SINCE EDSA 1, the media themselves have come under fire for not making good use of the freedom they had regained. They have been criticized for too much fluff, sensationalism, and mediocre reporting.

	EUGENIA 'EGGIE' APOSTOL Photo by Lilen Uy

Apostol thinks media ownership is an important factor. But this, she says, goes beyond the question of who publishes a newspaper or runs a station. "Ownership is not just about who controls the finances," she says. "Media is really owned by advertising people because every paper has to have three-fourths of its papers devoted to ads in order to survive."

She rues how advertising has dominated television and complains especially about the proliferation of shampoo ads. Apostol asks, "Don't Filipinos do anything else besides washing their hair?"

She grumbles about the race for ratings, which has pushed news programs to the very late hours to make way for soap operas. Yet, Apostol still believes the media deserves the freedom it now enjoys. "It should always be given freedom," she says, including those who do not use it well.

"It is not a perfect newspaper," she says of her baby, the Inquirer, but it remains very independent. When she sold her shares to the Prietos, she asked them for only one thing: to respect the independence of the editorial department.

In 1999, a threat to press independence moved Apostol to re-aim her guns at the government. When then President Joseph Estrada called for an advertisers' boycott of the Inquirer for its critical reporting and sued The Manila Times for P100 million over a corruption story and harassed its owners until they were forced to sell the paper to a presidential crony, Apostol set up a newspaper that would appeal to Estrada's followers: the non-English-reading masses. So began Pinoy Times, a tabloid in Filipino with the mission of exposing "political pornography," that is, political scandals.

In 2001, Estrada was ousted via People Power 2; Pinoy Times folded up about a year after. Estrada's successor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has shown greater staying power, despite the numerous crises and calls for her resignation.

While not particularly happy with the Arroyo administration, Apostol, now 80, is not about to join the call for its removal. Her question is the same as nearly everyone else's: "Who will take over?"

After Edsa 1 — and Edsa 2 — it became clear that something more lasting than the ouster of presidents was needed by the country. "It's Filipinos who have to change, not so much the people in politics," she says. That is why she has embarked on a long-term project called "Education Revolution" where schools are "adopted" by concerned individuals and groups to boost their resources.

Filipinos, she says, have not been able to take full advantage of people power because of lack of awareness. She says, "We should begin from the lowest level, the barangay, and go up from there. It will take some time but that's the way it is. We cannot change in one night." Not even in one revolt — or two. — Chit Estella