Highway 54

Highway 54 was built by the government in the 1950s to provide a simplified traffic artery in what was to become Metro Manila. When this same major thoroughfare was renamed EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue, after the bibliophile hero), the government never thought that it was creating a historical yardstick as well.

In the 1980s, 30 years later, EDSA 1, or what was to be known as the People Power phenomenon, toppled a dictator. Unbelievable, but at that time, after almost two decades of civil liberties repression and other limitations, the Filipino had the novel experience of participating in a once-in-a-lifetime street event.

What the world was to admire as a Filipino democratic phenomenon was reprised after only 15 years, too short a period of time to have been a milestone, but certainly good enough to earn a page in the Guinness Book of World Records. Thus EDSA 2 happened and evicted an immoral leader. Analysts have been attributing EDSA 2’s abruptness or blessedness (for those who believed in its necessity) to the youth of the land and their text technology.

Yet, before calloused thumbs and bunioned soles could fully heal, a figure of speech approximating three months, a more rabid throng of marchers amassed for their own EDSA 3. While EDSA 1 restored democracy and its sequel, EDSA 2 sought to bring back decency and morality in governance, what did EDSA 3 really intend to do by way of an ideology?

Surely there are common strands that characterized all three EDSAs, irrespective of the times and circumstances. But a glaring conclusion is that, whether successful or not, none of the EDSAs succeeded in uniting the nation. After EDSA 1 there were still the Marcos loyalists who continued to rave and rant, though their noise should have died with their beloved Apo Lakay. Today, pro-Erap supporters have to lick their wounds, both the emotional scars and the very real painful cuts, scrapes and bruises.

And here’s the rub. EDSA, irrespective of which version, was never about winners and losers, conquerors and conquered. EDSA is really about fresh starts. And as in all successful fresh starts, all of us must cleanse ourselves of inadequacies, if not sins, of the past. And here, cleansing is not a partial process; it should be total.

Total Cleansing? Wasn’t that what everyone had dreamt and hoped for after EDSA 1 until compromises diluted the dream? Some analysts have identified these dilutions: e.g. RAM-led factions of the AFP had to be rewarded with cabinet posts (though they seethed at having to share power with the likes of enlightened militants like Joker Arroyo, Bobbit Sanchez and the Rene Saguisag of old).

Exactly 100 days (again a figure of speech about callouses and bunions) after she assumed office, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s attempt at a fresh start was nearly ended by a raging mob whose leaders abandoned them and left them as cannon fodder. Since the enraged mob was largely composed of the masa, must total cleansing apply to them likewise?

And why not? They must be cleansed of misguided hopelessness and the stigma that some members of "civil society," a much abused term these days, have attached to them. We are all members of civil society, for proper behavior and moral standards transcend social strata, even as we must play our individual roles as politicians, tycoons and work force. Drawing inspiration from St. Paul’s comparison of an ecclesiastical body to a human body, we must cross castes to prove that a common cause can bring about a common good.

The business sector must undergo total cleansing as well. Their profit motivations must be tempered with altruistic intent. National progress and the well-being of each and every Filipino is everyone’s business.

And the left? They must be cleansed of the thought that change can only happen through violent upheaval. That raising clenched fists is a poor alternative to bringing minds together and hammering out a solution. That the left has, for now, shunned their anti-establishment posture and are instead working in peaceful coexistence with government is an encouraging move towards total cleansing.

Let me now give special mention to our men and women in uniform. If there is any one sector that needed cleansing, it is the armed establishment. Politicized and cuddled by Marcos and his dictatorial Martial Rule, the military once swaggered and crowed that they were the real power in the country.

The siege of Malacañang showed us an institution re-born. In the after-shock of the May 1 madness, let us take time to express our gratitude to our men and women in uniform. Their adherence to the civilian authority’s mandate of maximum tolerance deserves the maximum recognition and honor that the people and the nation can bestow. A special prayer too for SPO1 Rolando Abella.

Talk is rife that the cabal of power grabbers have not given up on their dastardly dream. But, by and large, our officers and soldiers have made it clear that they are servants of the public and not of politicians. If rumors are to be believed, promises of wealth were dangled upon them. The few that succumbed were quickly contained. The many that stood by what was right saved not only the presidency but the entire nation.

Total cleansing is not an impossible dream. The military proved this. And if these hardened men can, why can’t we?

In reality, EDSA (the street, that is) is yet to simplify the transport needs of Metro Manila. It is still a choked avenue of vehicles and fumes. Meanwhile, let us not complicate what EDSA (the vision, that is) really means and stands for in our search for a just society. Perhaps we should stop polluting EDSA (the vision, again) with more and worse, other versions, despite improved cell phones and texting capabilities.