It is grossly wrong to be calling the People Power Revolution as EDSA. The latter is merely a highway where the final blow to topple the dictator was staged. Better still to accord the historical event as People Power Revolution because calling it EDSA conveniently delimits the struggle to that event that happened in that famous highway and effectively excludes the supreme sacrifices and struggles of all the unnamed and faceless heroes across this Filipino nation.
The celebrations for the past two decades had been concentrated in that small piece of land named EDSA and never once in the wider planes elsewhere all over this country. The limited celebration has practically placed in the dustbin of the forgotten, those real heroes who really fought the dictatorship to regain our lost freedom and democracy.
We have been captivated by the big event so we lost sight of the essence of the long struggle. It is really inaccurate to celebrate the People Power Revolution as a mere EDSA incident. The portrait of opportunists who sneaked through the thick crowd that converged at EDSA just to grab the limelight at the hour of victory is simply revolting.
Those who managed to be at center stage to be acclaimed heroes were in truth the cowards who holed themselves hiding in fear at the most dangerous moments. These are the people who defected from the dictator but instead of leading the people in confronting the enemy, they hid in fear and called on the people for protection, only to come out when the despot had flown away in defeat and claim credit as heroes of the peaceful revolution.
The true spirit of that People Power Revolution is now being waylaid by the very people who shamelessly grabbed power and the accolade of that historic event. It is indeed a catastrophic landslide of misfortunes to have one doubtful leader who rose to power by the second staging of People Power desecrate the spirit of that peaceful revolution.
A déjà vu of the evils that People Power defeated in 1986 confronted the Filipino people as a doubtful president was catapulted to power by the second staging of People Power because the leaders who are but mere opportunist pretenders had waylaid the true spirit of the first People Power Revolution.
With the namesake of the dictator at the helm of power, the annual commemoration of the first People Power Revolution had been set aside, this year not even a declared official holiday. It will eventually flushed into the sewage of a corrupted public conscience, chiefly because the true People Power Revolution had not been sustained as a nationwide celebration of freedom, justice, peace and liberty but a limited event among a few remnants of the people that converged on that highway called EDSA.
comments to alellema@yahoo.com
