NOTES ON 'CONFETTI REVOLUTION'

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

THE so-called "Confetti Revolution" that took place immediately after the Aug. 21, 1983 murder of martyr Benigno Aquino Jr. took place in the usually sedate Ayala District area that has later become the Makati Central Business District. The tall buildings along its major thoroughfare - Ayala Avenue - proved to be excellent lairs of some urban guerillas, who shredded into pieces of pages of the Yellow Pages, the PLDT telephone directory, and threw them out of the windows to comprise a rain of confetti. 

Yellow was the main color of the Confetti Revolution, of which 'Yellow Revolution" was also used to refer to the same momentous event. From this Yellow Revolution comes the word "dilawan" (yellowish), which remnants of abandoned supporters of the Marcoses have been using to refer to the present-day democratic forces.

There were reasons why the Confetti Revolution occurred along the Ayala business area. The Ortigas and Bonifacio Global Business Districts were vast expanse of cogonal lands with hardly any buildings and road networks. Their development took place when dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted after the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The Cubao business area was hardly developed to meet the expanding business of the 1960s and 1970s. 

The Manila business areas in the Binondo-Escolta area was too cramp and bursting to the seams; they could not accommodate growing business, which chose to relocate to the Ayala area. The Ayala business area was perfect for the purpose. Besides, entrepreneurs and business executives who opposed Marcos were based in the Ayala area.

As a journalist, I had the opportunity to cover the protest mass actions in the Ayala area, or what is now known the Makati Central Business District (CBD). Immediately after Marcos and his minions treacherously killed Ninoy Aquino in broad daylight, nationwide protest actions erupted without letup. Filipinos acted as one to condemn the heinous crime. 

Yes, the Confetti Revolution suddenly occurred. But to avoid disruption of the usual business flow in the country's main financial district, organizers timed the protest actions every Friday of the week. By 2 pm, every Friday, pieces of yellow confetti rained the Makati CBD. Nobody could stop the spontaneous, simultaneous acts of protest.

I remember having goose bumps whenever i saw those pieces of yellow confetti rained Makati. A colleague once remarked it was very similar to the scene in the dying days of the Batista regime in Havana, when pro-government forces could not move because of the strengthened position of the pro-Castro forces. Anonymous Makati employees, who felt aghast over Ninoy's murder, shredded them and threw tons out of the windows of those tall buildings.

Two years ago, I and my colleagues surveyed the Makati Business District to study a possible replication of the Yellow Revolution. I was surprised to find out that so many buildings have risen over the last 30 or 35 years. These building are taller and sturdier over the buildings that stood when the Confetti Revolution happened. 

Alas, I have found out that they do not have the windows where some guys could throw pieces of confetti. In brief, the new buildings are no longer adaptable for a replay of the historic yellow revolt. Who did it? I truly don't know. I could only offer some guesses. But they belong to the realm of speculations, although they could have factual basis.