EDSA ANNIVERSARY | Lawmaker seeks to legislate EDSA anniversary as a holiday

October 16, 2023 , 04:41 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(October 16, 2023) – A Bicol lawmaker on Monday filed a measure proposing to make the anniversary of the EDSA People Power uprising an official holiday after it was excluded in the list of holidays for next year.

Albay Congressman Edcel Lagman’s bill seeks to declare February 25 of every year as a regular national public non-working holiday to commemorate the near-bloodless popular uprising more than three decades ago, which ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

“It has often been said that Filipinos have a short memory,” Lagman said in the bill’s explanatory note. “This is unsurprising since we as a country have failed to institutionalize memorialization compared with other States.”

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman files House Bill No. 9405 declaring February 25 of every year as a regular, national public non-working holiday in commemoration of the culmination of the EDSA People Power Revolution @News5PH @onenewsph pic.twitter.com/brGEoM1tKq

— Marianne Enriquez (@mariannenriquez) October 16, 2023

The bill came after netizens on social media called out the exclusion of the anniversary of the EDSA People Power uprising in the official list of holidays next year, based on a proclamation released by Malacañang last week.

On February 25, 1986, Marcos Sr. was chased out from power in the four-day popular demonstrations, ending more than 20 years of iron-fisted rule marked by records of human rights violations and corruption. Marcos Sr. is the father of the incumbent President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) explained the commemoration of the uprising was not included as a holiday for next year only because it fell on a Sunday. The office assured that it still “maintains respect” for the holiday.

Minority lawmakers and progressive groups, who feared the move to be another attempt at “historical distortion,” were not convinced by the Palace explanation.

Lagman stressed the need to have a law for “memorializing the Filipino people’s relentless crusade for freedom and democracy which culminated in the ouster of Marcos, Sr.”

“The Marcoses and their allies are forced to good in agreeing with the bill because otherwise they would admit to the culpability of the continuing and concerted design of revising and distorting the historical verities of the evils, oppression and profligacy of the Marcos, Sr. martial law regime,” he said.

The EDSA anniversary was never codified as a regular holiday by law, although it has been traditionally included as a special non-working holiday by all presidents that followed after the uprising. It was also included in 2018 when it fell on a Sunday.

For this year, Marcos Jr. moved back the commemoration of the EDSA People Power Revolution Anniversary by a day to February 24, which was on a Friday, citing “holiday economics.”

(MM)

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