The Akbayan party-list drew a hard line this week over who gets to claim the symbolism of EDSA, insisting the historic avenue cannot be repurposed to defend a senator staring down a plunder indictment.
In a statement issued Wednesday, July 1, the minority bloc lawmakers argued that constitutional guarantees on assembly and speech lose their meaning when deployed to shield the powerful rather than hold them to account. “It is not a sanctuary for plunder and impunity,” they said of the site, which became a fixture of Philippine political memory as the setting of the 1986 uprising that unseated Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
The party’s ire was directed at a demonstration mounted in defense of Senator Rodante Marcoleta, an Iglesia ni Cristo member whom Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said on June 29 would face a non-bailable plunder complaint before the Sandiganbayan. Members of the INC massed along EDSA near the People Power Monument on June 30 in a rally that authorities said caught them off guard. Police pegged the crowd at roughly 12,000 by early afternoon, according to Rappler, while the Manila Times reported church figures placing the turnout at around 50,000. Four people were taken into custody and three officers were hurt in the unpermitted gathering, Philstar reported, with the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority saying it received no advance coordination.
Akbayan reserved particular scorn for the political figures who lent the rally their backing. The lawmakers named Vice President Sara Duterte, who is set to face an impeachment trial, and former Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano. “Sara has every reason to support any effort that could undermine her impeachment trial,” the group said, adding that Cayetano “has once again demonstrated his remarkable talent for inserting himself into every political spectacle in search of relevance.”
Pressing the administration to see the prosecution through, the party urged that cases be filed and arrests made against everyone tied to the flood control corruption scandal, whether aligned with the Marcoses or the Dutertes. It framed the demand as overdue, warning that stalled justice only widens public distrust.
The case against Marcoleta centers on P75 million he acknowledged receiving as donations for his 2025 Senate campaign but did not declare in his statement of contributions. He has maintained the money arrived before the official campaign period, exempting him from disclosure. The Commission on Elections found no election offense, though the Ombudsman’s office contends he “unjustly” enriched himself, and the justice department noted he received the funds while sitting as a party-list congressman.
Akbayan closed its message with a direct address to the senator, telling him he could bring supporters to the avenue but could never lay claim to what it stands for. “EDSA is defined not by geography but by principle,” the group said. “You may temporarily occupy EDSA, but you will never inherit its meaning or use it to escape justice.”
Marcoleta, who chaired the Senate blue ribbon committee inquiry into the flood control anomalies, has cast the looming charge as retaliation timed to sideline him from Duterte’s impeachment proceedings and has pointed to the Ombudsman’s slower pace in probing former House Speaker Martin Romualdez over the same public works mess.
