It’s been more than a month now since the much ballyhooed EDSA People Power 2 took  place in the annals of our nation’ history.    As we already know by now, it’s the event that, as they claimed, sowed the seeds of unity between the “kapitalistas” and the “masang pilipino” .  It is also an awesome display (taking it in a context wherein  awesome doesn’t necessarily mean something that is positive)  of a united stand between the extreme left and the extreme right, that is if you indeed know what kind of left and right I am talking about.   It was the uprising that threw a legitimate government out and catapulted into power a vice-president that planned a military-led defection three months earlier.  So, what the heck?

As a part of the radical and active Filipino youth sector, I can’t help but shake my head at the turnout of events in our nation for the past four months.  A presidential impeachment trial, a walkout of honorable private prosecutors, a vice-president who announced her resignation from the country’s cabinet while in a country hundreds of miles away from the shores of our sovereign land , and a constitution that was not honored by a pressing mob that claims to be the Filipino people as a whole.  What is happening to my damned native land?

The 1987 Philippine Constitution is probably one, if not the most scrutinized symbols of our democratic country.  Coming from a dictatorial form of government that threw away the classic 1935 Constitution, provisions were amended to our book of laws and rights so as to avoid the devouring of the greatest trademark of our sovereignty and democracy.  Thus, through a plebiscite in 1987, the New Philippine Constitution was upheld.  I was just a twelve-year-old kid then.  A child who was delighted to know that my future was being secured by my country through a democratic process.  And so I thought.

When I was in college, I was an active participant of political and sociological debates.  A frequent part of indignation rallies in our university, I was intimate  with my ideological principles and sociological philosophies.  I could still remember when  fellow Phi Lambda Epsilon brothers and I joined the mass-based political party Sandigang Makabansa  in a rally in front of the Senate building in Manila to denounce the presence of U.S. military installations in our country.  That rally turned into a bloody mess.  Student activist leader Nathaniel Santiago was hit in the head by a truncheon and so were most of the participants in that bloody confrontation.  We were all chanting one single thing then; uphold our sovereign status as a nation by not ratifying the new U.S. bases treaty, which was deemed as unconstitutional based on our 1987 Constitution.  Yes, we constantly fought for our constitution and its amendments that we didn’t mind shedding blood as long as the constitutionality of national issues were at stake.  Again, and so I thought.

The 1998 Presidential National Elections saw the emergence of someone who is probably considered as the most ignorant president of all.  A university dropout, a self-confessed womanizer, and a gambler.  These were issues raised during the campaign period.  But still, Estrada emerged victorious by earning votes that won’t be surpassed even if you combine the ballots casted for the second and third placers (that is probably about 10 million legal votes).  Estrada made history by gaining the biggest lead ever against strong political oppositions.   Thus, the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, under Article VII Section 4, assures Joseph Ejercito Estrada the highest position in the country for a period of six years.  No if’s, no but’s.  Only assurance and guarantees that Joseph Estrada will be the president-elect of the Philippines until the end of his term or whenever he decides to step down from his post.  And the voice of the so called “masa” was heard.  Or was it really heard?

January 21, 2001, the ever media-hugging Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Manila Jaime Cardinal Sin stirred up a citywide mobilization campaign to oust the Estrada Administration.  This he did as a response to the 10-11 verdict that the Senate Impeachment Trial gave regarding the opening of a second envelope that later on turned out to be containing documents that were not in any way relevant to the Articles of Impeachment.  The ever-attention seeking cardinal initiated a mob campaign that eventually moved Estrada out of Malacanang.  A mob campaign that they shamelessly dubbed as the People Power 2.  But was it really the majority’s voice that was heard out there when in fact there were just about three hundred thousand people out there in EDSA to call for the removal of Estrada?  Was it really the Filipino voting public’s clamor when many who trooped the busy streets of EDSA on that fateful night are foreign dignitaries on Philippine soil?  Come on.  Don’t be  fooled.  Even Cardinal Sin himself is a foreign dignitary.  Search through the immigration’s records to know the facts about your holy eminence.

We have had a great history of fighting for our freedom to rule our own country.  We are patriotic enough to fight any suppression against our rights to exist as a sovereign land.  That is why we have a constitution.  But what transpired at the EDSA people power 2 completely trampled our own constitution.  EDSA 2 trampled on the rights of every Filipino to be governed by a duly elected president (Article V Sec. 1 of the 1987 Constitution).  EDSA 2 violated the only thing that gives equality to the poor and the rich people of our society.  A right that an ordinary Juan dela Cruz could call his own.  The 1987 Constitution needed two thirds of the whole Filipino voting public (probably around thirty to thirty five million) to be upheld.  But only three hundred thousand to trample upon it. 

While three hundred thousand people rejoice at EDSA, millions who voted for Estrada watched their television sets helplessly as they witnessed at  the final minutes of the president elect leaving Malacanang.  The people at EDSA claimed that Estrada already lost the confidence of those who voted for him in 1998.  How did they know that?  Did anyone from that mob vote for Erap to begin with?  Come on.  Be true to yourself.  Who really voted for Estrada?  They are the Filipinos who, till the waning moments of that fateful day when Estrada decided to leave Malacanang, continued to stay silent eventhough their constitutional rights were  being violated.  Probably, they really deserved the way this country is running right now.

What’s in store for the Philippines right now?  A future wherein laws are being broken just to serve the rich and the powerful?  A future where leaders are not followed to please a certain sector of the society?  A future wherein positions for public offices are not secured by having the vote of the majority of your constituents?  Maybe.  But based on EDSA 2, we might be seeing a new form of government wherein national issues are decided by assembling large throngs of people on the major roads of our cities.  They call it parliament of the streets, I call it chaos and anarchy.

For the first month of Mrs. Macapagal-Arroyo in the presidency, we have already been given a glimpse of the continuing existence of the mob rule.  A navy admiral has been forcedfully retired after unearthing irregularities in the marine corps thus earning the ire of the whole Philippine marine organization.  A cabinet member is resigning his post because he was not consulted on the appointments of positions in his department where he own sole authority in appointing people of his confidence.  The reason, the appointees were qualified so they could be appointed eventhough no due process was made.  Six police authorities are being held as suspects eventhough no evidences are found substantial against them.  The only reason, the public is pointing at them for the abduction of a PR man.  Tsk, tsk.  The mob has been unchained and it now rules this nation.  In my last count, a kindergarten teacher was terminated because her students thinks that she failed one student unjustly.  Anyway, the teacher mentioned was also the Model Teacher of the Year for school year 1991-2000.