HOTSPOT
This week, we marked the 40th anniversary of the demise of a dictatorship at the hands of the historic People Power uprising. Prior to Feb. 22, 1986, the dictatorship was what’s legal. But in four days, the “constitutional authoritarianism” came to an end courtesy of a civilian-led revolt that, among others, protected mutinous soldiers holed up in the two camps along EDSA and who were deathly afraid of being crushed by the dictator’s forces.
I was still young at the time. In fact, our mother hurriedly brought us siblings to the province when the uprising started, perhaps fearing violence. But from when we came back to the city, the magnitude of the events was impressed on us at school, in newspapers and on television.
Post-EDSA, the world honored the Philippines, marveling at the fascinating display of popular sovereignty to topple a dictatorship. We were the stars of the world, the darling of world media and governments. What Filipinos did would inspire similar displays of “people power” in other parts of the world.
Our generation would have our turn in the second EDSA revolt in 2001.
Time is tough on everyone and everything, including EDSA which has now been overrun by a now-ageing train system, terrible traffic, and lots more.
Time is especially tough on memory, as we have seen in remarks made by a high church official who waxed sentimental about EDSA, and asked the crowds what had happened between now and then. If I had been there present as he made those remarks, I might have stood up and shouted indignantly, “who do you seem to blame us?!” or “what have you done in the past 40 years?!”
We hear often about the “restoration of democratic institutions” and the key roles played by the military and police, the church, and traditional politicians in EDSA, to the exclusion of many other persons and organizations that fought and challenged the dictatorship. But 40 years after, there’s no attempt by any of these institutions to be self-critical, introspective, and, yes, remorseful. It is as if the did nothing wrong or did everything perfectly, that ultimately it is the fault of the ordinary Filipino that the EDSA experiment failed.
Here we must mention SELDA, the organization of former political detainees, which courageously filed, pursued and won the Hilao et al vs Marcos class-action suit over human rights abuses. They won in 1992. (Hilao referred to Celsa Hilao, the mother of Liliosa Hilao, the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila campus journalist who became the first casualty of martial law. Liliosa’s sister, Marie, later became chair of the Karapatan human rights alliance.)
The landmark case later became a basis for the Republic Act 10368, or the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Act of 2013. It took the restored institutions 27 years to recognize and compensate the victims and survivors.
It is not farfetched that the people would ultimately be blamed for the country not having a law mandating EDSA Day as a national holiday. But there had been four decades or more than adequate time and opportunity to file, pass and enact such a bill into law by the restored democratic institutions. Any of the two President Aquinos could have signed it into law. I’m not a total fan, but it is quite a stretch to expect a President Marcos to do it. Such talk is good for political tit-for-tat this week, but if we are to be honest, the lack of an EDSA Day law is emblematic of priorities in the pre-2016 and pre-2022 periods that supposedly honored EDSA more. (A magnanimous President Marcos can do it.)
As they say, we cannot change the past. But we must learn from it. Hopefully there would be more books and more retellings of what happened in 1972-1986, how the people responded, what preparations people made, and what events foreshadowed EDSA. But since four decades have passed since the four-day uprising, we must add with all honesty, what has happened since.
Perhaps what we could all agree on is honoring and remembering the heroes and especially the martyrs who made the ultimate sacrifice. The Bantayog ng mga Bayani at EDSA corner Quezon Avenue could be a good place to start, along with similar monuments elsewhere in the country. Their names were not adequately remembered this week that featured only the marquee names of old. We forget heroes and martyrs at our own peril.
