Let’s not sell People Power short

‘There is a lesson here, a lesson we are sure is beyond the grasp of Gloria, she of cold heart and narrow mind.’

At the moment, the question is whether Gloria will manage to ride out the gathering storm generated by the national broadband network scandal. Her allies are confident that if she manages to hang for at least a year, she’s home free. The election pot will start simmering as 2009 kicks in. The opportunity of change through the ballot will provide the valve that will vent the accumulated wrath of the people.

But it’s still a long way to 2009. In the meantime, Gloria survives from day to day. Nobody can predict the dynamics of the situation

Twenty-two years ago today, Juan Ponce Enrile holed up around noon at his office, protected by a handful of soldiers who had smuggled themselves from Cagayan to Camp Aguinaldo. Enrile appeared to be dead meat. We can still recall the pitiful picture of three soldiers piling flagstones in front of the defense ministry building so serve as a makeshift machine gun nest. There were a few two-man teams armed with 90 mm recoilless rifles prowling inside the perimeter.

A battalion of soldiers loyal to Marcos could have overrun Enrile’s bodyguards at that moment.

Later in the afternoon, Fidel Ramos would join Enrile. By early evening, they held a joint conference announcing their breakaway. By late evening Cardinal Jaime Sin would be calling on the faithful to mass at Epifanio delos Santos avenue. The rest is history.

The current tenants of Malacañang gloat over the fact that People Power seems to be a spent force. Protest rallies can gather at the most 20,000 warm bodies. The millions that marched to Edsa 22 years ago are nowhere to be found. Gloria and her lieutenants are reasonably confident things will stay this way – intermittent protest actions incapable of reaching a critical mass to effect regime change.

Well, we sort of understand why they think this way. Not one of the current senior Palace officials, with the exception of Eduardo Ermita who was a colonel close to Ramos, was there at Edsa. Gloria was not there either; she claimed she was working on the diplomatic community to shift support to Cory Aquino (lying obviously is ingrained in this woman).

They are thus incapable of comprehending the essence of Edsa: a spontaneous rising of a people who can no longer stomach syndicated corruption and institutionalized abuses.

There is a lesson here, a lesson we are sure is beyond the grasp of Gloria, she of cold heart and narrow mind.