EDSA's historical significance

AT MY induction as president of the San Francisco Community College Board last week, I told Mayor Gavin Newsom and the other guests that I chose that day for my induction because I believe that 50 years from now, it will be feted as a world holiday. Just as October 24 will be celebrated in that hopeful future as United Nations Day, February 22 will be venerated as People Power Day.

I am convinced that the people of the world will accord February 22 its rightful due as the day when a people stood up to a corrupt brutal regime, not with arms or military force, but with the might of courage and conviction. On that day in 1986, the winds of change began to blow throughout the world and anti-democratic regimes were to fall in South Korea, the former Yugoslavia, the former Soviet Union, and other countries and continues inexorably to this day in the Ukraine and in Lebanon.

Let us recall that after 20 years in power, Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 was the most powerful ruler the Philippines had ever seen with his near total control of the vast Philippine military apparatus, the press, the congress, the courts and with his KBL party dominating the political life of the country. And he had the full economic and military support of the United States, which needed his backing for its military bases in the Philippines.

On February 22, 1986, Marcos' intelligence forces uncovered an attempted coup d'etat by rebel officers of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) who were holding out at Camp Crame. Marcos then gave the order to his military to quash the rebellion.

But a strange phenomenon happened on the way to the quashing. Marcos' soldiers and tanks were suddenly confronted in the streets by tens of thousands, and then hundreds of thousands, of ordinary Filipinos who rallied around Camp Crame to protect the rebel soldiers.

One observer recalled: "As the tanks start forward into the crowd, people sit down in front of them. The tanks stop. People offer the soldiers candy and cigarettes, asking them to defect and join the rebellion. Young girls walk among the soldiers, passing out flowers. The blocked tanks start forward again. The people sit tight, holding their ground. The tanks stop again. A Marine commander threatens to start shooting. Priests and nuns kneel before the tanks, praying the Rosary. No shots are fired. Finally the tanks turn around and withdraw as the crowd cheers."

Four days later, Marcos and his family and close cronies fled the Philippines to exile in Hawaii.

While People Power Day has world significance, it holds special meaning to Filipinos in America. It dramatically changed our perception and image.

Prior to that day, the Philippines was universally viewed as the "sick man of Asia," with a weak economy dominated by oligarchic families and cronies of Marcos and the whole system reeking with corruption. One US Congressman reportedly quipped that the Philippines was populated by "50 million cowards and one sonafabitch."

And what was the image of Filipinos in America?

Filipinos who immigrated to the US in the 20s and 30s were called "dumb Flips," the racist pejorative most commonly used to denigrate Filipinos. The common stereotyped image of Filipinos at the time was that of "the Filipino houseboy" much as the "Filipino maid" or domestic servant became the dominant image of OFWs in the 70s and 80s.

It took the Filipino soldiers' heroic defense of Bataan and Corregidor in 1941 to alter the negative perception and elevate the image of Filipinos. Newspapers in even the smallest backwater hick towns of America carried front page news about how the Filipino and American soldiers, against overwhelming odds and with low supplies, slowed down the Japanese advance allowing the Allies to regroup in Australia and mount a successful counter-attack.

News of the People Power uprising in 1986 similarly elevated Filipinos to rise to Yao Ming heights in the eyes of the world. A few months after Marcos fled, the South Korean people were out in the streets with their own People Power to oust their tinhorn dictator. On the TV screens were scenes of Koreans making the "L" signs with their fingers, copying the Filipinos who had made it their symbol for "Laban" ("Fight").

There is another little known significance to this date.

When I first arrived in San Francisco in 1971, I joined and participated in various Asian coalitions where Filipinos stood on equal footing with the Chinese and Japanese -- we were all equally unempowered. There were no Chinese or Japanese elected officials in San Francisco and only a few were appointed to any commissions, minor ones at that.

Marcos' declaration of martial law on September 21, 1972 split the Filipino community down the middle to an extent never seen before nor since. Because the vast majority of the early Filipino immigrants to America were Ilocanos, their clannish regional affinity for fellow Ilocano Marcos pushed many of them, who were leaders of the Filipino-American community, to support Marcos and martial law.

While the other Asian groups were uniting on a common empowerment agenda for their communities and common candidates for public office, Filipinos were bitterly divided between the pro-Marcos and the anti-Marcos community leaders all over the US.

It took People Power to end the bitter division. After Marcos was deposed, then Philippine News publisher Alex Esclamado, a staunch anti-Marcos activist, issued a clarion call for unity in the Filipino community.

Esclamado's call for unity was heeded by 1500 Filipino community leaders from throughout the United States who trooped to Anaheim, California to form the National Filipino American Council (NFAC). A decade later, the NFAC gave way to the National Federation of Filipino American Associations, a product that EDSA-forged unity.

Other Asian groups have made great strides in electoral politics with Chinese-Americans leading the way with eight in the California Legislature and seven holding elective office in San Francisco. In contrast, Filipinos have none in the Legislature and only one (me) holding elective office in San Francisco.

But the other Asian groups had a head start as they've been at it since the early 70s. We only really began our quest for empowerment in 1986 on February 22.

Send comments to Rodel50@aol.com.