EDSA speech stirs controversy
BACOLOD CITY — For failing to read the prepared speech of Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. at the 26th EDSA People Power Celebration in this city last Saturday, and delivering his own impromptu speech instead, executive assistant Manuel Escalante III is reportedly now in trouble.
“We’ll call his attention. Next time, he shouldn’t do that. He is only to read my speech, not to give his opinion,” Marañon said Monday morning about Escalante, who was called by the governor at his office later in the afternoon.
At a chance interview, Escalante, former Manapla town mayor, denied there was any prepared speech. He told THEFREEMAN he was only given a piece of paper containing the list of guests to be greeted, so he made his own speech.
At the EDSA rites, Escalante said in his speech: “Don’t you know that if something bad happens, good things happen, too? We were given an opportunity to become good Filipinos. But we forgot about it. We dwelt on singing (about) the EDSA revolution, doing so many things, blaming the politicians whom we also voted (into office).”
He told the performers: ”You were shouting in your presentation, that you will die for the Filipinos. Did you ever know that Ninoy Aquino was a politician? That he was pushed to the wall. But then he died for the Filipino people. But did his son and grandchildren or his family remember what he did? They could not even declare a simple agrarian reform in their own farm, which they declared all over the nation.”
“We are all the same because we blame others except ourselves. Put the blame on yourself. Have faith. Do your job well and if you are a politician and you’re corrupt, then shame on you. As the NPAS said, ‘banana plants are better than politicians because they have hearts’,” he said.
“Let’s leave the past behind and start moving forward. Nothing will happen to us if keep on doing that. Past is past. Let’s blame ourselves and our present leaders. Each and every one of us should be a true EDSA revolution,” Escalante added.
Lawyer Andrea Si, who is affiliated with the proAquino’s Negrense Volunteers for Change and was at the event, argued: “If we don’t remember the past, we are meant to repeat the same mistakes committed before.”
Some quarters said Escalante’s apparent tirade against the administration were uncalled for as Marañon was a supporter of the present administration, and had campaigned for P-noy in 2010. — Danny B. Dangcalan