ASEANEWS HEADLINE-EDSA PEOPLE POWER@40 | MANILA: EDSA torch passed on to youth
Priests gather at the Santo Niño Basilica in Cebu yesterday to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1986 people power revolution./ Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Cebu
.
WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRADqlv6mKI
40th Anniversary of Edsa People Power Revolution
..
.
MANILA, Philippines — Four decades after the 1986 revolt at EDSA, with corruption and trolls permeating society, Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas challenged the youth to take up the mantle of people power and revive its fading spirit.
“Those who stood up along EDSA are already old – my hair is already white – while others are dead. To the youth, it’s your turn. The torch passes; rise as true patriots,” Villegas said during a mass at the EDSA Shrine last night.
“Don’t chase viral posts like dumb goats. Think critically, question, discern, kill lies before sharing, form consciences by truth, not algorithms,” he added.
“Free EDSA from our hearts. It is in our hands that will enable EDSA to rise again,” he said.
.
During his homily, Villegas lamented that Filipinos had “squandered” the gains of 1986.“Today, we celebrate not faded yellow ribbons, but the goal to reclaim the fire,” he said. “We wasted it on corruption, trolls, dynasties, vulgarity and forgotten dignity.”
He then traced what he described as the steady erosion of the EDSA spirit through successive administrations.
Villegas said the democratic gains under former presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos – who restored democratic institutions and oversaw the ratification of a new Constitution – were not sustained in the years that followed.
….
Officers take part in a rehearsal yesterday for the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the people power revolution on Feb. 25. Organizers of ‘EDSA 40: Tuloy ang Laban sa Korapsyon at Kahirapan’ met with the MMDA and other agencies to discuss traffic flow, security measures and crowd management during the event./ Michael Varcas
“Show business and entertainment seduced us as the answer to poverty,” he said, referring to the election of Joseph Estrada in 1998.
Estrada was later ousted over corruption allegations, in a second people power uprising in 2001 and the rise of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Both were jailed but later pardoned. EDSA was in shambles,” Villegas said.
He added that by the time another Aquino finished his term, “trolls poisoned” public discourse, paving the way for the rise of Rodrigo Duterte.
“We mocked the honest president, even if he served us well. Yellow was mocked. Pink was jeered. Only black darkness was made to look beautiful,” he said.
Villegas lamented what he described as a distortion of moral values under Duterte’s leadership.
“Before the jailed man at The Hague became president, didn’t we know right from wrong? We knew that killing was a sin. Insulting women, mocking God, death threats, law-breaking, siding with foreigners… they screamed evil!” he said. “Yet we justified addict murders, vulgar jokes, blasphemy was tolerable, due process disposable, island build-up by China as necessary to prevent war. What happened? Charisma eclipsed conscience.”
Villegas called on the International Criminal Court to hold Duterte and other “murderers of drug users” accountable.
“Help us restore justice and order in this land that has lost its virtues,” he pleaded.
@[email protected]
.
Calling such tolerance “shameful, sickening and puzzling,” the archbishop warned against giving the same kind of leadership another chance.
In a subtle swipe at celebrity politics, he added that movie idols are not “fit either for the Senate or Malacañang,” drawing applause from parishioners.
Still, he returned to his central message: the responsibility now rests with the next generation.
If EDSA is to rise again, he said, it will depend on young Filipinos and their willingness to choose truth over disinformation and conscience over charisma.
‘Electoral revolt’
The people power revolution also took on a sharp electoral tone at its 40th anniversary yesterday, as progressive groups called for an end to what they described as the “Marcos-Duterte power carousel.”
Akbayan led the charge, urging an “EDSA-inspired electoral revolution” ahead of the 2028 polls.
Akbayan president Rafaela David urged voters to reject political dynasties, particularly the camps of President Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte.
“We can no longer allow power and politics to revolve in the hands of a few families such as the Marcoses and the Dutertes. Malacañang should no longer serve as a home for dynastic nepo babies. As we prepare early for 2028, let us mount an EDSA-inspired electoral revolution to end the Marcos-Duterte power carousel,” David said.
“If 1986 was about reclaiming our democracy, 2028 must be about reclaiming our future,” she added.
@[email protected]
.
Akbayan Rep. Perci Cendaña and Tindig Pilipinas co-convenor Kiko Aquino-Dee echoed the call, saying the passage of a genuine anti-political dynasty law would fulfill what he described as one of EDSA’s unfulfilled promises.
.
“The abolition of political dynasties is a long-delayed task of EDSA. Forty years since the February People Power Revolution, it is time to end their control over our democracy and economy. Without dynasties, democracy becomes more genuine and the economy more progressive,” Cendaña said.
“President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. must be the last Marcos in Malacañang, and Vice President Sara Duterte must never step into its halls,” Aquino-Dee and his co-organizers added in a separate statement.
The rally, dubbed “Trillion Peso March Part 3,” was organized by the Buhay ang People Power Campaign Network and Simbahan at Komunidad Laban sa Katiwalian, with support from Caritas Philippines.
Among those present were Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno, Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao and economist Winnie Monsod.
Meanwhile, a priest working with families of drug war victims blamed former president Rodrigo Duterte for erasing what he described as the gains of the 1986 uprising.
@[email protected]
.
Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate Fr. Flavie Villanueva said the past decade showed that both the Marcoses and the Dutertes had undermined democratic principles.
“Forty years ago, our identity blossomed. Forty years ago, we turned everything ugly into beautiful. Forty years ago, an elusive God during the dictatorship showed up and made known His presence, paving the way for our freedom,” Villanueva told The STAR yesterday.
“Fast forward to 2016, all the seeds planted in 1986 vanished during Duterte’s time – everything that is beautiful, clean, just, truthful and sacred,” he stressed.
Villanueva said it was significant that Duterte’s four-day confirmation of charges before the International Criminal Court coincided with the anniversary.
Political prisoners’ group Kapatid, for its part, urged the Marcos administration to move beyond what it called cosmetic commemorations and instead release activists it said were victims of red-tagging and arbitrary arrests.
The group said 693 political prisoners remain in detention, as laws that perpetuate repression, including the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, continue to be enforced.
.
“Political prisoners symbolize an unfinished revolution that removed a dictator but did not fully dismantle the structures of repression, inequality and injustice that gave rise to resistance in the first place,” Kapatid said in a statement.
“Their imprisonment reflects the unaddressed roots of armed conflict: landlessness, poverty, political exclusion and human rights violations,” it added.
Kapatid also called on the administration to uphold human rights and resume peace negotiations with communist rebels.
Separately, progressive groups said the struggle ignited by people power is “far from over,” marking the anniversary with renewed calls for structural reform.
In a joint statement, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, Sanlakas and Partido Lakas ng Masa said there is “nothing to celebrate” four decades after the uprising that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
The groups cited what they described as entrenched corruption and oligarchic control of the economy, and demanded accountability over alleged anomalies, including flood control projects.
@[email protected]
.
They accused President Marcos and Vice President Duterte of links to corruption issues, though they cited no specific cases.
Calling for the creation of a “People’s Transition Council,” the progressive groups said structural reforms are needed to address poverty and corruption.
“Power must return to the people. The fight is not yet over,” they said.
Palace: History can’t be erased
Responding to the pleas of people during the EDSA rallies yesterday, Malacañang described the 1986 revolution as an enduring chapter in the nation’s history.
“It’s part of history, it cannot be erased – what happened then cannot be erased. The courage of the Filipinos, the acceptance of the event, cannot be erased from history,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing.
As of yesterday afternoon, President Marcos had yet to issue a statement on the anniversary.
The Palace also did not release his public schedule, although Castro said he held four meetings at Malacañang, including one with the Presidential Communications Office.
Vice President Duterte, however, offered a different view.
In an interview in Iligan City, she said Filipinos have forgotten the essence of the 1986 uprising.
“Those who [marched] and [organized] the march [yesterday], they don’t really know what their message is to the people because they forgot what the message of 1986 was,” Duterte said. — Mark Ernest Villeza, Helen Flores, Bella Cariaso, Andrew Ronquillo
Ads by:
Memento Maxima Digital Marketing
