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.
