Is the Ninoy Aquino assassination of 1983 still a significant part of our history?

I was one of those who joined every major protest action against the Marcos dictatorship at that time. My view, in large part, was shaped by my professors who were mostly anti-Marcos. They controlled the narrative then and I had not developed my critical thinking skillset at that point. I couldn’t see the inconsistencies in the narrative and so I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

This narrative — of a glorious “people’s revolution” that the grassroots spontaneously mounted on EDSA leading to the ascent to power of the late Cory Aquino — is one that is still lapped up by prominent thought leaders as Inquirer columnist Randy David demonstrates gushing about its core tenet in his recent piece “The significance of Ninoy Aquino’s assassination” where he writes…

As pioneers in the art of deploying people power to oust a dictator, we Filipinos like to remember the four-day phenomenon that overthrew the Marcos regime as virtually bloodless and nonviolent. But if we shift our gaze to the long years of resistance preceding the collapse of the dictatorship, it would be hard to miss the countless lives that were brutally destroyed by the regime.

Such is the grossly-misappropriated credit in Filipinos’ imagined faculties for self-determination that persisted for decades since 1986. After a year of the Cory administration, I became disillusioned because I saw the return of the political structure which left the country in gridlock. By that time, I knew that Cory was not going to live up to the promises she made, what with anomalies left and right in her government, exposed by no less than Max Soliven and Louie Beltran, two of her husband’s staunchest supporters.

Contrary to what David and his fellow Yellow Narrative cheerleaders assert, EDSA was nothing more than a power grab because then President Ferdinand E. Marcos made the mistake of not issuing a succession plan. It was made worse by the rift between the power blocs in his administration. former First Lady Imelda Marcos, “crony” Danding Cojuangco, and then Minister of Defense Juan Ponce Enrile, all saw themselves as succeeding Marcos but the patron did not designate a successor. Marcos wouldn’t have been toppled if he didn’t give in to the Americans and called a snap election. The hubris that came with thinking that he was still in control ultimately led to his downfall.

Sadly, we are still worse off than when we started again after 1986. Our problems are worse and there is not much hope in sight. The only hope was the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte but that was cut short by the pandemic. We now have another Marcos in power, the son Ferdinand Jr.

We were warned about Junior by both his father and Duterte but there was not much of a choice in 2022. Duterte’s succession plan involved his daughter Sara and his trusted aide Bong Go running for the two highest posts but the former would not acquiesce to his wish. History has come full circle. The Aquinos have been discredited and consigned to oblivion. Marcos Jr. is following in the same path.

There are no upcoming leaders in sight who have the gravitas for the presidency. We have clowns in Congress and the Senate. Duterte warned of this eventuality when in one of his SONAs he stated that the system was rotten from the core. The future is bleak.

Ramon Ortoll

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