“I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
Those were the words
of Pres. Noynoy Aquino at his valedictory State of the Nation Address to
Congress in July of 2015 where he summed up his administration’s achievements
and looked forward to “a new dawn of justice and opportunity” forged by
“freedom from corruption” as he claimed, and I quote
My one and only interest is the
well-being of my Bosses. I did all I could to forge a nation that is more just
and more progressive—one that enjoys the fruits of meaningful change. I will
let history decide.
And within 12 months
of uttering those words, the era of the EDSA regime would draw to a close, with
the rejection of Aquino’s hand-picked successor and the election of Rodrigo
Duterte, whose approach to criminal justice was anathema to what the regime had
stood for.
In this fourth part
to the Rise and Fall of the EDSA Regime, we will look at the second Aquino
presidency, its ambition, achievements and follies, and while five years is too
short a time frame to have gained enough “distance” from those events, we will
try to explain what led to the collapse in confidence in the yellow movement,
which triggered their losses at the ballot in 2016 and since, and as to why it
is unlikely that it will return any time soon.
