Filipinos reaped praise worldwide for using peaceful "people power" to oust dictator Ferdinand Marcos and restore democracy in 1986. But 15 years later, they were criticized for using the same tactics to force out President Joseph Estrada midway through the six-year term he won with the widest margin in Philippine history.
Filipinos head to the polls again today in a race seen as so close that millions of voters will likely be dissatisfied with the outcome. Some wonder whether the nation can accept the results without another "people power" revolt.
The hope is that Filipinos are now politically mature enough to accept the result and let the democratic institutions and legal system resolve any conflicts.
"For me, after the second one -- that's enough," said taxi driver Daniel Original, who was only 7 when Marcos was toppled. "If we have another one, it won't look good anymore."
Even though Estrada's ouster was legitimized by a Supreme Court ruling, critics say his fate should have been determined by an impeachment trial that stalled after opposition prosecutors walked out in a protest over the pro-Estrada Senate majority blocking crucial evidence.
Conditions in the Philippines do not inspire confidence that it will remain free of upheavals.
Shortly after Estrada exited through the back door, there was a foiled bid by tens of thousands of his supporters to storm the presidential palace to oust his successor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. A group of disgruntled military men staged a brief, failed mutiny last July.
Just days ahead of today's polling, the national security adviser claimed that opposition figures are already plotting to stir up trouble if they lose.
If Estrada had stayed in office, the election would have chosen his successor. Instead, it pits Arroyo against Fernando Poe Jr., an action film star and close friend of Estrada, with three other candidates given scant chance of success.
Political commentator Benito Lim, a former Asian studies professor, traces the roots of mass protests to a failure by the nation's elite to solve the gripping social ills of poverty, corruption, an underdeveloped economy, sharply unequal distribution of wealth and lack of opportunities.
After decades of control by an ineffective upper class, Filipino "people power" emerged as a "tribal gathering to oust a person they hate," Lim said.
"It has never been a genuine revolution of a common desire to institute common programs addressing issues and problems of the republic," Lim said.
Arroyo's political adviser, Joey Rufino, said the first "people power" revolt -- called the "EDSA revolution" or "EDSA 1" after the Manila highway where it took place -- was staged against dictatorship. The second, dubbed "EDSA 2," took aim at "corruption and bad governance," Rufino said.
The 1986 revolt revived a political system -- modeled after that of former colonial power the US -- that prevailed before Marcos imposed martial law in 1972 and started his one-man rule. People took to the streets about two weeks after Marcos purportedly stole an election from opposition candidate Corazon Aquino, and she was swept to power.
Filipinos remember Rufino, now executive director of the ruling Lakas-CMD party, as the man caught by television cameras tearfully pleading with soldiers -- who had been sent by Marcos to quash the uprising -- to instead join the revolt.
Rufino said he's now "too old" for street protests and he hopes the "EDSA 2" movement will be the last.
"We can't keep on going to the streets every time we hate something in government. That would be mob rule or anarchy," he said.
His fear: "One day, everybody will just wish there was a leader that is a strongman. And, then everybody will lose their rights. Everybody will lose their freedoms because they abused them."
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS