THE GREAT PHILIPPINE POLITICAL IRONY

Prior to the 1986 People Power Revolution, the presidency of the then Philippine President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, Sr. was mired with corruption, economic slump, human rights abuses, crackdown of the political opposition, martial law, assassination of the leading opposition leader Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. and election cheatings, the most notable of which was the 1986 snap presidential elections between ex-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and Aquino's widow ... Corazon "Cory" Sumulong-Cojuangco Aquino.

The Filipino people were already appalled with the way Marcos was ruling the Philippines, from his declaration of martial law up to the time when Aquino was gunned down at the tarmac of the renowned Manila International Airport, later to be known as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Since martial rule was declared, congress was dissolved, the constitution was changed and Marcos became a dictator, clinging to political power as much as he could, not until he was ousted from the prime national leadership.

Marcos made use of his political power to amass wealth and created political cronies who would lead and own the big national private corporations at that period. Because of the rampant corruption in government and the perpetuation of power by the leading national leader of that epoch, various mass protests were held by many concerned labor unionists and students in the streets of Metro Manila and even in the provinces. The Philippine communist insurgency which also started in the early years of the Marcos national leadership in 1969 has also grown and became more aggressive. The noted political opposition leaders like Senators Jose W. Diokno, Jr. and Ninoy Aquino were incarcerated and some of their political allies like Senator Sergio Osmena, Jr. and Senator Gerardo Roxas went in exile to escape political persecution, if not imprisonment for being critical against the Marcos regime. These developments have negatively impacted the Philippine economy and the country became the economic sick man of Asia.

Sen. Ninoy Aquino was jailed for being critical against Marcos for seven years and seven months and was freed from captivity after having been medically discovered that he had blocked arteries in his heart and went to America to seek medical treatment. While in the United States, Aquino continued to be critical against Marcos and after three years of sojourn in the States he decided to go back home to his beloved native

land to ask Marcos to effect political change in the Philippines. While alighting from the stairs of the airplane which he boarded in his homecoming, he was shot by his own police escort at the groin which resulted in his instantaneous death.

The death of Aquino became the biggest political issue against the strongman Marcos and the burial of the former became the biggest political march prior to the 1986 presidential snap elections. Mr. Marcos's popularity has waned significantly since Aquino's assassination due to the rationale that Marcos was probably involved in Mr. Aquino's death.

Marcos would then call for a snap presidential election in 1986 to show the world that he still enjoyed the confidence of the vast majority in the Philippine islands. Cory Aquino, Ninoy Aquino's better half, would run against Marcos in the presidential derby, but Marcos won in the contest. Mrs. Aquino would then call the people to hold rallies and civil disobedience against the Marcos leadership for having cheated in the political exercise in which the two of them were protagonists.

Meanwhile, intelligence reports would emerge from the military officers loyal to the then Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Gen. Fabian Ver and President Marcos that Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos were planning to stage a military coup against the duly and newly Marcos national leadership. After knowing the split in the military ranks during that time, then Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin would call the people by way of RADIO VERITAS to rally behind Minister Enrile and Lt. Gen. Ramos and converge to EDSA to protect them. The throng of people supporting Ramos and Enrile went to EDSA, the main thoroughfare in Metro Manila to succor Ramos, Enrile and the senior military officers behind them and called for the ouster of Marcos from power. The multitude of the populace clamored for change and wanted Cory Aquino to be installed president for she was cheated by Marcos in the last held electoral process.

The wailings of the people to effect change in government and for the ouster of Mr. Marcos as perpetual leader of the country was heeded by the heavens, and Mrs. Aquino would later be installed at the helm of the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines.

After the People Power Revolution of 1986 and after Corazon C. Aquino would be president, her presidency tried its best to effect change in government. The Presidential Commission on Good Government was created to locate the ill-gotten wealth of Marcos and his cronies, the 1973 Constitution which was parliamentary/unitary leaning was substituted by the more democratically 1987 presidential/unitary leaning constitution.

Mrs. Aquino tried to overhaul the government, but the bureaucracy was and is still filled with corrupt agents. After President Cory Aquino's reign as the first woman president whose battle cry in the 1986 presidential snap elections was to effect change and to get rid of corruption and after many presidents have changed leaderships, the Philippine nation is still embroiled with many political controversies and corruption issues.

So, what must be the problem why change for the better in the Philippines which is otherwise known as the Pearl of the Orient can hardly be discovered? The Filipinos are the problem because they do not know how to effect real change in themselves. How can change happen in Philippine politics when the people are not politically educated? Change cannot be realized when the people sell their votes to corrupt officials thus allow them to distort public policies to serve their own interest that consequently increases economic inequality.

At this point in time, there is no doable approach that will prepare social movements to counter corruption that is deeply entrenched in our culture since time immemorial. Not until these social-political and moral issues are effectively challenged, the possibility of change is still bleak. For change to take effect in the Philippine state, I humbly believe that the people themselves must change, for real change comes from within