung milyong Pilipino na bumoto kay Cory – binitawan ang nakasanayang peryodiko at lumipat sa mga diyaryo ng alternative press, iwinaksi ang paboritong beer at gin at nag-trip sa whiskey at lambanog, inisnab ang paboritong softdrinks at dairy products at nawili sa buko juice, dirty ice cream, at kesong puti. Naisip ko na tuwang-tuwa siguro ang mga nasyonalista’t aktibista pagkat sa isang iglap, naibaling ng madlang mamimili ang tangkilik sa mga produkto ng maliliit na negosyong Pinoy. Higit pa, nagustuhan namin ang natikman at nalanghap na pagbabago. Namulat sa katotohanang okey din pala ang lokal at puwede nga palang magbago ng ugali o kabihasnan.

From EDSA Uno, Dos Tres (2013)
The first six days of the boycott are always glossed over, remembered only, if at all, as prelude, along with the snap elections.

Yet those early days were extraordinary and quite memorable on a personal plane for the millions who voted for Cory in the Snap Election of 1986, and, when she was cheated, who merrily complied with her boycott call and changed consumption habits overnight. There was nothing ideological about it, no sense of alternative economics as a long-term option. Rather, it was purely political, to derail the economy, and only until Marcos conceded to Cory.

It was a heady, giddy, intoxicating time of engagement in political change, beyond the ballot. The boycott was in the realm of the personal, on the level of where to bank and shop, which newspapers to read, what dairy products to feast on, what softdrinks and beer to get high on. And because it wasn’t always clear which brands were tainted and which were not, some of us played safe and simply eschewed all advertised goods. We turned to unbranded homegrown stuff like kesong puti, “dirty” ice cream, fresh fruits and juices, and local spirits like lambanog. We reveled in it. I remember thinking how thrilled nationalists must be—finally Filipinos, whose buying habits were generally shaped by TV commercials, were finding out that local stuff by small entrepreneurs was good, too, if not better on all sorts of levels.

Best of all, Filipinos were finding that change, while daunting and disconcerting at first, could turn provocative and mind-blowing and consciousness-raising, reinforced by a mosquito press that daily reported how more and more people, left, right and center, rich and poor, were joining the bandwagon, and how crony banks and businesses were running and reeling.

The personal was political, indeed. What a revolutionary mind trip it was.

Of course, the boycott was too good to last. Big Business, crony and not, could not allow it to go on much longer. And to this day, no one likes to talk about it. Bakit kaya.

DDS vloggers are no “mosquito press”

DDS opinionators are peddling the notion that their social media vloggers (video bloggers) are today’s mosquito press, and even more powerful than the original because of the much wider reach of the internet’s platforms for disseminating info and opinions. The message to DDS vloggers and followers being, let’s not stop, we’re on the right track, people are watching and liking and sharing our posts, let’s engage and organize and hold rallies, and if we keep it up, we can oust the son just like we did the father.

But Joe Burgos’s mosquito press of martial law times that, after Ninoy’s assassination, was boosted and  amplified by Eggie Apostol’s and other anti-Marcos publications, was also purely anti-Marcos, totally focused on the struggle to end the dictatorship. And that’s what made it a powerful force in support of the widow Cory’s campaign to unseat Marcos.

Contrarily, the social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and YouTube — where anti-Marcos DDS vloggers proliferate, abound, too, with vloggers of different persuasions and politics, i.e., pro-Marcos anti-DDS as well as anti-Marcos and anti-DDS vloggers, many of whom are pro-Leni pro-Risa pro-Bam pro-Kiko pro-Leila, even pro- and anti-Tulfos.

Sa madaling salita, social media is a marketplace of ideas, even, a megamall of tsismis, everybody welcome, kanya-kanyang agenda, walang isang adbokasya o mensahe na bumebenta sa nakararami, except perhaps freedom of expression, and fake news.

Besides, in Feb 1986 the mosquito press was just a part of the Cory-led multi-sectoral opposition immersed in a 10-day Marcos crony boycott that saw banks running and the economy reeling. And VP Sara is certainly nothing like Cory.

Alexei & Ninoy, Yulia & Cory

It’s fascinating how Alexei’s story is so very much like Ninoy’s. Pareho silang nakulong (on trumped-up charges) for standing up to a tyrant, parehong nag-hunger strike sa kulungan, parehong nakalipad na sa ibang bansa — Navalny to a hospital in Germany to recover from poisoning by Russian security, Ninoy to Texas for heart bypass after suffering 7 years 7 months in jail — pero bumalik pa rin sa lupang tinubuan, lupa na ipinaglaban nilang mapalaya, bahala na kung makulong muli o mapatay. At napatay nga: si Ninoy binaril noong umuwi from exile in 1983, si Alexei tila linason uli kailan lang, habang nakakulong.

Even more fascinating is the unfolding story of the widow Yulia Navalnaya. She has promised to carry on Alexei’s fight to free Russia from Putin’s one-man rule, much like Ninoy’s widow Cory Aquino took on Marcos and led the fight to free the nation from martial law. But Yulia’s circumstances are different. She has been threatened with arrest if she returns to Russia.

Cory left Boston Tuesday and was back in Manila by Wednesday, just three days after Ninoy’s murder at the airport. There was no attempt to stop her, I guess because Marcos and Ver were prepared to deny culpability, complete with a silenced scapegoat. Pumayag pa nga na imbestigahan ng Agrava Board ang patayan, at nang idiin nito in November 1984 na the killings were a military conspiracy that went all the way up to Ver (his loyal Armed Forces Chief of Staff), Marcos got the Sandiganbayan to acquit them all anyway in December 1985, which led Cory to run for President in snap elections, at which Marcos cheated, so Cory called for civil disobedience, which culminated in EDSA and the dictator’s escape from Malacañang.

Yes, the Marcoses are back anyway, but that’s another story, and uniquely Filipino I daresay. Altho I imagine that the grief is the same, maybe even worse, with Russian authorities insisting that Navalny died from “natural causes” and refusing to release the body unless his mother agrees to a secret burial. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/22/navalny-body-secret-burial-yulia/

WHY Cory stopped U.S. from taking Marcos to Ilocos

While it is true that Cory’s final order to the Americans was to take Marcos away from the Philippines ASAP, it was NOT her first reaction when she was informed early Tuesday evening (Feb 25) that the Marcoses were preparing to leave the Palace.

CORY: Early in the evening, I was back in Wack Wack, talking with opposition leaders, when Ambassador Bosworth called me up to say that the Marcoses had finally been persuaded to leave. Their sons-in-law had been able to convince them that it would be the best thing to do.
http://edsarevolution.com/chronology/day4.php

Close to 9 p.m., Cory received another phone call from Bosworth telling her that Marcos was ready to leave the Palace but was asking to stay for at least two days in Paoay, his home in the north.

Her first reaction was, “Poor man, let us give him two days.” This, according to former Supreme Court Justice, then MP, Cecilia Muñoz Palma, one of her close advisers who overheard, and disagreed. Like  other advisers who were with Cory then, she believed that given the chance, Marcos might regroup his forces or extend his stay indefinitely.

True enough. It is said that when the Marcos party got to Clark Air Base, Marcos got on the phone to his ministers and supporters, allegedly with plans of organizing an “Ilocano army” to fight its way to Metro Manila and “recover” the capital. http://edsarevolution.com/chronology/theflight.php  Some of these supporters reported his calls to Enrile and Ramos who began asking Cory and Bosworth what Marcos was up to.

According to Time correspondent Sandra Burton, Cory had wanted to be “magnanimous in victory,” remembering how Marcos and Imelda had released Ninoy from jail and allowed him to fly to the U.S. for heart surgery in 1980. But her advisers warned her of likely consequences, and once Bosworth assured her that Marcos was not dying, just very tired, she decided that Marcos simply had to go after a night in Clark.

SANDRA BURTON: Although General Ramos denied having been consulted on the matter, sources close to the negotiations claimed not only that he was consulted, but that he was particularly strong in urging that Marcos be given no more leash. … He explained that loyalist generals still controlled much of the north. Once Marcos returned to his province, he would be protected, and he was likely to become a magnet for hundreds of thousand of discontented supporters. “Get him out of there” is the way one of the parties to the negotiation described Ramos’s advice to Aquino. [Impossible Dream | The Marcoses, The Aquinos, and The Unfinished Revolution (1989) page 412]

FIDEL RAMOS: Both Minister Enrile and I wanted whatever was for the greater good of the greater number of Filipinos, which was to have the thing settled as fast as possible and in a bloodless, peaceful way. There are still many emotional Ilocanos who think I should have stepped in and provided Mr. Marcos the chance to go to Ilocos Norte at least to say goodbye. But at the time any deviation from the plan would have given the remaining loyalist forces the opportunity to create a rallying point, mobilize military units, and come storming back to Manila. We couldn’t let that happen while the Aquino government was still consolidating its forces. http://edsarevolution.com/chronology/day4.php  

PAMPANGA PEOPLE POWER

Clark Air Base, 9:45 P.M. — Marcos was met by US Ambassador Stephen Bosworth. He also got a “welcome” from hundreds who massed at the main gate of the base to chant “Co-ree!” while a convoy of some fifty vehicles held a noise barrage for twenty minutes along the base’s perimeter fence. http://edsarevolution.com/chronology/day4.php

JUSMAG Commander, Brigadier General Teddy Allen, who had promised to take Marcos anywhere he wished just to get him out of the Palace was in a bind.

— Deputy base commander Colonel Romeo David had already pledged his loyalty to General Ramos. “I told the head of U.S. intelligence inside Clark that I could not guarantee the safety of Marcos. If our people saw the president, they might shoot him.”

Just as threatening, said Allen, “Word went out in the province to mobilize People Power around the base, and I had visions of one million people converging on the gate by morning.”

Newly aware of the political pressures to get the ex-president out of the country soon, and worried about Marcos’s security inside the base, which was in rebel hands, General Allen sought permission from Washington to leave for Guam as soon as possible.

— At 2:30 A.M. Allen contacted Tommy Manotoc and Bong Bong Marcos and informed them of the necessity of leaving before daybreak for Guam, where he could guarantee the family’s safety until it could decide upon a final destination. 

— There was a bitter exchange between Ferdinand and American officials. He demanded to be flown to his home in the Ilocos. They had orders from President Reagan and the Joint Chiefs of Staff to fly him to America. At 4:00 A.M, Ferdinand stopped arguing.  [EDSA UNO (2013) page 318]

WHAT IF
What if the Marcoses had not so distrusted the pilots of the presidential helicopters who were prepared, since Monday morning, to fly them anywhere in the islands; or what if Marcos had motored to Paoay in an equipped ambulance. Then, again, perhaps Marcos was just too sick for a long road trip, which would render impressive the fact that he was able to walk out of the palace on his own two feet.

Still and all, if they had snubbed the American offer, if they had left under their own steam, chances are they would have made it to Paoay, and People Power would have had to regroup.

So do we owe the Americans a debt of gratitude for taking him away into exile? I have always thought the better ending would have been if the Marcoses had taken the presidential choppers, and the pilots turned out to be reformists and took the First Couple to Crame instead. With Enrile in charge, no harm would have come to them, but they would have had to face the judgement of the people in a revolutionary court, and maybe, just maybe, People Power would have levelled up to the challenge of standing strong for the greater good vs. elite and crony interests represented by Cory and Enrile.

That would have brought closure, and ushered in a new order. [EDSA UNO (2013)]