Former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s supporters have been organizing Bring-Him-Home prayer rallies since he was flown to The Hague. People Power 3, anyone?
The Pinoy of a certain age—hmmm, moi?—has been there, done that with People Power. His reaction to the possibility of a third is a la Britney Spears: “Oops, I did it again.”
That’s the 1986 People Power that sent the Marcoses to Hawaii. Before that, Manila had these: Mendiola, yellow ribbons, the yellow confetti at Ayala Avenue in Makati, the Laban sign, believing in Ninoy Aquino and his family. Only to awaken from slumber in 1991 when Tita Cory, who was president then, allowed former First Lady Imelda Marcos and her children to come back to Pinas so they could face the charges that were filed against them here. That ended the Marcoses’ exile in Hawaii, and perhaps also the honeymoon phase of Tita Cory’s presidency.
I remember attending the Thursday novena and Mass at the National Shrine of Saint Jude Thaddeus which is within the Malacañang Palace Complex. Mendiola always had barbed-wire barricades to discourage protesters from storming Malacañang whose occupant, then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos, was considered as over-stretching his reign through martial law.
Anyway, I had to squeeze through the small opening in between the rows of barbed-wire barricades, and I didn’t even see that as strange. It was simply another day in paradise. Ho-hum.
The constant protests somehow convinced the Pinoy that Ferdinand Sr. had unforgivable transgressions, including human rights violations and the Ninoy Aquino assassination.
The assassination has remained unsolved, by the way. Only the Pinoy who believes in conspiracy theories knows who did it.
But Ferdinand Sr. was never detained. Perhaps because Tita Cory was too kind, and the International Criminal Court began only on July 1, 2002.
Zoom to 2025, and here’s Duterte detained for transgressions that could be lesser in impact compared to Ferdinand Sr’s. Unfair? A Duterte fan will of course say it’s unfair. But a non-Duterte fan will say it’s dasurv na dasurv.
If a politician or political candidate is not a strategist, he should hire one so at least his team has someone who thinks outside of the box, always has a Plan B for every scenario, and knows how to market his boss.
Simply observe how events have been unfolding after Duterte was flown to The Hague. The protests may look unplanned. But those who joined the 1986 People Power can definitely say there’s no such thing as spontaneity in politics. There’s always someone leading the crowd otherwise the protests will be disorganized and will lack direction. Like the planted audience who start clapping and cheering so others will clap and cheer, too. It’s one grand production number. But that doesn’t mean protests are always coming from a bad place.
The problem here in Pinas is the Pinoy has become a People-Power expert.
The first People Power was against the elder Marcos. The second was against then Pres. Erap Estrada. The third one may happen while another Marcos is in Malacañang. Are the Marcoses becoming the suki of People Power?
