I do not have any intention of politicizing my purely showbiz entertainment blog but the recent events that transpired is enough motivation to push me to entertain you with my point of view on this latest political circus in our country!
In 1986, there were important actors during the EDSA revolution: the Marcos Loyalists, the Cory supporters and the Balimbings. There were three important big scenes: First, the Cory supporters numbering close to a million (other estimates say it was over 2 million) provided human cover to the rebel military and police forces inside Camp Crame. Second big scene involved the Marcos loyalists numbering 100 inside Malacanang listening to a speech of President Ferdinand Marcos from a veranda of the Palace. The third scene, a few weeks later after Marcos left the country, inside government offices, the balimbings – or those government underlings who have never been to EDSA during the four-day stand off but when the new Officer-in-Charge of the government agency was installed they were the first to congratulate and to make big stories that they were all after all Cory supporters!
During the tenure of President Cory, the Kamag-anak Incorporated was perceived to have dominated the government offices and even the government sequestered businesses. Simply, the public perception was that the relatives of President Tita were all over the government bureaucracy. For this, several military attempts were made but the young democracy under President Tita survived.
From January 17-20, 2001, the EDSA 2 took place at the intersection of EDSA and Ortigas Avenue in front of the EDSA Shrine, about three kilometers away from the EDSA Camp Crame. That time, the important actors were the Erap Loyalists, GMA supporters, and the Balimbings. There were three important scenes: First, inside the Senate, the dancing queen senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta a true-to-form Erap loyalist was dancing like a pro Dance Instructress after the Senate voted that an envelope will not be opened! As a result of the sexy dance of Senator Oreta, err of the Senate decision not to open the envelope, the second scene took place where GMA supporters converged on EDSA Shrine. The third scene was the defection of the military forces (balimbings) from supporting Erap to the side of GMA.
Now under the tenure of GMA, we have the Fertilizer Scam, the Garci tape and lately the ZTE NBN scam. Came the friday, 29 February Makati rally where close to 80,000 pro-truth rallyists were reported to have attended the Interfaith Rally. The rally ended peacefully but it indeed left a great challenge to the GMA regime.
Tatagal ba siya?
(to be continued)
One Response to “The Loyalists, the Oppositionists and the Fence-Sitters”
sa tanong mo kung tatagal ba siya, i guess she would. up to when, i don’t know. i was in edsa during the first two people power revolt. will i join another revolt. i don’t think so. the trapos, both admin and opposition, are so revolting they make me puke. it’s not the case of the lesser of two evils – they’re still evils. an iranian friend notes that we are the only asian country that hasn’t had a civil war; and that we can’t progress as a nation if we didn’t have one. cleansing, he says. i rue the day our children had to suffer civil strife because of our generation’s mistakes.