LEARN THE LESSON OF EDSA, OUSTING A DICTATOR IS NOT ENOUGH, SYSTEM CHANGE IS NECESSARY

Statement of Contend on the 28

th
Anniversary of Edsa People Power I
February 24, 2014

Twenty eight years after the broad masses of Filipino people overthrew the US-Marcos dictatorship, the basic
character of our country remainsa semi-colonial, semi feudal one under comprador and landlord rule. The much touted
economic growth of 7.2 percent being peddled by the US-Aquino Regime is unsustainable growth made possible by
unstable foreign investment, the high remittances of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), the wanton government borrowing
and spending on non-productive purposes. It is growth that does not benefit the majority of the people. Behind this
artificial growth is the staggering unemployment rate that averaged 7.3 percent in 2013, up from 7 percent of the previous
year despite the economys expansion. The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that, of the countrys 40.96 million-
strong labor force, 2.99 million were unemployed in 2013. Moreover poverty incidence in the Philippines has remained
unchanged despite the 6.8 percent economic growth rate that the country posted in 2012.

Edsa People Power I that installed Pres. Corazon Aquino missed the opportunity to create equitable and just
economic conditions to eradicate poverty. Pres. Corazon Aquino and her successors simply implemented the structural
adjustment program imposed by the IMF-WB that further plunged our nation to foreign debt, and created stronger ties
with US business and political system. Today, the structural adjustment program has expanded under the banner of
neoliberal reforms such as privatization of public assets and services including education and health services through
public-private partnership, the deregulation of public utilities and higher education, and the liberalization of trade that
allows foreign companies and their dummies to dominate our economy.

Edsa People Power I missed the opportunity to break the clout of the big landlord compradors and multinational
corporate holdings on our prime lands. The landless farmers that joined and supported Edsa People Power I uprising were
wantonly neglected by the Cory Administration. Tragically, thirteen farmers were massacred in Mendiola only less than a
year after the Edsa Revolution. Today, after 28 years of relentless struggle for genuine land reform, our landless farmers
continue to wallow in utter destitution. Today, the colossal failure of the Pres. Benigno Aquino, an haciendero, to
implement free distribution of the land among the Hacienda Luisita beneficiaries negates the very spirit of Edsa I. The 1987
Mendiola Massacre was repeated in the 2006 Hacienda Luisita Massacre that killed seven farmers. And until now, the farm
workers and farmers of Hda. Luisita remain landless.

Edsa People Power I did not put an end to bureaucrat capitalism. The succeeding regimes after the overthrow of
Marcos did not put an end to cronyism and corruption. The recent pork barrel controversy involving billions of pesos and
supported by the intricate political network that sustained such mammoth robbery of our national coffers, is a testament
that Edsa People Power I did not touch the nerve centre of our national corruption.

Edsa People Power I did not bring about a strong and independent foreign policy that could have ended unequal
and servile relationship with US imperialism. Today, US-Aquino Regime continues to provoke China while bragging its ties
with US imperialist military hooligans. Our economy and politics remain subservient to the policies of US economy and its
political interests. The US-Aquino regime terminated its talks with CPP-NDF while continuing its negotiation for rotational
presence of US forces in the Philippines. It is ironic that after Edsa People Power I, which exposed the covert hands
American interests in maintaining Marcos dictatorship, our government is now begging for stronger presence of US military
in Southeast Asian region.

Edsa People Power I displayed the heroic courage of countless activists who fought bravely the fascist dictatorship
of the US-Marcos regime. In the barbaric moments of Philippine history, countless men and women rise up to the challenge
and sacrificed their lives to restore democracy. Now the US-Aquino Regime is dead set to throw our nation back into the
darkest moment of our history by enacting the Cyber Crime Prevention Act of 2012 or Republic Act No. 10175. The US-
Aquino regime is waging war against our people not only in cyberspace, but against peoples organization and movements
opposing the regimes repressive policies. Pres. Benigno Aquino indeed deserves the notorious title Impunity King by
unleashing repressive counter-offensive against peoples organizations, activists, and human rights defenders. He holds a






record of 142 extra-judicial killings and 164 frustrated extrajudicial killings. The US-Aquino Regime even appointed ex-
military personnel to human rights board and promoted generals who were known to be notorious human rights violators.
But the most savage violence unleashed by the US-Aquino Regime against the people is to abandon the millions of victims
of typhoon disasters (Pablo and Yolanda), the thousands of civilians displaced by Zamboanga siege, and the Bohol
earthquake victims. By abandoning the victims of war and disasters, the US-Aquino Regime has shown its true interest: to
promote of big businesses by parcelling out the rehabilitation of Tacloban to top ten corporations. To defend the interests
of the big businesses, Pres. Aquino appointed Sen. Ping Lacson, a henchman of military fascism as rehabilitation czar. And
Sen. Lacson has shown his tenacity to supress the intensifying people surge against the ineptitude of the US-Aquino
Regime during post-Yolanda recovery by labelling the movement as communist.

Confronted with this outrageous fiasco of the US-Aquino Regime we the members of Congress of
Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy vow to continue to fight for what the martyrs and heroes who fought
the US-Marcos dictatorship. We urge our fellow educators, educational workers and students to seize the missed
opportunities of Edsa People Power I and advance the peoples struggle to address the root causes of our economic and
social miseries. We urge all educators to explain to our students the historical significance and limitations of Edsa I and the
historic lessons we have to learn from the peoples movement that led to it. We call on our colleagues in the teaching
profession to stop romanticizing Edsa I as the final liberation of our people from dictatorship. Edsa People Power I must be
seen as just a part in the series of peoples actions to arouse, organize and mobilize to overthrow the semi-colonial, semi-
feudal , and bureaucrat capitalist system that exploits our people.

Today, 28 years after euphoria of EPP1 we join the millions of Filipino people and organized movements in
wrestling away the meaning of Edsa I from the US-Aquino Regime that glorifies and intensifies the state violence against
the workers, urban poor, poor women and children, landless peasants, and indigenous people. We join all progressive
sectors of our society and all patriotic movements who are persistently fighting not merely for a change in regime but for a
system change!

We salute and pay the highest tribute to the countless activists, including students and teachers, who valiantly
fought the US-Marcos dictatorship. We honor their memories by vowing to never let their sacrifice be wasted in vain!

Honor the martyrs and heroes who fought the US-Marcos dictatorship!
Oppose the intensifying state violence of the US-Aquino Regime!
Down with bureaucrat capitalism!
Down with feudalism!
Down with fascism!
Down with imperialism!
Advance the peoples struggle for national independence and genuine democracy!