Opponents of Benigno Aquino hope for return of people power
On anniversary of 1986 movement, three groups are organising rallies against its heroine's son
As the Philippines today commemorates the 29th anniversary of the first People Power revolution, efforts are under way to hold a similar peaceful uprising - this time to unseat the son of the 1986 movement's heroine.
President Benigno Aquino, son of People Power icon Corazon Aquino, faces demands that he resign from three groups spanning the political spectrum. Members of these groups are staging week-long protests to demand the president step down over a disastrous commando operation on January 25 that killed a suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings but left 44 police dead.
Among the president's opponents are his mother's brother Jose Cojuangco and Cojuangco's wife and former governor of Tarlac province, Margarita Cojuangco, who have formed a group called the February 22 coalition.
Last Sunday, the couple - who held posts in the previous administration of president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo - joined a motorcade to the People Power shrine on Manila's Edsa highway and found it ringed by riot policemen.
"This is the only Aquino who's afraid of People Power," Margarita Cojuangco fumed about her nephew.
Earlier, the couple publicly demanded their nephew resign and give way to an "advisory council". Margarita Cojuangco claimed Vice-President Jejomar Binay had already agreed that if Aquino resigned he would form such a council.
Binay's spokesman Joey Salgado said that Jose Cojuangco and Binay had spoken but that the vice-president agreed to no such thing.
Also working for Aquino's removal is the National Transformation Council (NTC) led by Cardinal Ricardo Vidal and seven bishops together with ex-president Arroyo's defence chief Norberto Gonzales. The NTC has proposed a "caretaker government" to institute political and electoral reforms.
However, Archbishop Socrates Villages said his colleagues did not speak for all 131 bishops but were merely expressing their own views.
The radical left-wing Bayan Muna party is also staging protests near the presidential palace this Friday. Spokesman Teodoro Casino said they proposed replacing Aquino with a "people's council for national unity, reforms and peace, basically a two-year interim government".
For the first time, the Aquino government is taking these threats seriously.
Justice Secretary Leila De Lima warned that groups like the NTC violated sedition laws because "they said they will establish a transitional government [and] they are appealing for military support". She also noted that many were allied with ex-president Arroyo, who is in detention facing plunder charges.
So far, the groups have failed to persuade the millions needed for an 1986-style uprising.
