Never get tired of remembering people power

TODAY, February 22, is the first of the four days of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The Revolution against the Marcoses officially ended on February 25, when Corazon Cojuangco Aquino took her oath as President of the Republic. Her oath of office was administered by Supreme Court Justice Claudio Teehankee at what is now called appropriately the Kalayaan (Freedom) Hall of Club Filipino in San Juan.
Many of those who were at EDSA have long since gone ahead. President Cory passed away on August 1, 2009. Vice-President Salvador Laurel, Senate President Jovito Salonga, Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, Senator Lorenzo Tañada, Senator Jose W. Diokno, Senator Neptali Gonzalez, Jose Mari Velez, Maximo Soliven, Chino Roces, Bobbit Sanchez, Senator Ernesto Maceda, Mayor Mel Lopez, and Justice Cecilia Munoz-Palma have all died. And many more less known but just as courageous heroes have come and gone, many of them unnoticed and unrecognized.
Many of the millions who were at EDSA are however still around and join us in the struggle not to forget and to keep the fire of EDSA alive. Certainly there are efforts to revise history—as if EDSA did not happen or that if it happened at all, only a few people were around.
I’m reminded of an interview I had with a professor at one of the international schools in Manila. He was researching the execution of Ninoy Aquino, the nationwide mass demonstrations the execution triggered, and the events snowballing into the Presidential snap elections called at the behest of Ronald Reagan (one of whose advisers then is the infamous Paul Manafort of Donald Trump), the withdrawal of the support to Marcos by Juan Ponce Enrile, Vice Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), the call by Jaime Cardinal Sin which resulted in millions pouring out into EDSA and finally, victory.
This professor asked me the same questions he asked political players during that time in Philippine history. One politician who managed to cling onto power regardless of who was president after Marcos, perhaps in a moment of bitterness and envy, even remarked, that whoever killed Ninoy did the Filipino people a favor. It was a remark, if quoted correctly, that stood in contrast to what he had said about Ninoy when he was in good graces with the then political dispensation.

And another remark that should also be at the top of the list of the lie of the century (if there were ever such a compilation) was that of Imelda Marcos who reportedly said, that “at the height of the so-called EDSA Revolution, I rode in my car and drove along EDSA and there was nothing there, only a few people, ordinary passersby. No traffic, it was an easy, smooth ride.”
Now, these two remarks are vicious and unkind attempts to rewrite and revise history. They could be called outstanding examples of illusion management.
Aware of these attempts, it is the obligation of those of our generation who were around in the Martial Law years, the years immediately preceding those days of infamy, and the years after the execution of Ninoy Aquino to resist all these attempts to rewrite history. We must do battle for the hearts and minds of the young and the millennials who are now in college or early in their professional careers.
It offers very little comfort that aside from the usual obligatory messages, we do not hear of any organized and institutionalized effort to commemorate and honor an event in Philippine history that fulfilled the aspirations of the Filipino people. EDSA should be no different from the liberation of the Philippines during World War II (WWII). The only difference is that in the case of WWII, we were freed from a foreign invader while in the case of EDSA we got rid of a local homegrown tyrant.
One can only imagine if those who wished to remain in power during the Martial Law years, did remain in power. The development of new Philippine leaders steeped in democracy, peace, accountability, and transparency would have ground to a halt. New leaders would not have emerged: from President Cory, to Fidel Ramos, to Joseph Estrada, to Gloria Arroyo, Noynoy Aquino, and Rodrigo Duterte. Gone too would have been the likes of Serge Osmeña, Chel Diokno, Erin Tañada, Bam Aquino, Sonny Angara, Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, and many others.
Thirty three years have passed since the EDSA Revolution, but we have vivid memories of what transpired and who were the culprits. Let us use the following days to relive and retell those stories so that the young will better appreciate what their elders did and hopefully, they can learn and continue the struggle not to forget.
 
Philip Ella Juico was dean of the De La Salle Graduate School of Business from 2002 to 2008. He was agrarian reform secretary from 1987 to 1989 and chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission from 1995 to 1998. Dr. Juico remains active in sports and solar energy.