LAST Saturday, was the thirty - eight anniversary of the assassination of Senator Benigno S. ‘Ninoy’ Aquino y Aquino, on August 21, 1983, upon his arrival at the Manila International Airport.
His wake was held at his Times Street, West Triangle, Q. C., residence and at the Sto. Domingo Church on Quezon Ave. His funeral procession went thru the main streets of Q. C., Manila, Pasay, Makati and Paranaque to the Manila Memorial Park.
Two years, six months and a day later, the People Power Revolution started on Saturday, February 22, 1986, on EDSA between Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Thirty - six days short of fifteen years later, EDSA II started on Tuesday, January 16, 2001.
On Saturday, August 1, 2009, President Corazon ‘Cory’ Cojuangco (y Sumulong) Aquino, died of colon cancer.
Her wake was held at the La Salle, Greenhills, coliseum and the Manila Cathedral.
From there, her funeral procession went thru the main streets up to the Manila Memorial Park.
Forty days later, Senator Benigno ‘Noynoy’ S. Aquino y Cojuangco, announced that he would run for President in the May 2010 elections.
Last Thursday, June 24, 2021, Noynoy died of natural causes. He was cremated and had a very short wake at the Heritage Park, Taguig City, and the Chapel of the Gesu at the Ateneo de Manila University, Loyola Heights, Q. C.
Last Friday, the PDI published a Commentary – “Harnessing the ‘3.5 percent rule’ for May 2022!” by Ed Garcia.
Fr. Ed, as we called him, is a former Jesuit Scholastic, who organized ‘Lakasdiwa’ a moderate Christian/Social Democratic youth organization in the late 1960’s.
He was my contemporary when I was the Chairman of KASAPI, also a moderate Christian/Social Democratic multi sectoral organization.
“This phenomenon, described as the ‘Power of the People’, later became the lynchpin of a landmark study published in 2011, ‘Why Civil Resistance Works’.
Done by the Harvard University political scientist Erica Chenoweth, together with Maria Stephan from the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, it reviewed the literatures on 323 civil resistance and social movements around the globe from 1900 to 2006.
This groundbreaking data - based research established that when 3.5 per cent of the population engages in serious and sustained actions, efforts or protests in a given setting, profound social change becomes possible.”
In the summer of 1966, between my High School and College, I was recruited and trained by Fr. Jose Blanco, S. J. and Ateneo History Professor Rolando Quintos.
President Ferdinand Marcos y Edralin had just been elected and sworn into office in November and on December 30, 1965.
It was too early to tell how good or bad he would become. What was worrying the Jesuits and the Ateneo was the resurrection of the Communists.
Jose Maria Sison had joined the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) and injected new direction, energy and vision into the three decades and a half old movement.
This was manifest in the organization of the SCAUP, KM and other Communist front organizations in the first half of the sixties.
In the early sixties, Fr. Blanco had been assigned to Indonesia as a Jesuit missionary among students and youth in Jakarta.
He was a direct witness to how the PKI or Indonesian Communist Party had almost succeeded in taking over Indonesia in October 1965.
The Jesuits had participated in the earlier defeat of the PKP/HMB and their front organizations in the early fifties.
They had organized sectoral organizations like the Federation of Free Farmers (FFF) and the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) to compete with the PKP controlled or infiltrated labor and peasant organizations.
My feeling, perception and understanding when I was caught up in this period of our history was that to make a difference and impact on the situation, as well as in order to seize power, one did not have to have a majority of the people.
If you could recruit, organize and train one per cent of the population as cadres, you could control the whole country.
Thus, we always gave importance in the formation of a core group in all our political endeavors.
And so, from the summer of 1966 until the end of 1969, that is what we did.
However, when the ‘First Quarter Storm!’ started on Monday, January 26, and Friday, January 30, 1970, the Communists and radicals were better motivated, organized and trained than us,
However, in all the administrations, after EDSA I – Cory, FVR, Erap, GMA, PNoy and Digong, veterans of the First Quarter Storm, both moderates and radicals have shared in the power of all the administrations whether installed by EDSA’s or elections.
Last week, a smaller and less equipped Taliban Army defeated the bigger and better equipped Afghan government national army and police.
As we went to press, we prayed for Manny Pacquiao’s victory last Saturday, August 21, and a long life for my wife, Baby, who celebrated her 73rd birthday yesterday, Sunday, August 22. ((To be continued)