Edsa celebration ties up traffic for hours

Yesterday morning, I was awakened by a muffled boom that turned out to have come from the 21-gun salute for Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino, III who was having a pass-in-review of elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in front of the Cebu Provincial Capitol. Then PNoy walked up the stage to raise the Philippine flag with members of his Cabinet. While watching the flag being raised, I remembered the case of the P8 million flag pole the DPWH erected at the Luneta and wondered whether an investigation was conducted.

As expected and in classic Aquino fashion, the language used for the ceremonies was in Tagalog. We belatedly learned that the holding of the EDSA's 28th anniversary was done by the EDSA Commission and the officials at the Cebu Provincial Capitol had nothing to do with that extravaganza. At least Gov. Hilario Davide, III spoke in English and talked about the EDSA Revolt from a historical perspective, which I reckon he must have read from one of the many books about the EDSA Revolt.

Unfortunately, Gov. Davide failed to remind his captive audience and most especially his honored guest, the President on stage, that we in Cebu also had our own EDSA Revolt, which in fact and in truth began at the Fuente Osmeña. In the end, the 28th EDSA anniversary rites only talked about the role of Cebu during the EDSA Revolt as a footnote in history.

But I can forgive the governor for his failure to tell his guests on the significance of Cebu's part of EDSA history, after all, he was still a kid 28 years ago and wasn't anywhere near Fuente at that time. But in my book, it was fatal for the governor not to talk about Cebu's role during the EDSA uprising. Incidentally, during the live-for-TV commentaries, they had Inquirer's Conrad de Quiros interviewed where he mentioned that Cory was in Cebu at the beginning of the EDSA Revolt. But he had nothing more to say.

It just makes me wonder how much the EDSA extravaganza cost the Philippine government or should I say the taxpayers. Just to bring at least two Simba armored vehicles would have cost a lot of money. A statue of Our Lady of Fatima was carried by a man in a white robe. I'm not sure if he was a priest or an actor. I'm sure that the presence of the statue had no significance for PNoy because in his Presidency he mocked the Catholic Church by forcing the passage of the Reproductive Health Bill.

I'd say there were less than 5,000 people that watched along the sides because the main road was reserved for the AFP. That included Cebu City Hall employees that Mayor Mike Rama asked to attend the EDSA Rites. Banners and streamers showed the day's Theme: "Kapit Bisig Tungot sa Pagbangon." Ogie Alcasid sang "Ang Filipinas ay magbangon." Of course, their main thrust was for Leyte to rise up in the aftermath of typhoon "Yolanda."

But really now 28 years later, what has happened to our People's Revolution? From the Marcos dictatorship, it was replaced by the dictatorship of the political elite, which is today personified by PNoy. After all, 28 years have passed and many politicians have become rich beyond their wildest dreams using the pork barrel as their personal bank account, while the rest of the Filipinos remain in dire poverty.

 In introducing the President, Executive Secretary Atty. Francisco Ochoa said the reason why Cebu was chosen for the EDSA celebration today was because Cebu was the center of the relief operations during the wake of typhoon "Yolanda." In his speech, PNoy explained why Cebu is important to him saying "In 1983 I came to Cebu and it was as if there was no Martial Law, as if Cebu was already free because of Cebu's opposition to the Marcos Dictatorship." The President also admitted that the spirit of EDSA started in Cebu and his mother Cory came to Cebu to start the civil disobedience campaign.

The President decided not to use a TelePrompTer and spoke about EDSA from the heart. One generation has passed since EDSA. He talked about the role of Cardinal Sin and the Church during the revolt. EDSA was supposed to be a new beginning for a new way of life. The President was all praises for the role of Cebu during EDSA, but what I wanted to hear him say was that he was giving Cebu the infrastructure projects that were denied us in the last three years under his watch.

After his speech, they sang "Bayan Ko," a song we used to sing for years after Sen. Ninoy Aquino was shot and killed. Somehow this song, just like the EDSA celebrations, has lost its luster. Anyway, no good news was brought to Cebu, just traffic for hours, very much similar to the traffic in EDSA.

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