Philippine EDSA Revolution – Is It Still Alive?

“I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.” – Psalm 119:45

FREEDOM – This is a 7-letter word that is capable of a hundred or even more interpretations.

FREEDOM – This is also the motivating force that ignited the Filipino people in 1986 to come together and wage a peaceful revolution armed with prayers and rosaries.

Indeed, the entire country is preparing for the 36th anniversary of EDSA People Power Revolution on February 25 of this year. But what is EDSA People Power Revolution and what transpired during the historical people power uprising?

Looking back from February 22 to 25, 1986, thousands of Filipinos gathered on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) to protest President Ferdinand Marcos and his claim that he won the election over Corazon Aquino. This massive protest led Marcos and his family to relinquish his power and leave the Philippines. That time many were optimistic that the Filipinos finally got rid of the dictator and eventually would result to decrease the social inequalities in our country. But the big questions are – did EDSA really eradicate the social inequalities? Did EDSA genuinely free the people from oppression and injustice.

To answer these questions, one must ask one’s self, “What have we truly learned from EDSA revolution?” It is only when we ourselves have a grasp of understanding the true meaning of freedom that we can say that people power during EDSA revolution was not just a lesson learned on papers and history.

As for me, I was only seven years old when the EDSA revolution took place so that I could barely step foot into the shoes of the people who experienced it. All I could recall was me standing on top of the gates of our house and shouting at the top of my lungs “Cory! Cory! Cory kami!” As I was doing this, my father pulled me from behind to bring me down from the house gate and warned me to be silent because I may be harmed by the Marcos loyalists. That was all I could recall of this momentous event in Philippine history. You could just imagine how much knowledge I truly have about EDSA at that time. How about today? How much knowledge does our youth, the generations that follow after generation X (born 1965 – 1980) have about EDSA People Power Revolution.

Most often than not, our youth simply learns about EDSA revolution through academic discussions in school. Currently, EDSA revolution are also read by our youth from social media since face-to-face classes have been disrupted due to Covid 19. Some younger generations might say that EDSA revolution symbolizes the willingness of the Filipino people to stand together to fight for freedom and democracy. It inspires them to unite for peace and liberty. Others would also say that it was the time of deliverance from oppression brought by the Marcos regime. If social media is the mode of instruction for some of the youth, then we parents should be wary since we do realize the fact that not all information posted on social media are the truth of the matter. There is a need for us to guide our youngsters on how we can best learn from experiences of people who participated physically in the EDSA revolution of 1986.

EDSA revolution was sought for liberty and peace of the Filipinos. But sad to say, today peace and liberty fought at EDSA is not genuinely felt by everyone. We see people disunited due to politics. Friends unfriend one another on Facebook because they support different presidentiables. Families are fighting with one another due to poverty, money and social inequalities. The constant negative platforms posted on social media seems to aggravate the social inequalities surrounding our society. It ushers a value totally opposite of what EDSA People Power revolution teaches us. EDSA revolution teaches us equality of men against the powers of oppression. It teaches us unity in diversity. It ignites oneness of hearts to bring about genuine peace and liberty.

Until we truly learn to make amends with one another by helping each one in accordance with one’s needs and until we truly accept each other’s differences in ideas and life principles, we can never truly live the true spirit of EDSA people power revolution. The values of unity, peace, equality and liberty learned from EDSA revolution will just be memories slowly disappearing into the horizon.

We must not allow the lessons learned from EDSA revolution be forgotten. For the sake of the next generations to come after us, let us relive EDSA revolution. We can do this through the spirit of unity in prayer and unity in understanding and compassion for one another. For after all, we are brothers and sisters in God’s eyes. (Gwendeline P. Rodulfa)