Aquino govt too busy to observe EDSA Dos anniversary

President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday admitted that “over-concentration" on the 25th anniversary of EDSA People Power I next month may have made them overlook the 10th anniversary of EDSA Dos last Jan. 20. “There might have been an over concentration on the 25th anniversary of EDSA. Too many things required our attention," said Aquino in a text message, referring to the historic Feb. 25, 1986 event that catapulted his mother, the late democracy icon Corazon Aquino, to the presidency and ended the Marcos regime. EDSA Dos, on the other hand, saw the downfall of the Joseph Estrada as president and the assumption to power of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, whose nine-year-rule — from 2001 to 2010 — was rocked with allegations of corruption and election irregularities. No deliberate plan Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said there was no deliberate plan to ignore the EDSA Dos anniversary, although he admitted that the first EDSA uprising was more significant than the second one. “EDSA Dos and its aftermath is something that our people still feel deeply ambivalent about," he said Sunday. Carandang noted that even the Arroyo administration had downplayed the EDSA Dos event. “Even the previous administration tried to play it down. And they didn’t even try to remind the public about it last week. There has not been a word from them," he said. The Arroyo government used to commemorate the event with different activities including a Mass at the Our Lady of Peace Church in Ortigas, but since 2004, it had limited the fanfare to a simple thanksgiving Mass. On Jan. 20, 2001, then Vice President Arroyo took her oath as president, replacing Estrada who was then the subject of an impeachment case. He was charged by an anti-graft court and convicted for plunder in 2007, but he was granted executive clemency by Arroyo in the same year. - KBK, GMANews.TV