EDSA@28: "Where have all the flowers gone?"

NOTE:  This is a slightly different version of the photo-essay that this blogger wrote for 28Feb-06Mar issue of Fil-Am Star, a weekly newspaper published in San Francisco, CA for "Filipinos in Mainstream America."

February 25 this year, the 28th anniversary of the People Power or EDSA Revolution of 1986, was a special holiday in the Philippines but it was for schools only.  Being a Tuesday, it was a regular working day in government and in the private sector.

Commuters to their workplace in the morning could have noticed that the People Power Monument was adorned with yellow flags and the yellow flowers, and a wreath-laying ceremony was going on led by Vice-President Jejomar Binay. 

 

They could have missed the festive crowd of past celebrations.  For the first time, the anniversary observance was brought outside Metro Manila to Cebu City, where the peaceful encounter or “salubungan” of the military and the civilian contingents was re-enacted with popular movie actor Dingdong Dantes as then Gen. Fidel  V.  Ramos, and Sen. Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV as his uncle then Senator Butz Aquino of the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM).   

 According to reports, President Benigno Aquino III chose Cebu as commemoration venue because this was where his mother Cory called for civil disobedience and where she stayed with the Carmelite sisters during outbreak of the EDSA revolt. 

 

Outside of government-sponsored anniversary events, there was the call of the Million People March to Scrap Pork Barrel movement for a “Black Tuesday at EDSA.”  It urged their followers on social media to assemble at the EDSA Shrine in black and express indignation against RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. 

 

 While there were not many who came to advocate “Stop Cyber Martial Law”, “No to E-Martial Law” or “Junk RA 10175,” this is a hot issue in social media discussions.   To netizens, the specter of the oppression of the freedom of speech and information looms from the Supreme Court ruling on online libel even if it declared  three provisions of the cybercrime law unconstitutional -- unsolicited commercial communications, real-time collection of traffic data, and restricting access to computer data. 

 

This reminds us of the noose around our necks when the Marcos dictatorship controlled mass media, the wealth of the nation, and the coffers of government.  We learned more about our government and the lifestyle of those in power from reportages in foreign publications, reproduced and circulated through network of friends of friends by multiple “Xerox” journalists, an underground real social media of those times.

 

Breaking loose was what we did twenty eight Februaries ago.  We knew it was a military rebellion that Cardinal Sin called for the people to support. But It transformed into a truly civilian uprising when the multitude of Filipinos secured Camp Aguinaldo and later Camp Crame in support of the secession of Defense Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) from the Marcos government.

 

 In the midst of that peaceful revolution on EDSA, somebody picked my pocket. By today’s spending standards, the money contents were not much.  A Protestant minister who found it empty in a gutter mailed it back to us some time during those euphoric days after Ferdinand Marcos, his family, and his trusted cronies were flown out from Malacañang Palace to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

We were too busy with the camera, and with so many revolutionaries milling around during that bright, sunny 25th day of February and getting into multiple body contact every so often, we could not have noticed somebody's sticky fingers fishing for our wallet in our back pocket.

It was not a heavy price though for the victory that came afterward. We soon forgot about it when word got around that the dictator had fled, and we went honking down the avenue on board a good friend’s Volks Beetle exchanging cheers with other sweat-drenched, exhausted yet ecstatic souls along the way.

 

The dictatorship was ousted and democracy restored, but for the past twenty years it has been a rough roller coaster ride through coup d’etat attempts, infuriating brown-outs, a second EDSA revolution, uneasy peace in the south, natural disasters, impeachment cases, allegations of plunder and pork barrel scams, widening gap between the rich and poor, from the first presidency of mother Cory to the incumbency of her son Noynoy.

It looks like the spirit of the 1986 EDSA has dimmed in the minds of the veterans of that revolt, more so among those who are still in government service.  We can understand if the generations younger than 28 have not found meaning in the people power history.  The lessons learned from that political experience have not been imparted to them.

 

We remember that at the EDSA@26 commemoration at the People Power monument, people wrote down on big white boards their personal stakes for the country:  “Anong Taya mo Para sa Pilipinas Natin?”

People wrote: jobs, peace in Mindanao, iteration of Aquino’s “daang matuwid”, etcetera, virtually a wish list from the peaceful revolution of 1986.  Has the Revolution failed? Or, did we fail the Revolution?

Never Porkget and other anti-pork rallies of September

The Million People March to Scrap Pork Barrel has become the official announcement and update Facebook page for individuals and groups in the Philippines or abroad who are organizing anti-pork mass actions.  It posts these in a calendar with the details of the protest activity in a particular date and location.

The Never Porkget/Level Up rally on September 21 was the fourth rally after the August 26 Million People March event.  The morning saw the rallyists at the Luneta, who later marched to Mendiola in the afternoon. Of course, Mendiola reverberates with recent political memories -- the student protests of the First Quarter Storm.

This was organized by the Abolish Pork Movement, a coalition of 32 multi-sectoral groups such as Bayan, Gabriela,  Anak Pawis, Kabataan, All UP Workers Union and Alliance of Health Workers, Artista Kontra-Korapsyon, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, among others, working together to push for the abolition of the pork barrel system; the prosecution of those involved in the PDAF scandal; and the allocation of pork barrel funds to social services.

September 21 is the day forty-one years ago that activists of martial law vintage will never forget.  The pun Never Porkget virtually connects the plunder during the 14-year Marcos dictatorship and the various guises of pork barrel under the post-People Power regimes.  

“The reason why we are protesting today is because all succeeding regimes after Marcos failed to stamp out bureaucrat plunder and government abuse,” Dr. Carol Pagaduan-Araullo said when she opened the program. “The pork barrel scam reminds us how little has changed from the time of the dictator.”

Rally speakers included National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, Archbishop emeritus Oscar Cruz and celebrity activist Mae Paner more popularly known as Juana Change. 

 

Lumbera recounted to the younger generation how it was during the dictatorship and urged everyone to never forget the lessons of martial law.

Archbishop Cruz expressed hope to see when the guilty will go to prison and when the money will be returned.  In jest, he told the crowd to remember his pick-up lines:  “Ano ibig sabihin ng pork barrel? Kababuyan. Ano ibig sabihin ng pork barrel scam? Pambababoy. Ano ibig sabihin ng ayaw kong alisin ang pork barrel? Baboy ako.”

On the other hand, Juana Change challenged the protestors to bring friends to the next rally.  “We need to level up,” she said, urging everyone to be politically conscious to effect changes in the government.  She was in costume:  orange prisoner garb with a ball chain, and a saw printed with ‘Guilty’ on her head.

Musical artists provided inspirational and patriotic songs:  singer and theater actress Monique Wilson, The Ryan Cayabyab Singers, Jograd dela Torre (his ‘Kawatan’ is a crowd favorite in all the four rallies since August 26), Daryl Shy, Jess Santiago, the Pak Yaw duo, and the Redemptorist seminarians.

While the rally was going on in Mendiola, the Good Samaritan United Methodist Church in Quezon City had their Pork Barrel Forum, where former Chief Justice Reynato Puno spoke of the pork barrel as an “evil” that should be abolished.  The College of Bishops signed a paper titled “God Will Guide the Nation: A Call for Righteous Governance,” asking everyone to “walk the path of righteousness” where -- 

•  "Righeousness requires humility, transparency and accountability.  For we are simply stewards of the riches of God and of our nation, not absolute possessors or owners.

• "Righteousness requires vigilance, serious search for truth, and enactment of laws that ensure free access to information and compel those in office to make public their administration of funds.

• "Righteousness requires doing what is right, punishing the guilty but freeing the innocent, whether they are powerful and mighty or meek and lowly.

• "Righteous governance should be the plumb line for all those who seek public office. Public service is a public trust as well as a God-given responsibility."

Other protest actions were organized by various groups for the rest of the month. On September 25, there wase an interfaith gathering for peace in Mindanao and the abolition of the pork barrel at the Quezon Memorial Circle, which is being organized by the National Ulama Council of the Philippines, National Council of Churches in the Philippines, and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches. 

On September 29, there was a “Ride to Abolish ALL Pork!” from the People Power Monument through EDSA, and in Cebu, the Coalition against Pork Barrel System will have an interfaith prayer and anti-pork program at Fuente Osmeña.

“As long as the pork barrel system remains, the protest rallies will continue,” Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Neri Colmenares said when he closed the Never Porkget event at Mendiola.  

Social Media Power: The Revolt of the Filipino Netizens

This story and most of the accompanying pictures appeared as 'Filipino netizens revolt' in the 30Aug-05Sep 2013 issue of the FilAm Star, a news weekly in the Bay Area.

In an early evening TV newscast, I got the man's name as Dino Guevarra in an interview by a reporter. They are one of many families that joined the Million People March sa Luneta. This appeared in the front page of the cited FilAm Star issue.

It only took 10 days to mobilize Filipinos in the world wide web to march in protest against the misuse and abuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), popularly called pork barrel. This came in the wake of the exposé of a Php10-billion scam allegedly perpetrated by the company of Janet Lim-Napoles over the past 10 years involving the use of pork barrel funds for ghost projects.

Ito Rapadas, music production manager and a musical artist himself, started in all with his Facebook posting of August 16. 

“Nakakasawa na,” he said. “What we need is a MILLION PEOPLE MARCH by struggling Filipino taxpayers--a day of protest by the silent majority that would demand all politicians and gov[ernment] officials (whatever the political stripes, color they may carry) to stop pocketing our taxes borne out from our hard work by means of these pork barrel scams and other creative criminal acts. They don't want to investigate themselves, they remain relaxed and unperturbed because they believe it will die down in time. Let's make them feel that this time is different [be]cause we are all sick and tired of it! Pls. share if you agree!”

Peachy Rallonza-Bretaña picked it up immediately and suggested it be at the Luneta on August 26, Araw ng Mga Bayani (National Heroes Day), a national holiday in the Philippines, “[b]ecause we the taxpayers who pay our full taxes from our wages are the real heroes who should be heard by these Mafia senators and congressmen. We need this outrage, anger to reach critical mass. Spread the word. Repost.”

He may be innocent of what was going on around him.  Will pork barrel still be a hot issue in his time? I took this photo at the Gabriela group's area.

The digital ball started rolling/flying to all corners of the web, and pretty soon, memes, posters, slogans and calls for collective action sprouted in social media accounts of netizens: Facebook, Twitter, blogs and emails. Permit not needed, declared Manila City Mayor Joseph Estrada.

Overseas Pinoy netizens all over the world staged their versions of the Luneta Million People March in front of Philippine embassies and consulates (New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London), and even in their work places (Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong), and shared them in real time via the social media with their fellow protesters in the homeland.  

A few of the many 'fashion'able protest statements on t-shirts.

There may not have been a million people who gathered in Luneta; about a 100,000, police authorities said.  But there were also marchers in towns and cities in Luzon (Olongapo, Baguio, Vigan), Visayas (Cebu, Dumaguete, Iloilo) and Mindanao (Davao, Zamboanga), and those who participated virtually through text links to their marcher friends and relatives.    

People gathered in front of the Quirino Grandstand, around the iconic Rizal monument, on the steps flanked by the carabao and tamaraw sculptures.

What mattered was that there was collective action by diverse groups even if there was no formal organizing party at all.  They came just the same to the historic Luneta passing by the giant statue of Lapu-Lapu, the busts of revolutionary heroes lining the parallel lanes leading to the iconic monument of the national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, and gathered at designated places in front of the grandstand: individuals and families, young and old, Christians and Muslims, people with handicaps, students and teachers, workers, professionals and businessmen, priests and nuns, artists and celebrities, retired and current public servants, unaffiliated groups and, as expected, activist organizations. Someone called this the gathering of the new middle class.

'Makibaka, Huwag MagBaboy! Oink! Oink!' with clenched fists, thumbs down.

Many veterans of the EDSA revolts were around like Prof. Andy David, who, in an interview later in the evening, recalled that his 12-year old granddaughter inspired him to go to the March.  She asked if he's going, and that she would be going with him.  He remarked that he was astonished to find so many politically conscious young men and women at the Luneta event.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle joined the march and, according to reports, called the participants to be “guided by their conscience” and later led them sing “Pananagutan.”  We saw former Supreme Court Justice Renato Corona arriving with his family but we heard, he did not stay long because his presence was not exactly welcome. We listened to the venerable Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB, calling also for the abolition of the president’s own pork barrel, the Php310-billion Special Purpose Funds.

Banners said it all, in words and graphics.

It was a peaceful gathering, more like a picnic of groups and individuals predominantly dressed in white or tee-shirts printed with anti-pork symbols or slogans.  Everyone was free to move around to read protest banners and manifestos, to sign petitions, to hop from one forum to another and listen to views of different speakers, to listen to various musical expressions accompanying calls for better governance—the sound of ram horns from a religious group, a reminder of the fall of Jericho; the buzz of butakas, bamboo clappers from the Cordilleras; the rhythm of kulintangs and gongs; a vintage Hagibis song transformed by singer Jograd dela Torre into the day’s theme song; and patriotic songs from activist groups.

More slogans.  I like the 'Porktang*na Nyo!' in the bottom picture.

 

Vendors also said their piece.

The Luneta event had shades of earlier people power movements.  Texts, tweets, blogs, Facebook messages replaced the Xeroxed protest papers; and the digital memes, slogans and posters were reminiscent of peryodikit clandestinely posted on walls during the repressive martial law years.

The venerable Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB, veteran of the EDSA revolts, was in her usual well-known fighting mood. In another forum (right), an Atenean and a La Sallian took time for some jesting before they gave their anti-pork views.

The battle cry Makibaka, Huwag Matakot at the activist front during the First Quarter Storm became Makibaka, Huwag Magbaboy, at the Luneta mass rally.

Instead of Ibagsak!, the protesters shouted, Oink, Oink!, with clenched fists and thumbs down.

Going as far back as 1896, the day was when Andres Bonifacio and his fellow katipuneros cried in rebellion against the Spanish authorities.  The late noted historian Teodoro Agoncillo called that struggle the revolt of the masses.  

August 26, 2013 may be the beginning of the revolt of the netizens. They will keep vigilant watch on Malacañang and the lawmakers, on what they do and what they say in response to the demands voiced out in Luneta: abolition of the pork, and transparency and accountability in the investigation of the pork scam.

The President's Special Fund was not spared. These caricatures provided colorful political commentaries.

As we write this, a new call has appeared in Facebook: “Ituloy ang laban: MARTSA ULIT SA SEPTEMBER 21!” [Continue the fight: Let’s march again on September 21!”].  That’s the date when Marcos declared martial law.