Framed as an ‘unfinished business,’ 40-year-old People Power faces test of 2028

MANILA, Philippines – At the commemoration event of the 40th year of the People Power Revolution, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David addressed the elephant in the room: the presidential election just two years away.

“I hope we no longer repeat our mistakes in the last four decades. May we remember that, especially in 2028,” he said to an audience of 1986 EDSA veterans, and a younger generation born long after the revolt.

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The Catholic leader didn’t mention any name, but his speech offered reminders of societal ills that have plagued the country since the restoration of Philippine democracy: the concentration of power within a select few, entrenched corruption, and the persistence of patronage politics.

Such are issues that are expected to be front and center in 2028.

Politics of commemoration

It’s difficult to decouple hard politics from this year’s event. Political friction is embedded into the DNA of the historic revolt, and the current landscape only heightens that tension.

Two rallies were held on Wednesday, February 25. The one attended by Cardinal David took place along the People Power Monument, led by religious and civil society leaders who are often associated with Akbayan and Liberal Party. The group is named Trillion Peso March Movement (TPMM).

The second one was held a kilometer or two away, led by left-wing organizations who pushed back against TPMM’s supposed policing of protest slogans.

TPMM’s protest was generally peaceful and sometimes festive, with attendees singing anthems of the revolution while offering flowers to one another. The leftist demonstration, meanwhile, had to overcome police blockades to reach the EDSA Shrine, after the group’s multiple attempts to secure a permit to rally there failed.

The left-wing activists predictably faced more resistance from state forces because they carried the call for the resignation not just of Vice President Sara Duterte, but also President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.. They called for a transition council to determine the new leaders, but that suggestion alienated members of TPMM, who saw the call for a transition council as outside the democratic avenues laid out in the 1987 Constitution.

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While all factions of the opposition wanted Vice President Duterte impeached and removed from office, President Marcos remained to be a gray area. There have been worries that ousting Marcos would bump up Duterte — another major nightmare for the opposition — to the presidency.

Duterte has thrown her hat in the ring for 2028, while the fractured opposition still has its work cut out in selecting a single candidate.

“It is disheartening when we struggle to find the right leaders who will truly fortify our democratic institutions, but that is precisely the great challenge before us,” David said. “But we should not give up the dream of EDSA.”

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Ironies

The 40th anniversary of People Power turned out to be a study in ironies.

The Philippines in 1986 toppled dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, and then, 36 years later, elected his son as president — a return to Malacañang that seemed to have erased the gains of the uprising.

TPMM’s rally demanded that everyone in the present-day corruption saga be held accountable, yet some in the opposition have struggled crafting either a strong or a categorical stand on the leftists’ recent but failed push to impeach Marcos Jr., who has been implicated in the flood control fiasco.

The Constitution written a year after People Power banned political dynasties, but left the prohibition dependent on a Congress dominated by political families who won’t vote against their interests.

Some democracy fighters have reframed People Power not as a romanticization of the past, but as a recognition of a work still in progress to rid the government of corruption and dynastic politics.

“EDSA People Power is an unfinished business,” Cardinal David said. “Our message is that it cannot be business as usual.” – Rappler.com