Pink brings my memory back to red vs yellow

“Pink isn't just a color, it's an attitude!”

—Miley Cyrus

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I WITNESSED the yellow phenomenon during the February 7, 1986 snap election when Cory Aquino of UNIDO-PDP-Laban ended President Ferdinand Marcos’ reigns in a stunning upset that shocked the world.

When President Marcos landed in the makeshift stage, where the Iloilo Sports Complex in La Paz district now stands adjacent the former West Visayas State College (now University) in January during the campaign, I was allowed to stay onstage because I wore a red jacket. 

There, I had the privilege to shake President Marcos’ hand after he alighted from the chopper; members of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) weren’t strict.

Later, another chopper, carrying showbiz personalities led by Richard Gomez, Nadia Montenegro, Janice de Belen, Lloyd Samartino landed. 

I helped facilitate the screaming fans’ signing of autographs with the showbiz visitors. 

That was my brief shot with fame, if I may call it.

 

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The program was short and lasted only for about 15 minutes. 

President Marcos left shortly after former Assemblyman Salvador “Buddy” Britanico, then deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS), confirmed that the WVSC was now the WVSU.

Red, as official color of President Marcos’ campaign, was overwhelming—and enticing. 

We thought it was a symbol of victory and dominance for President Marcos and the powerful KBL party. 

We thought Mrs. Aquino’s opposition party that adopted the yellow color from yellow ribbon, the symbol of Ninoy’s legacy and enduring narrative of his heroism and faith in a people “worth dying for”, was no match to Mr. Marcos’ red spectacle.

“Marcos, Marcos, Marcos pa rin!” was the deafening chant of pro-Marcos minions clad in red shirts, caps, bags, among other campaign materials.

 

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I am embarrassed to admit that I was biased for the red color during the 1986 snap election; I was probably convinced (or brainwashed?) by KBL’s effective propaganda machine that Tita Cory’s yellow color was synonymous to an “attempt by the opposition party to allow the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) to take over the reigns of the government if Cory Aquino wins.”

I was so naive and stupid to believe the canard hook, line, and sinker.

We had been brainwashed and hoodwinked into believing that red color was the movie’s important character and yellow color was the contrabida.

As history has shown, Ninoy Aquino’s widow wasn’t declared the winner despite garnering 7,502,601 (NAMFREL) votes against the late dictator’s 6,787,556 (NAMFREL) votes.

Mr. Marcos insisted he won the race and celebrated in Malacanang with his loyalists after being sworn in to serve for another term after 20 years.

Thus the EDSA Revolution intervened and kicked the entire Marcos family out of Malacanang to Hawaii.

 

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When Vice President Leni Robredo adopted pink as her campaign’s official color, my memory brought me back during the 1986 snap election while listening to her speech before she filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) for president in the May 9, 2022 election.

The sudden onrush of pink color that cascaded in the streets in the form of streamers, placards, T-shirts, masks, paints in the vehicles and residential houses, social media profiles, etcetera was staggering and breathtaking.

I thought history was repeated again. Tita Cory’s yellow in 1986 and VP Leni’s pink in 2022.

Was it a coincidence that both were ordinary wives and mothers who lost their husbands tragically and they rose to prominence astronomically in the moments when the Philippines was in need of an icon and redemption from a nightmarish leadership?

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)