There in EDSA
by Noel Pascual

UNDERSTAND THAT we are not hate mongers. All that ruckus we carried out during the revolution at EDSA; our shouting, marching, rallying, even our cussing of Estrada and the eleven senators does not mean we revelled in finding conflict and reason in abasing such negligent officials. Rather, we each found, in ourselves, reasons to congregate in EDSA and the dozens of other places where the throng voiced out the singular call of the people. Was it a calling that made us all go there?

It was nighttime. And while most should have been asleep in their homes, people flocked to the streets to shout out their outrage. For a moment, we were indeed defeated. It was a mortal blow, as in a stab to the belly or a bleeding gash to the neck. Mortal means one who dies. And why should dying men stay in their homes to expire in silence?

It was unexpected. We didn't know we could have done what we did. We only went to the streets to make noise, to say that what happened was not good. How could we have guessed that that would result in another People Power?

People Power happened in 1986 and it resulted in a dictator being ousted from command. It was a power that was fabulous, almost mythical. And it was something that we never, ever thought we still had, certainly not now, in the year 2001. Or if we did, who would have even believed it would have worked? A sane man wouldn't believe in people power.

Sane are the eleven senators. They had all their reasons to side with Estrada. As for us, we must have been insane when we heard all those laws being revolved to suit the purposes of one man. That is not what the law is for, we told ourselves. But in the end, apparently it was or the envelope would have been opened. For the purposes of one envelope we went to the streets. That is insane. Well, better insane than soulless.

Understand we were as shocked as everybody else when it did work. It did work and for days after those fateful events, we were still in that cloud of bewilderment, waiting to be pinched to wake up.

The world can change in a span of moments. In one moment, we were defeated, in the next we were back to fighting in EDSA. In one moment, Joseph Estrada was our President, in the next he was out of Malacañang.