Who owns EDSA?

by Jim Paredes

I first met Satur Ocampo, Pepe Luneta and a lot of the heavyweights of the Communist Party at Camp Bagong Diwa jail in Bicutan  in the early 80s. My mom and stepfather were political detainees then because of their involvement with the Light-a-fire movement that went against Marcos’ dictatorship.

I am writing all this because the papers recently had a quote from Satur Ocampo who told Noynoy that, “EDSA is not yours”, or something to that effect.  This simple remark, said on an election campaign, should have been taken with nary a consequence, except that it elicited so much reaction among EDSA1 veterans.  In my egroup alone, I got close to a dozen negative (against Satur) comments. It somehow left a poor taste in the mouth.

Noy certainly does not ‘own’ EDSA. In fairness, he never said so. And much less  does Satur who in unison with his companions inside and outside Bicutan had campaigned against participating in the elections. The truth is, no one owns EDSA. And yet, everybody does too. That’s the paradox of this great event.

Satur’s  scolding statement  is on the surface, correct, and that is, that not Noy ALONE but everyone, including himself,  has a claim to  EDSA. The truth is, they did not believe in the electoral, peaceful struggle till after EDSA. That’s why it is strange that Satur provocatively scolded or pontificated Noy when Satur and his crowd were not even in EDSA—not in person nor spirit,  and certainly not ideologically. In fact, the NatDems scoffed at the yellow crowd for this  ‘historical folly’. No wonder EDSA vets are upset.

But a harder thing to explain is why he is running with an alleged  land grabber and a Marcos on the same ticket. Can anyone explain?

Full article