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[Manila, Philippines] It all really began with the 1983 assassination of Ninoy Aquino. That event set off three years of emotional hysteria that paved the way for Edsa I. Almost three decades later, with the heirs of Edsa I still in control of government and its vast powers, why hasn't the real culprit behind the assassination been uncovered?
In all that time, allegations that Ferdinand Marcos or those around him masterminded the assassination were simply made to linger. But, as history would show, it was Ninoy himself who dispelled the Marcos angle.
In an interview with US magazine Mother Jones in January 1983, when asked about "What do you think Marcos will do?"? Aquino said: "He will keep me alive, because he knows the moment I die, I am a martyr, like Martin Luther King, and he wouldn't want that. Another possibility, he lets me out, and the communists knock me off. They blame Marcos. They have a martyr and they have eliminated a stumbling block."?
Similarly, notwithstanding the self-serving claims of Edsa I stars such as Corazon Aquino, her Yellow coterie, Juan Ponce-Enrile, and Fidel Ramos, or the belief of some who simply promenaded at Edsa (but who now claim that they were there to fight "the evil Marcos"?), there are other claimants whose stories mainstream spinmasters and media would rather not discuss.
One of these comes from former US Secretary of State George Schultz. In a recent article on Executive Intelligence Review (EIR), writer Michael Billington narrates how Schultz bragged in his autobiography Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State, that the 1986 "people power"? was their brainchild and was cooked behind the back of Marcos admirer Ronald Reagan. Shultz was, for all intents and purposes, coordinating this project with the US State Department.
In my past articles on the subject, I have also quoted Foreign Policy magazine: "In his Heritage speech (Paul) Wolfowitz (former US Secretary of State) also took credit for the downfall of Marcos. The "˜private and public pressure on Marcos to reform,' he asserted, "˜contributed in no small measure to emboldening the Philippine people to take their fate in their own hands and to produce what eventually became the first great democratic transformation in Asia in the 1980s.'"?
Those "pressures"? included currency attacks (such as the peso's 20-percent devaluation); moves by AIG chief Maurice "Hank"? Greenberg's agents like Jobo Fernandez to push interest rates up to 45 percent; the cutting of US aid for the military bases to a third and channeling it through Cardinal Sin instead of the government; the demonization of Marcos in US and international media; and the set-up where Marcos was prodded by Nightline anchor Ted Koppel to commit to a "snap election."?
The EIR's Michael Billington continues: "By November (1985), the plans for insurrection were unveiled publicly, as the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the home of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, carried out a "˜war game' against the Philippines, based on a scenario in which President Marcos is assassinated, Soviet "˜spetsnaz' commandos join the New People's Army in taking over the Philippines, and the US military goes into action to "˜save' the country. The CSIS' work in Asia was largely financed at that time by the CV Starr insurance empire run by Maurice "˜Hank' Greenberg. Greenberg and CV Starr owned most of the insurance industry in the Philippines (PhilamLife), and a number of Philippine politicians as well, and served as the crucial "˜on the ground' economic hit man in the Marcos coup"¦
"The Aug. 16 (1985) EIR published a story entitled "˜Plotting the Fall of an American Ally,' which reported that US Ambassador (Stephen) Bosworth was plotting a military coup against the Marcos government: "˜Bosworth now meets up to two hours every day with acting Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, a West Point graduate whom the United States is attempting to groom as a leader of a new civilian-military junta, despite his loyalty to President Marcos.' The story was based on information from reliable sources both in the Philippines and in Washington, where certain patriotic layers within the government, intelligence, and the military did not accept America's transformation into an imperial power serving the synarchist (banking cartel) financial interests."?
Meanwhile, the rabble in the streets was being roused by the August Twenty-One Movement (Atom), which, Linggoy Alcuaz attests, got free gasoline from all of Ayala's Shell stations for motorcades, rallies, etc.
The end result of Edsa I was the reversal of the National Development Program for the Philippines ""supplanted with liberalization, globalization, deregulation and privatization. Infrastructure and industrialization programs were stopped and deconstruction of the economic infrastructure commenced. Food self-sufficiency was replaced with a permanent import-dependent policy. Fuel and energy for progress got converted for profit while water and anti-flood projects got canceled, resulting in today's deadly "Ondoy"? deluge.
A growing economic democracy was forcibly returned to a state of plutocracy. Yet, despite the lie of "democracy's restoration"? a thousand times told, despite a diminishing handful of hakot crowds that are brought to Edsa rites, the hunger, poverty, and demoralization that stalk poor and middle class Filipinos 24 years after that fateful event brings out the stark truth --that Edsa I was, in fact, an anti-democratic counter-revolution!
Contrary to Fidel Ramos' pompous claim that Edsa belongs to no one, it really belongs to the US neo-cons and Pinoy oligarchs. Despite Joe Almonte's claim that Edsa had made RP the "leader in global democratic movements,"? it has only made us the prime victim and example of the global plutocracy's impoverishment. And just like Ukraine's Orange Revolution was recently thrown out, that wretched counter-revolution by the Yellow elite must also now be put asunder.
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(Reprinted with permission from Mr. Herman Tiu Laurel)
Source: The Daily Tribune. http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100226com5.html
