Sections History The 1986 EDSA Revolution Was Part of the “Reagan Revolution”
| The 1986 EDSA Revolution Was Part of the “Reagan Revolution” |
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T
here are lots of plans to commemorate the peaceful people-powered revolution that toppled the Marcos Dispensation in four days in February 1986. In fact, there is another plan to come up with another EDSA Revolution (AKA EDSA Tres) this month. But coup plotters must remember the lessons of history. The 1986 EDSA Revolution was part of the so-called “Ronald Reagan Revolution.”
To read more about the “Reagan Revolution,” here is a good article, CNN.com - In-Depth Special - The Reagan Years or if you cannot access the hyperlink, please copy and paste to your browser this URLhttp://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/reagan.years/whitehouse/
The so-called ultranationalist leaders of the Philippines can continue to insist that the EDSA Revolutions I (Uno) and II (Dos) were spontaneous displays of the Filipino passion for democracy. But without the blessings from Uncle Sam, no revolution is possible in the Philippines without the (tacit) participation of the American military-industrial complex. Yes, the Philippines may be politically free but it remains essentially an economic dependent of the United States. Please read this writer’s piece Turning the Fourth of July into RP-US Interdependence Day and come down to reality.
Please put your thinking caps on and read Remembering Ronald Reagan and his Role in Philippine History This article features also some incidents during the 1986 EDSA Revolution – from the slanted angle of this writer, who is a serious student of Philippine-American history and a budding historian specializing on the Philippine presidency.
Any dissenting opinions? Please send us your contradictory articles and we will publish them in this website’s Opinion-Editorial Section. # # #
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pardon my naivete but just WHO is going to tell the dictatress to get the hell out of malacanang? before we forget, someone did tell marcos to get the hell out of malacanang and it was not the crowds at camps crame and aguinaldo, although we would like to believe so:
"REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift
By STANLEY KARNOW; STANLEY KARNOW'S MOST RECENT BOOK IS ''IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICA'S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES,'' TO BE PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH BY RANDOM HOUSE, FROM WHICH THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED.
The New York Times
March 19, 1989
[......]
At 3 o'clock, the group gathered in the White House Situation Room. Vice President Bush and Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d were there along with Casey. Reagan listened quietly as Don Regan hotly debated Habib. Regan, one participant recalled, ''didn't understand or care to understand'' the issue, but ''thought he was conveying Reagan's thoughts.'' Evoking Iran, he vehemently opposed dropping Marcos, called Aquino an unknown quantity and warned against ''opening the door to Communism.'' Habib repeated his case: ''The Marcos era has ended.'' Shultz concurred: ''Nobody believes that Marcos can remain in power. He's had it.''
Finally, Reagan seemed to be resigned to dropping Marcos, though he insisted the Philippine leader must be ''approached carefully'' and ''asked rather than told'' to depart. He declined to telephone him personally or send him a private message. But as the session closed, Reagan had acquiesced to deposing his ''old friend.''
Still, he and his staff were haunted by the prospect that Marcos might attack the rebels and slaughter civilians - on world television. Reagan approved an Administration statement warning Marcos that he ''would cause untold damage to the relationship between our two governments'' if he used force. But he kept secret his decision to tell Marcos to leave in the hope that he might go voluntarily and so be spared the embarrassment of being removed under American pressure.
Nancy, constantly on the telephone with Imelda, invited her and Ferdinand to America. Meanwhile, Shultz ordered Bosworth to tell Marcos that his ''time was up,'' and that ''we will make the transition as peaceful as possible.'' Marcos, refusing, intoned on television: ''I will fight to the last breath even though my family cowers in terror in the palace.''
But his troops were defecting in droves to the dissidents. On Monday afternoon, Reagan finally issued a public plea to Marcos to quit: ''Attempts to prolong the life of the present regime by violence are futile. A solution to this crisis can only be achieved through a peaceful transition to a new government.'' Marcos read the message at 3 A.M. Tuesday, Manila time, and immediately called Laxalt.
Laxalt was in the Capitol, at a secret briefing by Shultz, Habib and Armacost. Summoned to the telephone, Laxalt heard Marcos's voice, cracked by fatigue. Marcos wanted the word straight from Reagan: Was the statement about a ''transition'' real or another State Department plot? With Shultz hovering over him, Laxalt confirmed it. Marcos, rambling, proposed alternatives -''sharing power'' with Aquino or serving as her ''senior adviser.'' Laxalt promised to consult Reagan.
[......]
Laxalt telephoned Marcos - who at 5 A.M. in Manila awaited the call. With Shultz guiding him, Laxalt said that Reagan offered him an American refuge. Marcos, still angling for the Olympian word, asked if Reagan wanted him out. Laxalt ducked the question. ''Senator,'' Marcos pressed, ''what do you think? Should I step down?'' Laxalt replied: ''I think you should cut and cut cleanly. I think the time has come.''
The silence left Laxalt wondering if they had been disconnected. ''Mr. President, are you there?'' he asked. ''Yes,'' said Marcos tinnily. ''I am so very, very disappointed.'' "
Excerpt from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDD1739F93AA25750C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4
"The Philippines Anatomy of a Revolution
By WILLIAM E. SMITH
TIME
Monday, Mar. 10, 1986
In the period following the Aquino assassination, American policymakers had become increasingly concerned about the Philippines' rapid political and economic decline. One particular concern was the future status of the two large U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. The leases on those facilities will run out in 1991, but the U.S. hopes that they can be renegotiated. Following a 1984 policy review by the National Security Council, which concluded that Marcos would "try to remain in power indefinitely," the Administration began to work for economic, political and military reform in the Philippines. Shultz laid down the overriding principle: the U.S. must be loyal to the institutions of democracy, not to Marcos.
In October, Reagan sent Senator Laxalt to Manila to tell Marcos that changes had to be made. Said Laxalt last week: "He was getting messages through State, but he just wasn't believing them." Laxalt told him that the Philippine army had to spend more time dealing with the Communist insurgents.
Pressure on Marcos was also building in the U.S. Congress. Senator Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who headed an official American team of poll watchers that observed the elections, concluded that there had been many instances of fraud, vote tampering, violence and intimidation by Marcos partisans. In a telephone conversation with Marcos just after the voting, Laxalt observed that certain aspects of the elections had been "rather strange," such as reports that Marcos had carried one province by a vote of 13,000 to 0. That was not a province, it was a precinct, said Marcos, and "it was family." When Laxalt answered, "I doubt very much if I ran in my home district I would get all the votes of my family," Marcos, who knew that the Senator's parents were French Basque immigrants, replied, "Well, Filipinos are more clannish than you independent Basques."
[......]
An hour after the ceremony, Marcos telephoned Enrile and demanded that he "stop firing at the palace." Enrile said he had no troops there. Marcos asked him to call Ambassador Bosworth to find out if the U.S. could provide the Marcoses with security in flying out of the palace. Enrile promised to do so. Marcos had previously raised the possibility of retiring to Ilocos Norte, his home province in the northern Philippines, but had been discouraged from doing so by his family and by the new government. At 9:05 p.m., four American helicopters picked up the President, Imelda and a contingent of relatives and aides, including General Ver, and flew them to the U.S. air base.
As the week ended, Reagan Administration policymakers breathed a great sigh of relief that their plans and strategies, so painstakingly worked out over the past two years, had gone so well. Both Republicans and Democrats praised the handling of the Philippine crisis. Officials counted themselves incredibly lucky. Noting that events had passed without appreciable bloodshed, a senior U.S. official in Washington ruefully remarked that the Lord surely looks after "fools, children, the Philippines and the U.S.A."
[......]
Solarz said that while he thought it was appropriate for Reagan to offer Marcos sanctuary, the President had certainly not offered Marcos "immunity against civil proceedings brought by the government of the Philippines to recover a fortune stolen from the Philippines."
But for the moment the Administration was relieved to have passed the center of the storm. Even as he praised Marcos for his "difficult and courageous decision" to step down, Reagan congratulated Aquino on the "democratic outcome" of the elections and promised to work closely with her government in rebuilding the Philippine economy and armed forces."
Excerpt from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960859-5,00.html
"...the President [Reagan] had certainly not offered Marcos "immunity against civil proceedings brought by the government of the Philippines to recover a fortune stolen from the Philippines.""
again, pardon my ignorance but can someone tell me how much of the fortune marcos stole from the filipino people had been recovered by the aliping namamahay from the family of the deposed datu marcos? if i am not mistaken a foreign bank had to return the bribe money received from westinghouse for the bataan nuclear plant to disini because no aliping namamahay from the philippine government came forward to claim it during the last 20 years, the time allowed by their law to freeze contested bank deposits. the sitting datu respects the old datus. she does not take their money nor put them in prison. it's tradition.
the filipino people will have a better chance of deposing their dictatress if the FBI conducted the investigation of unexplained wealth of the plunderers. only someone more powerful than the datu can depose a sitting datu. in the case of marcos it was reagan and the power of the US government. they helped the filipino people get rid of their datu because the US bases were still here. now the US bases are gone. just WHO is going to tell the dictatress to "cut and cut cleanly" and get the hell out of malacanang - the aliping namamahay who serves at her beck and call?
but maybe if ALL the datu's warriors stage a mutiny...
good luck and good fortune to all.
mabuhay,
bobby manasan
"REAGAN AND THE PHILIPPINES: Setting Marcos Adrift
By STANLEY KARNOW; STANLEY KARNOW'S MOST RECENT BOOK IS ''IN OUR IMAGE: AMERICA'S EMPIRE IN THE PHILIPPINES,'' TO BE PUBLISHED NEXT MONTH BY RANDOM HOUSE, FROM WHICH THIS ARTICLE IS ADAPTED.
The New York Times
March 19, 1989
[......]
At 3 o'clock, the group gathered in the White House Situation Room. Vice President Bush and Treasury Secretary James A. Baker 3d were there along with Casey. Reagan listened quietly as Don Regan hotly debated Habib. Regan, one participant recalled, ''didn't understand or care to understand'' the issue, but ''thought he was conveying Reagan's thoughts.'' Evoking Iran, he vehemently opposed dropping Marcos, called Aquino an unknown quantity and warned against ''opening the door to Communism.'' Habib repeated his case: ''The Marcos era has ended.'' Shultz concurred: ''Nobody believes that Marcos can remain in power. He's had it.''
Finally, Reagan seemed to be resigned to dropping Marcos, though he insisted the Philippine leader must be ''approached carefully'' and ''asked rather than told'' to depart. He declined to telephone him personally or send him a private message. But as the session closed, Reagan had acquiesced to deposing his ''old friend.''
Still, he and his staff were haunted by the prospect that Marcos might attack the rebels and slaughter civilians - on world television. Reagan approved an Administration statement warning Marcos that he ''would cause untold damage to the relationship between our two governments'' if he used force. But he kept secret his decision to tell Marcos to leave in the hope that he might go voluntarily and so be spared the embarrassment of being removed under American pressure.
Nancy, constantly on the telephone with Imelda, invited her and Ferdinand to America. Meanwhile, Shultz ordered Bosworth to tell Marcos that his ''time was up,'' and that ''we will make the transition as peaceful as possible.'' Marcos, refusing, intoned on television: ''I will fight to the last breath even though my family cowers in terror in the palace.''
But his troops were defecting in droves to the dissidents. On Monday afternoon, Reagan finally issued a public plea to Marcos to quit: ''Attempts to prolong the life of the present regime by violence are futile. A solution to this crisis can only be achieved through a peaceful transition to a new government.'' Marcos read the message at 3 A.M. Tuesday, Manila time, and immediately called Laxalt.
Laxalt was in the Capitol, at a secret briefing by Shultz, Habib and Armacost. Summoned to the telephone, Laxalt heard Marcos's voice, cracked by fatigue. Marcos wanted the word straight from Reagan: Was the statement about a ''transition'' real or another State Department plot? With Shultz hovering over him, Laxalt confirmed it. Marcos, rambling, proposed alternatives -''sharing power'' with Aquino or serving as her ''senior adviser.'' Laxalt promised to consult Reagan.
[......]
Laxalt telephoned Marcos - who at 5 A.M. in Manila awaited the call. With Shultz guiding him, Laxalt said that Reagan offered him an American refuge. Marcos, still angling for the Olympian word, asked if Reagan wanted him out. Laxalt ducked the question. ''Senator,'' Marcos pressed, ''what do you think? Should I step down?'' Laxalt replied: ''I think you should cut and cut cleanly. I think the time has come.''
The silence left Laxalt wondering if they had been disconnected. ''Mr. President, are you there?'' he asked. ''Yes,'' said Marcos tinnily. ''I am so very, very disappointed.'' "
Excerpt from: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DEFDD1739F93AA25750C0A96F948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=4
"The Philippines Anatomy of a Revolution
By WILLIAM E. SMITH
TIME
Monday, Mar. 10, 1986
In the period following the Aquino assassination, American policymakers had become increasingly concerned about the Philippines' rapid political and economic decline. One particular concern was the future status of the two large U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. The leases on those facilities will run out in 1991, but the U.S. hopes that they can be renegotiated. Following a 1984 policy review by the National Security Council, which concluded that Marcos would "try to remain in power indefinitely," the Administration began to work for economic, political and military reform in the Philippines. Shultz laid down the overriding principle: the U.S. must be loyal to the institutions of democracy, not to Marcos.
In October, Reagan sent Senator Laxalt to Manila to tell Marcos that changes had to be made. Said Laxalt last week: "He was getting messages through State, but he just wasn't believing them." Laxalt told him that the Philippine army had to spend more time dealing with the Communist insurgents.
Pressure on Marcos was also building in the U.S. Congress. Senator Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, who headed an official American team of poll watchers that observed the elections, concluded that there had been many instances of fraud, vote tampering, violence and intimidation by Marcos partisans. In a telephone conversation with Marcos just after the voting, Laxalt observed that certain aspects of the elections had been "rather strange," such as reports that Marcos had carried one province by a vote of 13,000 to 0. That was not a province, it was a precinct, said Marcos, and "it was family." When Laxalt answered, "I doubt very much if I ran in my home district I would get all the votes of my family," Marcos, who knew that the Senator's parents were French Basque immigrants, replied, "Well, Filipinos are more clannish than you independent Basques."
[......]
An hour after the ceremony, Marcos telephoned Enrile and demanded that he "stop firing at the palace." Enrile said he had no troops there. Marcos asked him to call Ambassador Bosworth to find out if the U.S. could provide the Marcoses with security in flying out of the palace. Enrile promised to do so. Marcos had previously raised the possibility of retiring to Ilocos Norte, his home province in the northern Philippines, but had been discouraged from doing so by his family and by the new government. At 9:05 p.m., four American helicopters picked up the President, Imelda and a contingent of relatives and aides, including General Ver, and flew them to the U.S. air base.
As the week ended, Reagan Administration policymakers breathed a great sigh of relief that their plans and strategies, so painstakingly worked out over the past two years, had gone so well. Both Republicans and Democrats praised the handling of the Philippine crisis. Officials counted themselves incredibly lucky. Noting that events had passed without appreciable bloodshed, a senior U.S. official in Washington ruefully remarked that the Lord surely looks after "fools, children, the Philippines and the U.S.A."
[......]
Solarz said that while he thought it was appropriate for Reagan to offer Marcos sanctuary, the President had certainly not offered Marcos "immunity against civil proceedings brought by the government of the Philippines to recover a fortune stolen from the Philippines."
But for the moment the Administration was relieved to have passed the center of the storm. Even as he praised Marcos for his "difficult and courageous decision" to step down, Reagan congratulated Aquino on the "democratic outcome" of the elections and promised to work closely with her government in rebuilding the Philippine economy and armed forces."
Excerpt from: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960859-5,00.html
"...the President [Reagan] had certainly not offered Marcos "immunity against civil proceedings brought by the government of the Philippines to recover a fortune stolen from the Philippines.""
again, pardon my ignorance but can someone tell me how much of the fortune marcos stole from the filipino people had been recovered by the aliping namamahay from the family of the deposed datu marcos? if i am not mistaken a foreign bank had to return the bribe money received from westinghouse for the bataan nuclear plant to disini because no aliping namamahay from the philippine government came forward to claim it during the last 20 years, the time allowed by their law to freeze contested bank deposits. the sitting datu respects the old datus. she does not take their money nor put them in prison. it's tradition.
the filipino people will have a better chance of deposing their dictatress if the FBI conducted the investigation of unexplained wealth of the plunderers. only someone more powerful than the datu can depose a sitting datu. in the case of marcos it was reagan and the power of the US government. they helped the filipino people get rid of their datu because the US bases were still here. now the US bases are gone. just WHO is going to tell the dictatress to "cut and cut cleanly" and get the hell out of malacanang - the aliping namamahay who serves at her beck and call?
but maybe if ALL the datu's warriors stage a mutiny...
good luck and good fortune to all.
mabuhay,
bobby manasan
Comment by Bobby Manasan of Virginia on 2008-02-23 08:34:30 Using IP: 76.171.8.171
I vehemently disagee. The usual suspects want to hijack our revolution again. This is 1899 all over again. No, not this time.
EDSA was never a part of any Reagan Revolution. The Kano wanted nothing to do with it. It was not an anti war U.S left style liberal fool "revolution" either.
Never again will we allow their lacayos to hijack yet again the legitimate struggle of Filipinos for any foreign agenda. Future or otherwise. Historical revisionism will not go unchallenged.
The steak commandos merely stepped in the power vacuum while the left who remained fence sitters effectively abandoned us.
La lucha continua.
Bangkaw
EDSA was never a part of any Reagan Revolution. The Kano wanted nothing to do with it. It was not an anti war U.S left style liberal fool "revolution" either.
Never again will we allow their lacayos to hijack yet again the legitimate struggle of Filipinos for any foreign agenda. Future or otherwise. Historical revisionism will not go unchallenged.
The steak commandos merely stepped in the power vacuum while the left who remained fence sitters effectively abandoned us.
La lucha continua.
Bangkaw
Comment by Jose Pepe on 2008-02-24 18:41:04 Using IP: 76.171.8.171
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