Who is this “we”? I think this question is important.
Fact are: Citizens properly sued Arroyo, Estrada, Marcos. Citizens toppled two of them, and rejected Arroyo’s chosen successor.
The system failed the citizens by refusing to hold these leaders to account.
Fact are: Citizens properly sued Arroyo, Estrada, Marcos. Citizens toppled two of them, and rejected Arroyo’s chosen successor.
The system failed the citizens by refusing to hold these leaders to account.
In the case of Estrada, citizens sued and proved plunder in court. But Arroyo, with egging from trapos, granted clemency — allowing Estrada’s political restoration.
In the case of Marcos, citizens sued them in US courts despite opposition from PH governments re human rights litigation. The class action was won, and it took the system decades to recognize their status.
Citizens are victims of the rotten political system. Let’s not blame them for the mess. There were incidents and events beyond the citizens’ reach or influence that made this mess possible.
After the two EDSAs, the succeeding governments told citizens to calm down and fold up the placards bec supposedly the struggle is over. And that the new governments would hold the ousted leaders to account. Next thing we knew, they were engaged in political accommodation.
And then, there’s the post-EDSA criminalization and dehumanization of dissenters and radicals bec the governments didn’t want the truths that they present.
The system is supposed to be smart and self-correcting. A president would be prevented by Congress and the courts from abusing his position. Plunderers, killers and betrayers of Public Trust would be held to account. And so on. This does not happen. Is this the fault of people?
Even the spread of historical revisionism is blamed on the public’s so-called ignorance when we already have had five regimes post-EDSA (30 years) but there’s no proper retelling of the Marcos record in schools and media. Unrecovered Marcos loot meanwhile is used to spread lies.
The coup by Arroyo is her own handiwork, the opportunist that she is. This cannot be blamed on ordinary citizens who were not consulted or involved in the planning of the coup. Lahat naman tayo nagulat eh, with the exception of those involved in the mess.
