It has been thirty-eight years since the peaceful People Power Revolution toppled the despotic rule that had been dubbed by Primitivo Mijares as the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Over the years, the spirit of that People Power Revolution had dwindled as the commemoration had been anchored on that highway named Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or EDSA for brevity.
It was all wrong from the very beginning and the wronging went on up to the present. The blunder of Mr. Marcos and his cohorts in acceding to call a snap election for a fresh mandate, relying so much on his magic that kept him in power for two decades. He miscalculated everything, from the use of guns, goons and gold (his famous 3Gs) in the elections, to massive cheating in the counting of votes that culminated in the walkout of computer tabulators who could no longer bear the systematized cheating, to the call for civil disobedience, up to the peaceful convergence of the multitude that staged the bloodless People Power Revolution of 1986. The wrongs of the conjugal dictatorship were terminated by a people that rose in peaceful struggle against the abuses of the dictator.
The struggle against the abuses of the dictatorship is not the People Power Revolution which happened at EDSA. It was a long battle fought by the nameless men and women who resisted the dictatorship all throughout the dark years of martial law. Thousands of these courageous Filipinos were maimed for life and the less fortunate ones were sent to the deep abyss of no return. Those who disappeared during the dark years had never attained justice in their struggle for change and in the pages of history as well. Those who survived are still fighting for justice both in the proper place in history and in obtaining the compensation that the courts awarded for their sufferings under martial law. Even the penultimate battle that led to the fall of the dictator and the catapulting of Cory Aquino to the presidency was not an overnight event at EDSA but a long battle that took place across the nation.
The first People Power Revolution in 1986 was a demonstration of the Filipino courage to change an abusive dictatorial regime by peaceful bloodless means. It caught world attention and became a model for other peoples in various countries that wanted change and democracy by way of peaceful means. This world renowned event placed our country in the global political map for its being a bloodless revolution. But that fame would soon get lost along memory lane among our people and before the world. That event ended over two decades of dictatorship. It is unfortunate that thirty-eight years after, a magical president who is the son and namesake of the dictator is now in power and is subtly taking steps to erase the memory of the 1986 peaceful People Power revolution.
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