Why EDSA is not Yellow

Uh… Yes, it USED TO BE yellow. It had to be.

As the tale goes, under the ailing president Marcos in 1983, the Liberal Party in a fit of nostalgia for the 1973 Tony Orlando’s hit song “Tie A Yellow Ribbon”, decided to wear it on their arms to remind Ninoy of his promise to come back and lead the Opposition. When Cory accepted the offer to take her husband’s place in the 1985 snap polls, the LABAN party went with the ribbon color of Orlando’s song. Cory, liking its brightness, will come to wear it as a symbol of everything Marcos was not.

It may be a tacky color now but you must understand that back then it was fashionably acceptable. What with the Menudo boys flashing their yellow headbands and rainbow-colored get-up, yellow was “in”. The local Bagets mimicked their multicolored apparel to a nauseating degree which only added to the prevalence of yellow. Additionally, millennials must understand that when the two-decade-old leadership of Marcos was replaced by – for all that the public knew – a simple housewife: the whole nation believed that the inexperienced yellow president was a cast apart from the mold of old tra-pos.

Buoyed by this newfound hope, surrounded by the colors of the 80s’ New Wave generation, gripped by a frenzy of optimism, Cory’s yellow became the unquestionable color of the Philippine politics of tomorrow. We were all exuberantly hopeful.

We expected a renewal.

We expected the removal of the old guards.

We expected a politics of equal opportunities.

We expected Cory Aquino to lead the way to meet our expectations.

Nothing fails like failure. True, democracy was restored. A militarized nation defrocked of its uniform and beret, suddenly found itself unsure of its civil freedom. Still, it was not unlike a toddler struggling and enjoying his first steps. He soon found that a world of walking and running has opened before him. The Filipinos became popular for inventing the “People Power Revolution."

Hooray.

Yet, despite the promise of reforms, thirty-one years after the bloodless putsch in EDSA, we are still the laggard of Asia. The poor farmers of Hacienda Luisita still await the fulfilment of Ninoy and Cory’s promise of land reform. The poor farmers to whom Ninoy made his commitment have all been buried under the very land they helped till and toil. They passed their expectations onto their children. Now, their grandchildren -- bequeathed with this heirloom of Cojuango-Aquino promise -- stand empty-handed and landless, still.

The cronies of Marcos were replaced with another set friendly to the Aquinos and the Cojuangcos. Economic reforms were inexcusably slow to come by. Human rights abuses continued – this time perpetrated by local warlords and crime bosses. The rich who were exiled during Marcos’ rule, came back and took back what were theirs. The poor who were poor during Marcos’ term, largely remained poor.

In this inequitable climate, the people of the resource-rich Republic of the Philippines grew poor. In a country that weathered typhoons, disasters and waves after waves of corrupt leaders, three decades went by. Each of those thirty years marked by an annual commemoration of the EDSA People Power Revolution -- that ironically brought the oligarchs more riches.

If this is what the yellow color represents, by all means, let the Aquinos wallow in its failure.

However, EDSA is more than a failed promise of the Aquinos.

EDSA is more than a mere monument to the death of Ninoy.

EDSA is more than an emblem of Cory’s housewife presidency.

The meaning of EDSA rests NOT on any single group.

The spirit of EDSA lives, however weakly, in every Filipino.

The color of EDSA is not yellow. Not exclusively.

EDSA is as brown as the sun-baked hands of the Metro Aide who cleans our streets.

EDSA is as red as the blood of the farmers that were spilled by the very patrons who promised them the land they tilled.

EDSA is as blue as the loyal soldiers who risked their lives for god and country.

EDSA is as white and pure as the peace-loving people that inhabit this republic.

Thus, EDSA is not yellow. Not just.