The Lesson of EDSA Revolution

I do not agree with the worldview F. Sionil Jose has… but perhaps this is one of the many points that he got right, and he pointed it out ruthlessly. From an open letter he wrote to the then President Elect Noynoy Aquino:

“Prosecute the crooks. It is difficult, thankless and even dangerous to do this. Your mother [Cory] did not do it — she did not jail Imelda who was the partner in that conjugal dictatorship that plundered this nation… Now the Marcoses are on the high road to power, gloating, snickering at our credulity and despicable amnesia.

…And, finally, your mother. We loved her — she united us in ousting an abominable dictator. But she, too, did not leave a shining legacy for her presidency was a disaster. She announced a revolutionary government but did nothing revolutionary. She promised land reform but did not do it. And most grievous of all — she transformed the EDSA I revolution into a restoration of the oligarchy.” —F. Sionil Jose

An advice of a historian to his readers whenever the nation commemorates an ambiguous holiday—> Don’t get carried away.

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