Aquino finally buries the spirit of EDSA

It wasn’t really sudden, and his having the EDSA Revolution commemorated in Cebu last year, since he was obviously afraid of demonstrations against him in Manila, presaged it. President Benigno S. Aquino has finally killed the commemoration of EDSA, and its spirit.

This year’s Feb 25 is the first time ever after 1986 that EDSA’s spirit of freedom, and the idea of power of the people, were totally denied. Entry to EDSA from Santolan to Shaw was closed the whole day starting midnight, purportedly for the EDSA parade but obviously to block demonstrators from approaching the freedom shrine and chapel where President Aquino would be – for a rushed 10 minutes. A police official barked to a reporter asking why the demonstrators were blocked, not just by trucks but 40-footer container vans: “EDSA shrine isn’t a freedom park!”