PEOPLE POWER | Activists stress the need for commemoration of EDSA People Power anniversary

February 23, 2023 , 09:40 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(February 23, 2023) – A left-wing activist group, who was part of the multitude of people who took the streets and supported renegade soldiers attempting to oust a dictator in the mid-1980s, on Thursday stressed the need to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the EDSA People Power uprising with a “fiery commitment” to democracy.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) has lined up activities to hold protest actions near the People Power Monument in Quezon City on Saturday to commemorate the anniversary of the popular uprising that deposed the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

The former president, whose 20-year rule saw records of human rights violations and corruption, is also the father of the sitting President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“EDSA does not deserve to be marked with deafening silence,” Renato Reyes, Bayan secretary-general, said in a statement. “It should be commemorated with a fiery commitment to achieving genuine freedom and democracy. Its lessons remain valid today as we collectively confront a second Marcos regime.”

Reyes said the need to remind Filipinos of the popular uprising has become more important after the dictator’s son rose to power in 2022, threatening to erase the memories of the people’s struggle against 20 years of iron-fisted rule.

The activists are also expected to oppose proposals in the Congress to amend the 1987 Constitution, which was ratified in the aftermath of the uprising, over concerns that charter change could be exploited to extend or lift term limits for key government posts.

“We distrust these initiatives because we have learned the bitter lessons of dictatorship. Every time the initiative is meant to prolong the stay in power of the ruling elite, we drift closer to dictatorship,” Reyes said.

Marcos Jr. has declared February 24 as a special non-working day nationwide to commemorate the EDSA People Power uprising “pursuant to the principle of holiday economics,” the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) announced.

In a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) on December 10 to 14, around 57% of Filipinos still believed that commemorating the EDSA People Power uprising is still important.

Some 47% also believed that the promises of the near-bloodless uprising had been fulfilled.

The president, who touted his father to have made significant achievements in his speeches, has described his family’s exile from the Philippines as a result of the People Power uprising as “dark days” for his family and the country.

“We were in exile for six years so we weren’t sure if we were coming back at all. My father never made it back. He died in Hawaii. So that was a very trying time,” Marcos said in a dialogue with World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende last month.

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