The parody and mockery of people power

MANILA: The rabble that has assembled at Edsa to protest against the arrest of deposed President Joseph Estrada has been given various labels. Among them are "Edsa III" and "poor power." But calling the demonstrations Edsa III is a parody and mockery of Edsa.

The historical context of Edsa is that it is the court of last resort for the sovereign people to throw off the yoke of abusive and corrupt leaders after all institutional means to end the abuses have failed. That has been the meaning embedded in Edsa by People Power I, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos, and People Power II, which deposed Estrada.

The Filipino people endured 14 years of the Marcos dictatorship, its abuses and its looting of the nation's wealth, before People Power took shape in February 1986. They endured two and a half years of Estrada's abuses and plunder before they moved to end his greedy, corrupt and incompetent regime.

Those two movements were fueled by profound causes: grievances arising from abuse of power and grand larceny. In contrast, the mass demonstration at Edsa today was sparked by the arrest of Estrada on charges of economic plunder.

There's no discounting the fact that Estrada still retains a large constituency among the poor. But it's a mockery of the meaning of Edsa to call that gathering Edsa III. The current demonstrations trivialize Edsa. They are like the counterfeit name "Jose Velarde" which Estrada signed on his laundered bank accounts. The only association the demonstrations can have with Edsa is that it is an alias for Edsa and should therefore be qualified with the abbreviation "a.k.a." in the same manner that the Sandiganbayan's arrest warrants identified Estrada as "a.k.a. Asiong Salonga," or "Jose Velarde."

What we see in the Edsa protest rally today is a reincarnation of the Asiong Salonga culture impersonated by Estrada in his film of the same title. When the crowds occupied the Edsa Shrine, they proceeded to deface it and dump garbage there. Whom were they mad at? The Virgin?

The mob at Edsa doesn't have leaders to articulate what they really want. They are as chaotic as the Estrada administration. Three demands seem to have emerged, separately from that crowd: (1) free Estrada from jail; (2) put him under house arrest (this comes from his lawyers); and (3) put him back as president (Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is the most vociferous in making this demand).

Those who demand his release from jail collide against the judicial system and process which have inexorably sent him to detention while waiting for trial on the plunder charges. No one in his right mind can say that Estrada has been denied due process.

The demand for house arrest means that the law should not be applied equally to the powerful and the poor. It is asking for a privilege that is not enjoyed by other citizens. When the poor echo the petition of the defense lawyers to keep Estrada under house arrest, they are in fact demanding a double standard: one for Estrada and a stricter rule for the poor and the rest of us. The poor are thus arguing against their own interest.

The third demand -- reinstating Estrada as president -- calls not only for his restoration. It is a call for the reinstatement of massive corruption and incompetence in government.

Calling the demonstration the "revenge of the poor" corrupts political vocabulary. On whom are the poor wreaking vengeance? Their revenge would be better directed at their idol who had betrayed them and who, while he was in power, failed to improve their lot. In corruption, the loot extracted from the national wealth goes to the pocket of the corrupt official, making the poor poorer.

The legitimacy of the Macapagal administration has been recognized by the Supreme Court, the key institutions of the state and by the diplomatic corps. The demand for the restoration of Estrada flies in the face of this wall of legitimacy.

The poor are being cynically used to justify these absurd and unrealistic demands. Their numbers are being used to give muscle to the demand that Estrada be given privileges contradicting the principle of equal protection of the law.

Incidentally, the demonstrators and their politician friends who are taking advantage of them have called for "fair" treatment from media covering their rallies. The cause for the scarcity of the media in these rallies is that hooligans masquerading as protesters are hostile to the media. The mobs were roughing up journalists and stoning their vehicles. Edsa today is not the safest place for practicing members of the media to be.

-- Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network