The People Have Spoken
By KAG. FRANCISCO ALESNA SR.
(SP Peace and Order Committee Chair and a retired PC colonel)
Published January 31, 2001 - Bohol Chronicle
History repeats itself itself, an episode of EDSA II. The four days of People Power history was repeating in itself.
From 16-20 January 2001 as the protest mounts bigger and bigger Key Cabinet members, Secretary Jose Pardo of Finance, Sec. Cerilles of DENR, the Estrada administration has no more option left but to quite and leave Malacanang Palace.
As General Angelo Reyes said that Pres. Estrada should be accorded an honorable and soft exit this it was the Chief of Staff General Reyes, who accompanied Pres. Estrada from the Palace via the Pasig River to his Residence at San Juan, Pasig in the afternoon of 20 January 2001.
And as the whole nation was watching from their respective homes of the took over and oath taking of Vice Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as the 14th President of the Philippine Republic and Administered by the Chief Justice Davide at the EDSA Shrine.
It was the divine unseen power of God, a miracle of sort, that guide the destiny of our beloved nation. Whether the episode was a silent and bloodless Military coup or a People Power Revolution is for history to determine. In my opinion, it was a combination of both, a People Power and a Military and Police take over.
And the four days of demonstration and loud protest, the pressure of the AFP and the PNP ended the impeachment process. We as a nation of 75 million people, should learn the hard lessons of the two historic events of EDSA ONE and EDSA TWO.
The EDSA Dos, with the key players, Cardinal Sin, Ex Pres. Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, shows to the whole world the most peaceful means of unseating a President who, as Cardinal Sin said, “have lost the moral ground to govern.
As a Filipino people, let us now forget the past and look for a better future. The healing of political wounds, our leaders should work more for unity to achieve a common goal, to work for an economic recovery, for a peaceful solution of the insurgency problem, to help the poorest of the poor uplift their lives for a better tomorrow.
The people have spoken, “Vox populi, vox dei.†The voice of the people is the voice of God.
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