The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 49, January 20-26, 2008
The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.
Seeing them together was unimaginable seven years ago, because EDSA II had for its aim the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada. But on the seventh anniversary of EDSA II, which was marked Jan. 18 with an indoor activity at the La Salle Greenhills School (LSGH) and a march to the EDSA Shrine, the two political blocs that had clashed in 2001 were gathered for the common purpose of delivering the statement that: “Seven years is enough! Gloria must go!”
Estrada has always taken pride in the fact that he won in the 1998 presidential elections by a plurality of 10 million – which is said to be the largest plurality ever to propel a candidate to Malacañang. He assumed the presidency on the basis of a populist “platform” and a professed love for the “Filipino masses.”
But early on in his term he had been criticized for his closeness to the Marcoses and their political allies – remnants of a dictatorship that was toppled in 1986, in what is now known as the EDSA I uprising. He would later on be under more fire for graft and corruption – which would constitute one of the grounds for impeachment charges lodged against him in 2000 together with bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.
The refusal of his Senate allies to allow the opening of the second of two envelopes containing evidence relevant to the impeachment proceedings triggered a walkout by the prosecution panel and the audience, as well as an evening noise barrage, on Jan. 16, 2001 – signaling the start of a four-day popular uprising that would bring down the Estrada regime.
All through these, Estrada insisted he was the “real president of the Philippines,” pointing out that he had not resigned but merely stepped down.
His arrest in late April, 2001 provoked what his supporters called the “EDSA III uprising.”
Estrada was tried for plunder in a trial that would drag on for more than six years. He would be convicted, but pardoned, in the end.
In a statement after his release following the grant of executive clemency, Estrada said:
“I believe I can best continue to repay our people the blessings that God has so graciously given me by supporting from hereon the programs of Mrs. Arroyo that are intended to attack generational poverty and hunger. We must now as a nation attend to our people’s continuing clamor for food on their tables, roofs above their heads, and better education and health care for their children.”
Seven years of “deceit”
On the seventh anniversary of the EDSA II uprising, Estrada’s supporters and the groups that ousted him in 2001 were together in sending the message that seven years of the Arroyo administration are enough.
“This government has been deceiving us for seven years,” said Bro. Armin Luistro, president of the De La Salle University (DLSU) System, during the indoor activity at LSGH.
“A government that bases its false claims to victory on an election that has legitimacy problems of its own has no right to govern us,” he also said.
Erning Ofracio, an urban poor leader from the Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at Gobyerno (KMLG or Movement for a Just Society and Government), told about a text joke he had earlier received, in which a man told his daughter that liars do not grow tall, and get protruding teeth and moles on their faces.
