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[av_heading heading=’Amid EDSA People Power commemoration, is another one in the offing?’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
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Saturday, February 25, 2017
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THIS YEAR’S EDSA People Power celebration is turning out to be a very polarized one, despite the Duterte administration’s attempt to downgrade it.
Two events have heightened the polarization: the retraction of former Davao police officer Arthur Lascañas who is now claiming that the Davao Death Squad did exist and that former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, now President, ordered the killings of drug pushers as well as broadcaster Jun Pala.
This might be the smoking gun that directly links President Duterte to the killings in Davao then, and, by extension, in the current government’s anti-drug war, which has now claimed the lives of more than 7,000.
The second event is the arrest of Sen. Leila de Lima. Sen. De Lima is not about to take this sitting down. She called President Duterte as “another criminal dictator,” a “mass murderer,” “number one criminal,” and has called on the people to launch another EDSA people power uprising.
And, if government suspicions are true, the so-called “yellow” political bloc, who is being identified with the Liberal Party, may now have an issue to rally its forces to try to do so.
Then, there are the pro-Marcos and anti-Marcos groups who might have their own mobilizations, especially since the pro-Marcos group has had a new lease on life with the entry into the national political arena of Bongbong Marcos, son of the late dictator.
On the other side are the anti-Marcos groups, who gained ground with the hero’s burial provided to the late dictator by the Duterte administration.
President Duterte, even when he was still Davao City mayor, has been known to publicly encourage the killings of drug addicts and pushers. He has been threatening to kill drug addicts and pushers in public.
But he has been very careful not to be directly linked to the actual killings. Will the Lascañas exposé, coupled with the calls of Sen. De Lima and her eventual arrest, result in Duterte administration’s removal from office, either through a third edition of the people power uprising or through impeachment?
It is highly unlikely.
First, it took 14 years of generalized oppression, scandalous corruption, and massive human rights violations and about 11 years of mass mobilizations, from strikes to street demonstrations, before the Marcos dictatorship was ousted.
The EDSA People Power uprising was the culmination of people’s struggles and organizing efforts, especially led by the Left, and later by segments of the middle class that accumulated through the years. It did not happen overnight or in a few years. (To be continued/Bulatlat.com)
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