No one can say that Corazon Aquino actually won the election against Marcos. When she took over, she took over a Revolutionary Government. She was proclaimed President, but never proclaimed as the winner of the election. The election itself, of course, was a total farce like the Laban election that preceded it. Incidentally, the Laban election where jailed Ninoy Aquino was one of the candidates culminated with the famous noise barrage. That was actually People’s Power in embryo. Despite orders from Malacañang to the Armed Forces to stop the noise and arrest all noise-makers, the army and the police refused to implement the order.
Our point is that there was a strong opposition to the dictatorial regime, but the regime collapsed when the Armed Forces refused to sustain it any longer. The same holds true with the ouster of President Joseph Estrada. What triggered his downfall was not actually the work of the opposition. It was the exposé of one of his partners in crime. They had a misunderstanding over the division and control of the spoils, so the President’s alleged role in the jueteng racket was exposed.
President Estrada cloistered himself in Malacañang surrounded and protected by his most loyal army men. When EDSA II began, it was the Armed Forces officers that were with him in the palace that told him that he had to step down. His goose was cooked.
At present, we have a very weak opposition. No opposition leader has any significant national following. And they have not been able to come out with any issue that has caught national attention. The biggest controversy that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration has had to face is the current controversy that has been raised by the First Gentleman and the President’s former Correspondence Secretary. Again, it is something that came from within.
Many people are talking about a united opposition. What is important is a united administration. And every individual must be an asset to that administration.