ENDEAVOR
Sonny Coloma
How important are the coming elections in shaping the future of the nation? An election could change the course that a country will take for an entire generation.
Consider the snap elections held on Feb. 7, 1986. Recall that this event sparked a massive wave of protest rallies that culminated in the four-day EDSA People Power Revolution that ended the Marcos dictatorship18 days later.
The call for an election was triggered by an interview of President Ferdinand Marcos on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) political program This Week With David Brinkley. President Marcos accepted Mr. Brinkley’s challenge and declared the holding of a snap election.
Corazon Aquino and Salvador Laurel were the candidates for President and Vice President of the United Democratic Organization (UNiDO). They challenged the team of Marcos and Arturo Tolentino.
During the tabulation of votes on Feb. 9, 35 computer specialists – mostly in their 20s – from the government’s National Computer Center who were manning the Comelec’s national tabulation center, walked out of the proceedings at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
They said the election results posted on the boards that were being copied by news reporters did not tally with the dana on their computer screens and printouts.
From the PICC, they went to the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran, Parañaque where they initially sought refuge, bringing with them the computer discs containing the election data.
Two days later on Feb. 11, former governor Evelio Javier was killed on the grounds of the Antique provincial capitol while witnessing the counting of election returns. He had been a staunch supporter of Corazon Aquino.
The proclamation by the Batasang Pambansa of Marcos and Tolentino as winners in the snap election sparked massive protest rallies. On Feb. 16, Aquino and Laurel led thousands of supporters in a Tagumpay ng Bayan (Victory of the People) rally at the Luneta. They called for a national strike and a campaign of civil disobedience.
On the night of Saturday, Feb. 22, then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and then Armed Forces Chief of Staff Fidel Ramos called a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo to declare their withdrawal of support to the Marcos regime.
The Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Jaime Sin aired an appeal over radio for people to support Enrile and Ramos. Agapito ‘Butz’ Aquino, who had formed the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM) after the assassination of his elder brother, led a group that marched from Isetann department store in Cubao to Camp Aguinaldo.
Thus began what national artist Nick Joaquin termed as the Quartet of the Tiger Moon, the title he chose for a book on the four days of the EDSA People Power Revolution that occurred from Feb. 22 to 25, 1986.
The triumph of People Power at EDSA in 1986 paved the way for almost four decades of political stability and economic growth.
Coincidentally, this year’s national and local elections are also being held in the Year of the Tiger.
While it is auspicious that the coronavirus pandemic is already in decline, the new government that will take office on June 30, 2022 will face a major challenge in terms of revitalizing the national economy.
According to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, the government borrowed a total of $22.5 billion of P1.5 trillion to finance the COVID-19 response. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 60.5 percent – the highest in 16 years – compared to 33.2 percent at year-end 2016.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua points out that the pandemic would cost the Philippines P41.5 trillion “for the next 40 years.”
He said: “While we will recover to the pre-pandemic level by the end of 2022 or early 2023, it will take several more years before we converge to our original growth path.”
While maintaining the country’s investment grade status, Fitch Ratings cautioned that: “Presidential elections scheduled for May 2022 also create uncertainty around the post-election fiscal and economic strategy, although we assume broad policy continuity will be maintained given the Philippines’ record of a generally sound policy framework.”
Clearly, there is need for credible and competent leadership that would lead the country out of the pandemic doldrums and into a more prosperous era of growth and stability.
More than half of the 65.7 million registered voters are between 18 and 41 years old. A huge segment of this cohort may not have witnessed nor understood the significance of the events that led to the triumph of EDSA People Power in 1986.
They are most vulnerable to disinformation and fake news now being peddled by trolls and revisionists who would go to great lengths distorting history and masking their opportunism with populist rhetoric.
The outcome of the coming elections will determine whether the country will chart a path that leads to an expeditious recovery and sustained growth – or detour anew to the road that once led to perdition.
The words of the writer and philosopher George Santayana should be food for thought among our younger voters: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”