EDSA PEOPLE POWER REVOLUTION
The Philippines was praised worldwide in
1986, when the so-called bloodless revolution erupted, called EDSA People
Power’s Revolution. February 25, 1986 marked a significant national event that
has been engraved in the hearts and minds of every Filipino. This part of
Philippine history gives us a strong sense of pride especially that other
nations had attempted to emulate what we have shown the world of the
true power of democracy. The true empowerment of democracy
was exhibited in EDSA by its successful efforts to oust a tyrant by a
demonstration without tolerance for violence and bloodshed. Prayers and
rosaries strengthened by faith were the only weapons that the Filipinos used to
recover their freedom from President Ferdinand Marcos’s iron hands. The Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA)
stretches 54 kilometers, where the peaceful demonstration was held on that
fateful day. It was a day that gathered all Filipinos in unity with courage and
faith to prevail democracy in the country. It was the power of the people, who
assembled in EDSA, that restored the democratic Philippines, ending the
oppressive Marcos regime. Hence, it came to be known as the EDSA People Power’s
Revolution.
The revolution was a result of the long
oppressed freedom and the life threatening abuses executed by the Marcos
government to cite several events like human rights violation since the
tyrannical Martial Law Proclamation in 1972.In the years that
followed Martial Law started the suppressive and abusive
years–incidents of assassination were rampant, particularly those who
opposed the government, individuals and companies alike were subdued. The
Filipinos reached the height of their patience when former Senator Benigno
"Ninoy" Aquino, Sr. was shot and killed at the airport in August
21, 1983, upon his return to the Philippines from exile in the United States.
Aquino’s death marked the day that Filipinos learned to fight. His grieving
wife, Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino showed the Filipinos and the world the
strength and courage to claim back the democracy that Ferdinand Marcos arrested
for his personal caprice. Considering the depressing economy of the country,
Ninoy’s death further intensified the contained resentment of the Filipinos. In
the efforts to win back his popularity among the people, Marcos held
a snap presidential election in February 7, 1986, where he was
confronted with a strong and potent opposition, Corazon Aquino. It was the most
corrupt and deceitful election held in the Philippine history. There was an
evident trace of electoral fraud as the tally of votes were declared with
discrepancy between the official count by the COMELEC (Commission on Elections)
and the count of NAMFREL (National Movement for Free Elections). Such blatant
corruption in that election was the final straw of tolerance by the
Filipinos of the Marcos regime. The demonstration started to break in
the cry for democracy and the demand to oust Marcos from his seat
at Malacañang Palace. The revolt commenced
when Marcos' Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the Armed
Forces Vice-Chief of Staff command of Fidel V. Ramos, both withdrew their support from the government and
called upon the resignation of then President Marcos. They responsibly
barricaded Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo and had their troops ready
to combat against possible armed attack organized by Marcos and
his troops. The Catholic Church represented
by Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin along with
the priests and nuns called for the support of all Filipinos who
believed in democracy. Radyo Veritas aired the message of Cardinal
Sin that summoned thousands of Filipinos to march the street of EDSA. It was an
empowering demonstration that aimed to succeed peacefully with the intervention
of faith. Nuns kneeled in front of tanks with rosaries in their hands and
uttering their prayers.
With the power of prayers, the armed marine troops under the command of Marcos withdrew from the site. Celebrities expressed their support putting up a presentation to showcase the injustices and the anomalies carried out by the Marcos administration. Finally, in the morning of February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino took the presidential oath of office, administered by the Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee at Club Filipino located in San Juan. Aquino was proclaimed as the 11th President of the Republic of the Philippines. She was the first lady president of the country. People rejoiced over their victory proving the success of the EDSA People’s Power Revolution, the historic peaceful demonstration. Although in 2001, there was an attempt to revive People Power in the efforts to oust then President Joseph Estrada, it was not as strong as the glorifying demonstration in 1986. The bloodless, People Power Revolution in EDSA renewed the power of the people, strengthened the meaning of democracy and restored the democratic institutions of government. Continue to the 5th Republic (1986) up to the Present Time.
With the power of prayers, the armed marine troops under the command of Marcos withdrew from the site. Celebrities expressed their support putting up a presentation to showcase the injustices and the anomalies carried out by the Marcos administration. Finally, in the morning of February 25, 1986, Corazon Aquino took the presidential oath of office, administered by the Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee at Club Filipino located in San Juan. Aquino was proclaimed as the 11th President of the Republic of the Philippines. She was the first lady president of the country. People rejoiced over their victory proving the success of the EDSA People’s Power Revolution, the historic peaceful demonstration. Although in 2001, there was an attempt to revive People Power in the efforts to oust then President Joseph Estrada, it was not as strong as the glorifying demonstration in 1986. The bloodless, People Power Revolution in EDSA renewed the power of the people, strengthened the meaning of democracy and restored the democratic institutions of government. Continue to the 5th Republic (1986) up to the Present Time.
EDSA DOS
The EDSA
Revolution of 2001, also called by the local media as EDSA II (pronounced as
Edsa dos) or the Second People Power Revolution, is the common name
of the four-day popular revolution that peacefully
overthrew Philippine President Joseph Estrada in
January 2001. He was succeeded by his then vice president Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo
EDSA
is an acronym derived from Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, the
major highway that encircles Metro Manila. The revolt took place in the
business district of Ortigas Center.
On
January 17,2001,the impeachment trial of President Estrada moved to the
investigation of an envelope containing crucial evidence that would allegedly
prove acts of political corruption by Estrada.Senate of the Philippines
Senators allied with Estrada moved to block the evidence. The conflict between
the senators, judges, and the prosecution became deeper, but Senator Francisco
Tatad requested to the Impeachment court to make a vote for opening the second
envelope. The vote resulted in 10 senators in favor of examining the evidence,
and 11 senators in favor of suppressing it. The list of senators who voted for the
second envelope are as follows: After the vote,Aquilino Pimentel, Jr. resigned
as Senate President and walked out of the impeachment proceedings together with
the 9 opposition Senators and 11 prosecutors in the Estrada impeachment trial.
The 11 administration senators who voted YES to block the opening of the second
envelope remained in Senate Session Hall. They were chanted with "Jose's
Cohort" where their surnames were arranged.
Day
1: January 17, 2001 All 11 prosecutors in the Estrada
impeachment trial resigned, following an 11-10 vote by the Senate the previous
day to block a key piece of evidence. Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, one of the
three female senators who voted for "NO" (no for opening of the
envelope), was seen on nationwide television and most people had the impression
that she was dancing joyfully as the opposition walked out. This further fueled
the growing anti-ERAP sentiments of the crowd gathered at EDSA Shrine, and she
became the most vilified and accursed of the 11 senators. She was labeled a
"prostitute" and a "concubine" of ERAP for her dancing act.
Sen. Defensor-Santiago was also ridiculed, as the crowd tagged her as a
"lunatic" (it came from her reputation of being overly intelligent).
Day
2: January 18, 2001 The crowd continues to grow, bolstered by
students from private schools and left-wing organizations.cardinal Sin was
served the in to the
Day
3: January 19, 2001 The Philippine National Police and the Armed
Forces of the Philippines withdraw their support for Estrada, joining the crowds
at the EDSA Shrine.
At
5:00pm, Estrada appears on television for the first time since the beginning of
the protests and maintains that he will not resign. He says he wants the
impeachment trial to continue, stressing that only a guilty verdict will remove
him from office. At 6:15pm, Estrada again appears on television, calling for a
snap presidential election to be held concurrently with congressional and local
elections on May 14, 2001. He adds that he will not run in this election.
Day
4: January 20, 2001 At noon, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo takes her
oath of office in the presence of the crowd at EDSA, becoming the 14th
president of the Philippines.
At
2:00 pm, Estrada releases a letter saying he had "strong and serious
doubts about the legality and constitutionality of her proclamation as
president", but saying he would give up his office to avoid being an
obstacle to healing the nation. Later, Estrada and his family leave Malacañang
Palace, smiling and waving to reporters and shaking hands with the remaining
members of his Cabinet and other palace employees. He was placed under
house arrest and eventually confined to his rest home in Sampaloc.
The
only means of legitimizing the event was the last-minute Supreme Court ruling
that "the welfare of the people is the supreme law." But by then,
the Armed Forces of the Philippines days ago already withdrew support
for the president, which some analysts call unconstitutional and most foreign
political analysts would agree. William Overholt, a Hong Kong-based political
economist said that "It is either being called mob rule or mob rule as a
cover for a well-planned coup," "But either way, it's not
democracy." It should also be noted that opinion was divided during EDSA
II about whether Gloria Arroyo as the incumbent Vice-president should
be president if Joseph Estrada was ousted; many groups who
participated in EDSA II expressly stated that they did not want Arroyo for
president either, and some of them would later participate in EDSA III. It
must however be noted that the prevailing Constitution of the Philippines calls
for the Vice-President of the Philippines, who at the time was Gloria Arroyo,
to take the position of the President of the country during events that the
current president cannot function in that capacity. During these
demonstrations, Joseph Ejercito Estrada clearly was incapacitated, the
government stifled, and that was even before the Armed Forces withdrew its
support for him as president. 2006 a video showed that Arroyo had
prepared the "EDSA" more than a year.
MILLION
PEOPLE MARCH
The
so-called Million People March was the first of a series of protests
in the Philippines calling for the total abolition of the Pork
Barrel fund, triggered by public anger over the Priority Development
Assistance Fund scam. Initial calls circulated through social media (mainly
on Facebook and Twitter) to convene a protest on August 26, 2013
at Luneta Park in Manila as well as other cities nationwide
and overseas. Some media commentators consider this as the first ever massive
rally in the Philippines called and organised mostly through social media
channels.
The so-called "Pork
Barrel Scam" was first exposed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 12, 2013, with the six-part exposé of the Inquirer on
the scam pointing to businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles as the scam's mastermind after Benhur K. Luy, her
second cousin and former personal assistant, was rescued by agents of the National
Bureau of Investigation on March 22, 2013,
four months after he was detained by Napoles at her unit at the Pacific
Plaza Towers in Fort Bonifacio initially centering on Napoles' involvement in the
2004 Fertilizer Fund scam. After
Napoles turned to Malacanang for help regarding the supposed harassment by
members of the NBI in April 2013, the whistleblowers and their lawyer presented affidavits stating that Napoles' company “had defrauded the
government of billions of pesos in ghost projects involving the creation of at
least 20 bogus nongovernment organizations.”
The
government investigation on Luy's testimony has since expanded to cover
Napoles' involvement in a wider scam involving the misuse of PDAF funds from
2003 to 2013. 8 of the 82 questionable NGOs are linked to Napoles with the
filing of complaints for 74 others currently pending. "As more and more
records—even from recent years—are examined, it appears that the misuse of pork
did not stop in 2009. And while the congressional pork barrel already puts at
least 25 billion a year in the hands of lawmakers, the fact is there are
hundreds of billions worth of special and regular funds disbursed and possibly
misused year after year".
It
is estimated that the Government of the Philippines was defrauded of some ₱10 billion from 2007-2009 (with the
investigation requested to continue to cover the first few years under the
Aquino administration) with a sizeable amount reportedly having been
diverted to Napoles, participating members of Congress and other Government
officials. Aside from the PDAF and the fertilizer fund maintained by
the Department of Agriculture, around ₱900 million in royalties earned from
the Malampaya gas field were also lost to the scam. The scam has
provoked public outrage, with calls being made on the Internet for popular
protests to demand the abolition of the Pork Barrel Fund, and the order
for Napoles' arrest sparking serious discussion online.
Almost
a year after the anniversary of the gathering, different anti-pork groups
around the country coordinated to launch a People's initiative against pork
barrel with the ultimate aim of banning pork barrel funds from the
national budget. The move was brought about by the refusal of the executive and
legislative branches to remove pork in the national budget even after
a Supreme Court decision favoring the anti-pork movement.
The
original event page is still actively used though a Facebook page has now been
put up Million People March to Scrap Pork Barrel to provide updates
on the issue and other corruption issues existing in government.
YOLANDA
PEOPLE FINDER
On the 8th day of November, year 2013, people are living their lives peacefully until a massive tragedy shook their innocent lives.
On the 8th day of November, year 2013, people are living their lives peacefully until a massive tragedy shook their innocent lives.
Typhoon Haiyan, also known as Typhoon
Yolanda, was one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded in the world
history. It killed a total number of 6,300 people in the Philippines.
The vast use of ICT had a great impact in terms of
informing others on what is happening during this calamity. The typhoon is
talked about on social networking sites and the storm became a trend worldwide,
dubbing that Typhoon Yolanda is one of the strongest typhoons in world history.
A Facebook post where this user
gives tips on helping out the victims of the super typhoon.
Even finding people who is affected by the storm is
easy with the internet. With just a few clicks away, you’ll know immediately
what your loved ones are doing.
Aside from the social media, Google offered a help
to the Filipino people by allowing them to use their web application called
Google Person Finder.
Google Person Finder is an
open source web application that provides a message board for survivors,
family, and loved ones affected by a natural disaster to post and search for
information about each other’s status and updates. It was first created by
Google engineers in response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Aside from the Philippines, Google also deployed
their project to countries such as Haiti, Chile, Pakistan, USA, Japan, New
Zealand, Thailand and Nepal.
This web application helped thousands of people
affected by the typhoon. It is also easy to use – just have an access on the
internet or send a message on the numbers indicated on the website.
This kind of innovation greatly helped not only the
ones who are in a disaster but the whole world. Simple innovations like this
can lead into something greater. What if on the next generations, we can
actually track our loved ones and know their current situation right away in
spite of distance? What if on the near future, there would be a drone that
scans areas in order to find people? There are many possibilities.
ICT can be a pathway to get access to information,
regardless of its content. It improved our way of living, as well as the way we
respond with disasters such as Typhoon Yolanda.
ICT helped thousands of people. If it weren’t for
this innovation, it would be so hard to keep in touch with everyone and
everything in the planet.
And that folks, is the role of ICT in recent
history such as Typhoon Yolanda.
Resources:
https://stemacts.wordpress.com/tag/yolanda-people-finder/
http://www.philippine-history.org/edsa-people-power-revolution.htm
http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php/Edsa_Dos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_People_March
