1986, in Beijing, the send-off for the author and her husband returning to Manila, after the Edsa People Power Revolution
2022 is the Year of the Water Tiger in Chinese zodiac. Tiger is known as the king of all beasts in Chinese culture, and is associated with bravery, confidence, and strength. Tiger years are times of change, especially when it is a Water Tiger, as water is an extremely powerful natural force. It can conquer fire and go around any obstacle on its path and not lose its way.
This year is crucial to our country, for the elections in May will dictate our future for the next six years.
This year also marks the 36th anniversary of Edsa People Power Revolution, an upheaval during the Year of the Fire Tiger in 1986. September 2022 will be the 50th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by President Ferdinand E. Marcos, the Philippine dictator who ruled for 21 years.
Years have passed and, unfortunately, many people now don’t seem to remember that not-so-distant past, and the young generation has been deprived of the memory of that piece of our nation’s history. Our national hero Jose Rizal said: “To foretell the destiny of a nation, it is necessary to open a book that tells of her past.”
And looking back, we may be able to find valuable lessons which may serve us in good stead moving forward.
The year 1986 ended our China exile, when Marcos and his wife Imelda, with their children Imee, Bongbong, and Irene, and their spouses hastily fled Malacañang Palace after the success of the People Power Revolution.
The confluence of events—a series of mass demonstrations which started in 1983 after Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, up to the time Marcos tried to rob president-elect Corazon Aquino of the presidency which she won; the breaking away from the Marcos regime of Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Armed Forces of the Philippines Vice Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos; and the support given to them by Jaime Cardinal Sin who rallied thousands and thousands of people to flock to Edsa in a peaceful revolt—heralded the downfall of Marcos and the return of democracy in the land.
In Beijing where we lived since 1971, my husband Mario and I listened intently to the shortwave broadcasts—Voice of America, BBC, Radio Australia—in February 22-25 of 1986, the last few days of martial rule in the Philippines. Radio Peking, where we worked, was reporting news culled from the Communist-approved Hsinhua News Agency, which was eons away from what was happening in the Philippine streets, saying Marcos had won the elections. And obviously, the events that happened those four days in February 1986 shook the Philippines, if not the world.
The euphoria brought by the success of the struggle against dictatorship ignited our desire to come home
We were ecstatic at the turn of events after our 15-year stay in China. Our friends at Zhuanjialou, Radio Peking Foreign Experts Building, where we were staying, were also happy. The Japanese experts went to our office and our home to toast the success of Edsa People Power. The wife of Mr. Junichiiro Ide, Kazuko, who was vacationing in Japan at that time, sent by express mail a Betamax tape of hours of footage of the Edsa Revolution.
The euphoria brought by the success of the struggle against dictatorship ignited our desire to come home. Mario flew first to Manila to see if the call by President Cory Aquino to Filipinos abroad to come home to participate in rebuilding the nation was true. He visited the University of the Philippines and its president, Edgardo Angara, who we met in Beijing when he visited China before the Edsa Revolution. Angara, who would later become a senator, reiterated his invitation to Mario during his Beijing visit to teach at UP. He wanted Mario to report to the dean of the UP Asian Center, Ajit Singh Rye, and start teaching the following day. Mario returned to Beijing, and our family prepared for our journey back home.
The book People Power by James Reuter, S.J. Foundation
Richard Reeves of Associated Press was quoted in the book, The Greatest Democracy Ever Told–People Power: An Eyewitness History (James B. Reuter, S.J., Foundation, 1986): “I was in two cities, London and then Paris, last Tuesday, when Corazon Aquino became the president of the Philippines. In London, people walking by on Brompton Road cheered when a vender put up a new headline of the Evening Standard: ‘Marcos Flees.’ In Paris, French men and women called each other across noisy streets: ‘Did you hear the news?’”
He further wrote: “‘Her story is at once the most surprising succession of miracles and the most reasonable succession of political actions,’ wrote a Frenchman. That was a long time ago—Andre Maurois writing of the triumph of Joan of Arc in his ‘History of France.’
“There are the seeds of human greatness in the stories of the two innocent women who, five centuries apart, rallied people through their own faith to rise against tyranny. It is a story that can never be told too often and, no matter how it ends this time, is a lesson in the dynamics and wonder of democratic political leadership.”
‘The warring social and political forces that had blocked peaceful change…. came together in a brief, harmonious moment….’ – Sandra Burton
Time Magazine Hong Kong Bureau chief in 1982-1986, Sandra Burton, covered the Philippines and wrote about the country’s transition from dictatorship to democracy in her book, Impossible Dream: The Marcoses, the Aquinos, and the Unfinished Revolution (Warner Books, 1989). She wrote: “Whatever the proper terminology, during the four days in which a dictatorship collapsed and a fragile, new government was installed in its place, the warring social and political forces that had blocked peaceful change so often in the past came together in a brief, harmonious moment of mutual interest and inspiration.”
She added: “It is that transcendent happening which deserves to be remembered. However, to understand how those individuals and factions managed to function, if only fleetingly, as a synchronous whole is to understand why they would come apart just as suddenly when the common forces of their rage had been sent into exile in Hawaii, and they were forced to confront the deeper roots of their discontent.”
The Time correspondent, who passed away in 2004 after an illustrious career in journalism, ominously wrote: “Filipinos had the greatest tolerance for chaos of any people I had ever met. In that sense, more than in others, they seemed suited to democracy. In Pres. Aquino they had a leader who truly believed that democracy could produce results in a poor and polarized country. But I would try to keep my expectations about its success on this volcanic soil within the bounds of realism.”
Burton evidently discerned the Filipino psyche, for in the years that followed the glorious People Power, we would see our country going through the rollercoaster of seeming victories and failures, apparent progress and regression, and many disasters and cataclysms, both natural and political. The country seemed to go nowhere. We can’t seem to rise above the quagmire we often find ourselves in, and we tend to be masochistic as a nation. Why do we elect bad leaders?
We tend to be masochistic as a nation. Why do we elect bad leaders?
Now that we are again facing another democratic exercise to elect the highest leader of the land, can we take stock of what we want for our country and our people once and for all? Don’t we like to look back and see where we’re coming from?
The Guinness Book of World Records has recorded the “Greatest Robbery of a Government” by the Marcoses: “The government of the Philippines announced on 23 Apr 1986 that it had succeeded in identifying $860.8 million (£569.5 million) salted away by the former President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos (1917–89) and his wife Imelda. The total national loss from November 1965 was believed to be $5–$10 billion.”
In 2016, the rally against Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani
The mind-boggling loot has not been returned to the Filipino people, but the cadaver of the dictator (who was even unceremoniously buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani), his partner in crime Imelda, and their children have all returned. They are even enjoying a political comeback, especially Marcos Junior, who is now unbelievably running for president.
Reporting on the day before Marcos fled for Hawaii, Sandra Burton wrote in her book: “The pressure inside the palace was taking its toll on the sleepless First Family. After the press conference (Day 3, Feb. 24, 1986), Bong Bong Marcos pulled a gun on a presidential aide whom he accused of mishandling his father’s television appearance.”
This violent presidential bet, who was also a convicted tax evader and who had not made his province proud while a governor, may yet hold the highest office which his corrupt dictator father forcibly held for 21 years if our people will not learn from history.
It’s about time Filipinos woke up once again, just like during those glorious days of February in 1986, and choose the best—incorruptible, hardworking, honest, compassionate, and experienced—to be our next president. We may yet see the hand of God, again just like before, in bringing to this country what we rightly deserve.
Hopefully, the Year of the Water Tiger will herald for us Filipinos a great change for the best, for just like what Sandra Burton wrote at the end of her book, “I hoped that I would find another people whose aspirations would touch me as much as the Filipinos had.”
A Nov. 30, 2016 rally against Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani
