vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 3 months, 4 weeks ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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People Power Baby

Posted by: Ed Lingao | August 6, 2009 at 10:05 am
Filed under: General

by Jaemark Tordecilla

The start of the 1986 Edsa People Power revolution was a very exciting time for me, but not in the usual way. I was too young to know what was going on at the time – I had just turned four years old a few months earlier – but the flood of yellow ribbons on our street meant that my friends and I now had headbands, which we used to dress up like Robby Rosa from Menudo, or JC Bonnin from the Bagets. “Cory, Cory, Cory kami!” we would then chant while flashing Laban signs, even as we only had the vaguest idea of who she was.

Corazon Aquino would not remain a stranger to me much longer. My grandfather loved telling stories – if he were alive today and was computer-literate, I imagine he’d have a blog and he’d keep posting links to it on my Facebook wall –and he subjected us to oral histories of the family, distant aunts and uncle and Oh, how he looked just like you.

But talk would invariably turn to the story of People Power, and it was fascinating. The story had everything: an evil tyrant, his beautiful queen (who owned a million shoes!), and a powerful army ready to do his bidding; a brilliant young hero thrown into jail, his precocious young children speaking out for their incarcerated father, and his shocking death; and the martyr’s widow, the unlikely successor who toppled the evil tyrant, with the help of people who stopped tanks with flowers and rosaries and songs and cheers. So that is what was up with all the yellow.

Were we there? I would then ask. Of course, he would answer. Long before Edsa. We would try to attend the miting de avance of the opposition, when Ninoy was in jail; oh, you should have heard Kris speak back then, she was very young and very smart.

We would buy opposition newspapers discreetly, my mother would add. We would join the noise barrage every afternoon, and go out to the streets to implore passing cars to honk their horns too.

We would boycott crony corporations, stop paying our bills, stop buying products from San Miguel, my grandfather would continue. Even San Miguel beer? I would snicker, knowing how much he loved his beer.

He would ignore me and carry on with the story. When Ninoy died, we all gathered, hundreds of thousands of people. But the Marcos-controlled newspapers did not report that. Their headline the next day was about a man who was struck by lightning!

My mom would take over the storytelling. By the time Cory ran in the elections against Marcos, the people had had enough. The computer programmers of the Comelec walked out because Marcos was cheating! When Cardinal Sin made his call on the radio, we went to Edsa. Our whole neighborhood was abuzz! Even the people who couldn’t go made sure to prepare sandwiches, so that the people who were going can give them away to everyone else there, because we needed people to stay, to let Marcos know we weren’t going anywhere.

I loved those stories, and they helped me out by the time I started grade school, when February rolled around and I had to write the inevitable What does Edsa mean to you? paper. I wrote the usual platitudes: “Edsa showed how much Filipinos loved freedom.” “Ninoy Aquino was proven right when he said that the Filipino is worth dying for.”

My family continued to speak of Ninoy and Cory (and, for that matter, Kris) in grateful, reverential tones that showed genuine affection for the Aquino family. But as I grew older, I found myself reading about the miserable quagmire that our country found itself in, the failure of the promise of the Aquino administration, and the graft and corruption. Suffice to say, at that time I had stopped being fascinated with fairy tales, and the idea of the spirit of Edsa was starting to hold as much promise as the story of Jack and his beanstalk.

I didn’t really get it until I came across a speech by Ninoy Aquino, while he was in exile in the United States, where he described the temptation of giving up the fight against the Marcos dictatorship.

I am a human being, my friends. I have suffered eight years of imprisonment, I have suffered loneliness like no other man has suffered loneliness in my life, I have been away from my children and my family, and I am financially ruined after eight years. It is only instinctive for a man to look for his peace. I debated with my mind, and I debated with myself, and I debated with my wife and my children whether I should go back to the arena of combat. I felt that I have already earned my peace, I have done my best, I waited for seven years and seven months, and the Filipino people did not react, and they would even give me the impression that they love their chain and their slavery. What can one man do if the Filipino people love their slavery? If the Filipino people have lost their voice and would not say no to a tyrant, what can one man do? I have no army, I have no following, I have no money, I only have my indomitable spirit.

But the letters kept pouring in, and they said, We waited for you for eight years. Will you now abandon us?

My family was fortunate enough that none of its members were detained or tortured or killed by the Marcos regime. They could have taken the easy way out, avoided trouble, and went about living their lives. But like millions of other Filipinos, the members of my family must have seen through the darkness surrounding them: mothers and fathers losing their children, wives losing their husbands, families being broken apart.

And just like millions of other Filipinos, they were all there at Edsa, and while the textbooks would not list all their names and the pictures would not show all their faces, all their voices were heard, thanks to the sacrifice of Ninoy and Cory and all the other heroes who fought the Marcos regime. They did it not for themselves, but for the next generation, for People Power babies like me and for those who were born later, so that we could grow up in a world where we can be really, truly free.

I finally got it. Edsa wasn’t so much a fairy tale but a love story, not just of Ninoy and Cory, or of Filipinos and their country, but of families and their children.

Millions of people weep for Cory because they were there at Edsa where she led them, and she empowered them to give that special gift of freedom for their children. For a lot of these people, that is the only gift they’ll be able to pass on.

I weep too, like millions of other People Power babies, even if we can barely remember Edsa, because as with any other funeral, the tears flow freely from those who feel most loved.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

she is gone…it was like she passed us by… i sincerely hope that we do not forget all the things she has done, i am afraid that 2 or 3 months along the way, she will just be another memory in our heads,this is evident when cory came back and restored our country to where it should have been, for a while we were high about our new found freedom, then along the way, we returned back to our own selfish ways.

I pray and hope that we do not forget all other great people who has gone before us, who left us with so many great lessons and inspiration.

Let us not forget….