 JAJA Rally Poster unveiled 10 days afterAquino Day | |
| Merged into | Coalition for the Restoration of Democracy (CORD) |
|---|---|
| Formation | August 25, 1983; 42 years ago (1983-08-25) |
| Founder | José W. Diokno Agapito Aquino |
| Type | Advocacy group |
| Purpose | parliament-of-the-streets |
| Location |
|
| Methods | Pressure politics |
Chairman | José W. Diokno |
Key people | Corazon Aquino |
| Subsidiaries | Kilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan (KAAKBAY) |
| Secessions | Bagong Alyansang Makabayan |
| Affiliations | centrist center-left |
Justice for Aquino, Justice for All (JAJA) was the first major coalition based on aparliament-of-the-streets, which was a Filipino advocacy ofpressure politics that peacefully pushed for the ouster ofFerdinand Marcos after theassassination of Ninoy Aquino.[1]
The assassination of Sen. Aquino created economic mayhem and widespread ire among all members of the community, which forced an unprecedented unification of opposition forces to oust the president.[2] After the assassination ofSen. Aquino on August 21, 1983, JAJA was formed four days later from different sub-coalitions by Sen.José W. Diokno'sKilusan sa Kapangyarihan at Karapatan ng Bayan or KAAKBAY, andButz Aquino's August Twenty One Movement or ATOM. It quickly ballooned in two months to almost 100 chapters and sub-coalitions, and the views were diversified and extreme. Other member groups that quickly joined included the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP), theBagong Alyansang Makabayan led byLean Alejandro, the Anti-Bases Coalition (ABC) also led by Sen. Diokno,PDP-LABAN party underNene Pimentel, the religious congregation-ledTask Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), the Nationalist Alliance for Justice, Freedom and Democracy (NAJFD) underLorenzo Tañada, the Allianceof Makati Associations (AMA), the Allianceof Concerned Teachers (ACT), the Movement of Attorneys for Brotherhood, Integrity and Nationalism, Inc. (MABINI),the Mamamayang Nagkaisa kay Aquino(MANA), the Concerned Artists of thePhilippines (CAP), the Kilusang MayoUno (KMU), the League of FilipinoStudents (LFS), the Samahang para saPananampalataya at Katarungan (SAPAK), theUniversity of the Philippines student-led SANDIWA inTarlac, and plenty of other parties, coalitions, and political groups.[3][4][5]
It was the first major coalition to unite the fractious divisions among the anti-Marcos opposition.[6] The "parliament-of-the-streets" was first discussed on the August 1984 issue of thePlaridel Papers, eyeing for mass protests needed to establish a "popular democracy" rather than one run on government institutions that were deemed to be failed democracies.[7] The group was made to represent not only Sen. Aquino, but other martyred activists such as Dr. Bobby Dela Paz,M.D., who took care of Samar patients for free with his wife, tribal chiefMacling Dulag who resisted the expropriation and building of theChico Hydroelectric Dam in ancestral land,[8][9] student leaderEdgar Jopson who was a member of theCommunist Party of the Philippines, and NPA leader and rural doctorJohnny Escandor, M.D., who spend his time giving free medical aid to NPA members and farmers before being tortured by theMETROCOM paramilitary.[10][11]
Half-a-million people attended the Indignation rally at Liwasang Bonifacion in Manila. Other protests were in Davao City, with estimated 6000 participants and Zamboanga City, with estimated 10000 participants. In November 1983, observing the 51st birth anniversary of Ninoy Aquino, another JAJA rally in Luneta drew 250,000 demonstrators.[5] A key organizer in the campaign apart from Senator Diokno,[12] was the Aquino family including Butz, who partially funded the coalition. Sen. Aquino's wife,Corazon or "Cory" would also play an important role in the campaign. The future president Cory Aquino organized a rally atMalacañang Palace, the house of Marcos, that fell on the 11th anniversary of the declaration ofmartial law and the one-month anniversary of Aquino's assassination on September 21, 1983. 15,000 demonstrators marched from the palace to the Mendiola Bridge, a cite of numerous protests, rallies, and brutalgovernment massacres. Here atMendiola Street, marines were ordered by Marcos to shoot at and kill eleven demonstrators. Hundreds of protestors were injured. The violence only spawned more resistance from the people.[13][14][15]
JAJA, though united against Marcos, was unstable due to disagreements among leftists led by activistLean Alejandro and moderates such as Diokno, Aquino, and Tañada. KAAKBAY served as the main coalition that kept the other extreme groups from leaving JAJA. Unfortunately, JAJA was later replaced by the Coalition of Organizations for the Restoration of Democracy (CORD) in mid-1984, which had almost the same members. Before the creation of CORD, many former JAJA members who disagreed with the communists also organized a much wider alliance called theKongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino (KOMPIL) or the Congress of the Filipino People, and was mainly headed by Diokno.[16]
The coalitions continued to reorganize through theKongreso ng Mamamayang Pilipino or KOMPIL, until Cory Aquino was chosen to lead the people and eventually defeat Ferdinand Marcos in the1986 Snap Election.[17][18]
Other than popularizing the parliament-of-the-streets that culminated in thePeople Power Revolution in 1986, JAJA pushed fortransformative justice in the Philippines that led to the promotion of other causes in the country during a transformative age in the 1980s. Issues such as feminism and nationalism blossomed under this period and was put on the forefront alongside human rights concerns.[19] It was the persistent push for peaceful protest that impacted the peaceful transition of power of the People Power Revolution rather than acoup d'etat.[20] This movement triggered more bursts of expressions of frustration at the government's poor reaction against the assassination.[21]
Based on the parliament of the streets concept of mass rallies and peaceful resistance, JAJA resisted the elections and called for the boycott of pseudo-democratic procedures advocated by the Marcos dictatorship.[22][23] Principally, the group focused on bringing to court and to justice human rights violations by the paramilitary and cronies of the ex-president.[24]