CHEERS to president rodrigo duterte for allowing the EDSA anniversary rallies. i was afraid he might do a gloria arroyo — as in feb 24 2006, when she was so afraid of people power, post-garci, she declared a state of national emergency (Proclamation 1017), arrested randy david and others marching to EDSA, and filled EDSA protest sites with armed soldiers (sa makati kami naki-rally noon).
president duterte, of course, is fearless. no doubt he sees how divided the opposition is. in metromanila, kanya-kanyang rally on different days in different places instead of coming together in one big protest rally. i wonder what it will take for the liberal party’s tindig to join hands with, and take the lead in uniting, civil society’s cause-oriented groups behind an alternative program of government.
JEERS to DDS bloggers mocha uson and thinking pinoy whose creds are at an all-time low, uson intimating that we just made up the EDSA story of nuns stopping tanks. the nerve! The EDSA Revolution Happened, No Matter What Your Poll Says! and tp saying the nuns were just making gaya the tiananmen scene, kung saan hindi naman gumagalaw ang tangke… i didn’t stay to hear more… hey nieto, tiananmen happened 3 years after EDSA.
ika nga ni daniel patrick moynihan:
… you are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
CHEERS to journalist ed lingao for setting the record straight on that iconic people power moment when the marines were stopped in their tracks by crowds ready to die for country. it was viewed by a stunned world via satellite TV and signalled the end of marcos.
JEERS to everyone who agrees with the UP poli-sci professor who says that EDSA was a chimera, meaning, an illusion, a dream, a fantasy. meaning what, na-engkanto lang tayong lahat, including the world that was watching? parang milagro kasi na bigla na lang umalis si marcos? JEERS also to the UP cssp prof who recently posted an essay he wrote in 2014 for an oxford univ book, airing the allegation that marcos was totally non-violent all through the four days. argh.
academics with no time to read about EDSA. it’s all over google, peeps. whatever your school of thought, there’s really no excuse for not having a factual sense of EDSA — so we can level up the discourse naman — unless you’re just not interested in knowing more? it’s all too subversive, maybe?
and so CHEERS and MABUHAY! to the historian xiao chua, the one academic i know who has read all the books and materials on EDSA including mine, and who is very good at telling the (hi)story of people power 1986, nuances and all, with a mean vocal impersonation of marcos to boot :-)