The 39th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution serves as a powerful reminder of how a people’s movement toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Known for his world-class corruption, egregious human rights violations and opening the economy in accordance with foreign dictates, Marcos Sr led the country into its worst economic collapse in post-war history, resulting in the people’s widespread suffering.
Nearly four decades later, his son, Marcos Jr, is not only attempting to downplay the hard-won victory of the people and the dark days of the dictatorship but is perpetuating his father’s legacy. The Marcos Jr administration stubbornly clings to the failed neoliberal policies started by Marcos Sr and maintained by subsequent regimes. Corruption and human rights violations persist and are made worse with the trappings of democracy.
Like his father, Marcos Jr doggedly advances globalization policies that only benefit his crony oligarchs and foreign big business. He is obsessed with pursuing neoliberal policies that have impoverished the majority for decades. The Marcos Jr government exacts taxes on the poor while relieving corporations and the rich to attract more investments. It continues the plundering legacy of the dictatorship, extracting minerals and natural resources, and pushing for corruption-ridden infrastructure for foreign and local big business. This comes at the expense of millions of Filipinos who are grappling with worsening joblessness and poverty, low incomes, high prices, and insufficient social services.
Corruption is evident in the Marcos Jr’s reluctance to pursue Sara Duterte’s impeachment, in the ballooning confidential funds allocated to the Office of the President, in the dismissal of ill-gotten wealth cases against the Marcos clan, and in the rising billions of pesos of unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget.
Human rights violations have worsened under the Marcos Jr government, attacking democracy, targeting sectors and communities standing up for their rights, as well as the people’s and civil society organizations that protect and serve them. These violations range from red-tagging, harassment, aerial bombings of communities and extrajudicial killings to weaponization of the law through trumped-up charges under the Anti-Terrorism Act and The Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.
Marcos Jr’s puppetry to the US is also in the footsteps of his father. By ensuring US dominance, economic interests and growing militarism in the country, Marcos Jr is able to secure military, political and economic favors, as well as his own interests.
The lessons and spirit of EDSA are not relics of the past as the government wants the people to believe; they can inspire action today. In light of the escalating violations of Filipinos’ economic, social, and cultural rights as well as civil and political, it is more urgent than ever for the people to unite in a movement for genuine and radical change.