in the time of EDSA Uno, lines were clearly drawn; the parliament of the streets was united behind cory from the snap election campaign to the victory rally in luneta to the four days in EDSA.  in Dos, however, the people who wanted erap ousted after the second-envelope fiasco, didn’t agree at first on who to replace him with — the elite wanted gma, the left wanted a council of state of sorts, and yet others wanted davide — but they all came together at the EDSA shrine anyway, and, in the process and over time, rose above their differences, united behind gma, and that was the end of erap.

amazingly (and then, again, maybe not), the “non-organizer” of the aug 26 luneta rally, who has chosen to “disengage” from the movement isn’t really disengaging pala, she can’t seem to let go, or why else does she now explicitly discourage moving the action to EDSA?  i sincerely hope that the gaffe is unwitting, political naif that she is, rather than witting, which would mean she is not above helping the palace prevent an EDSA crowd of any kind from gathering against pork.

Peachy Rallonza-Bretaña
31 August near Manila • Edited
Just to clarify, the EDSA call is NOT from me and not the same as the #MillionPeopleMarch. #ScrapPork has nothing to do with Marcos’ bday or martial law. And besides, anything on EDSA is too disruptive to our economy and the daily lives of the ordinary taxpayer like us who eke out a living. We want to make an impact yes, but an impact that works within the system and doesn’t throw us back to the bottom of the pit again. Thus the #100days to Justice. I am quite sure there will be those who will get angry at me for saying this but I just want people to be more aware of whatever they’re getting into.
Please repost and share if you feel the same way.

“work within the system?”  was that what she thought the luneta rally was about, working within the system?  that’s almost like playing into the palace spin that we’re all on the same side as the president on the pork barrel issue, which is far from true.  “100 days to justice?”  does she really think there’s a chance that government peeps will fall all over themselves to deliver all culprits for punishment in a hundred days if we don’t level up from unorganized disorganized luneta picnics and unite behind clearly articulated and non-negotiable demands?

she says “EDSA is too disruptive to our economy.”  hmm. i hope she means only in the sense of traffic problems — thus the aversion to a rally in EDSA — and not because she’s against any kind of EDSA action, even prayer rallies and townhall style discussions aimed at information exchange and eventually coming to a consensus on abolition, hopefully (rather than mere reform na tila tuloy tuloy ang kickbacks).

if the former, it would be a simple matter of engaging with the organizers and suggesting that they hold the rally on a weekend, less traffic, kahit paano; not that there’s any guarantee the organizers would listen, of course, but at least she tried.  if the latter, then it might be connected with her fear of militants taking over the movement, not seeing the fact that the militants are but a small sector of the huge silent coalition who went to luneta that Monday, and that these more numerous unorganized and unaffiliated citizens are intellectually capable of facing up to the challenge of sifting the grain from the chaff in pursuit of the common good.

she’s right, #scrapPork has nothing to do with marcos’s birthday or martial law, but if those days fell on weekends, okay na rin. If we don’t want the unrepentant marcoses and marcosistas gatecrashing, we could make it a day too of national reflection on how, and why, ferdinand marcos failed us. time for history lessons.

weekends would be good just because more people are likely to come than on a workday, but if that’s just me, okay lang.  maybe we have to hold one on a workday to see for ourselves what works and what doesn’t.  it’s like starting from scratch, but again that’s okay, as long as learning happens.

not surprisingly, self-styled guru jim paredes who was part of the luneta rally, as volunteer or something, reposted peachy’s no-to-EDSA facebook status.

Jim Paredes shared Peachy Rallonza-Bretaña’s status. 1 September

Yes Peachy!.. YES. I too will not go to any rally that falls on the day of Marcos Birthday. And yes, EDSA is too disruptive a place. With too many operators now moving in the shadows, I am very skeptical specially since some people associated with the past regime are suddenly calling for mass action.

“too many operators now moving in the shadows,” hmm.  i hope paredes realizes that he seems as much an operator as any of the ones he’s referring to, gven his continuing unflinching unwavering support for the incumbent. what did he say at the rally? something like, government is listening.  yeah, right.  but government is also hoping the noise dies down asap so they can get back to business as usual.

read And Just Like That, the Concept of “Social Media Revolution” Dies Choking on the Astroturf.  ben kritz is spot on:

There was already some evidence of an effort by the Administration to ‘hijack’ the protest last Monday with the appearance (appropriately given an abundance of attention by the government-backing media) of well-known Aquino apologists such as Jim Paredes and Mae Paner (delete mine), the catcalls and jeers directed at former Chief Justice Renato Corona which were apparently instigated by Administration supporters planted in the crowd, and this simpering paean to Aquino posted in the hours before the demonstration by “social media expert” Cocoy Dayao, which was seized upon by both of Malacañang’s Designated Talking Persons as evidence of genuine support from the public. Whatever else can be said about the Aquino Machine, their grasp of the importance and potential of social media as a propaganda tool is formidable, and well it should be: Social media management is the responsibility of the unctuous, ethically-challenged, but extremely intelligent Manuel L. Quezon III, the third and clearly the most adept of the three Cerberus heads of the Palace Comm Group.

… Social media as a means to effect the change this country needs had an incredibly short life-span, and is now dead. It may have gotten the ball rolling, but its primary use now is to simply telegraph every idea and planned move of protestors to a hostile government desperate to stay in power and more than capable of using the public’s own technological tools against them.

peachy is reported to have tweeted that it’s “too soon for an EDSA gathering.”  i hope she means it’s too soon IF the objective is the ouster of the prez.  but, as far as i know, this is NOT the objective.  the objective is to exchange information, raise questions, find ways of reconciling differences, the better to present a united front for Freedom Of Information and against the pork barrel system and all its evils, especially the ghost NGOs and contractors, and the kickbacks to the honourables.

and to those who say that EDSA Uno was a failure anyway, i say, EDSA Uno was a huge success, the million people stopped tanks and ousted a deeply entrenched dictator without bloodshed.  no.mean.feat.  it was post-EDSA that was the failure, and that’s where and why we need to level-up.

if you don’t get it, or you’re happy enough with the response of the aquino admin, or your priorities simply lie elsewhere, fine.  just, please, don’t stand naman in the way.