Has time rewritten every line?
The EDSA People Power Revolution:
Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were…
Can it be that it was all so simple then?
Or has time rewritten every line?
— “The Way We Were,” lyrics by Alan Bergman, Marilyn Berman and Marvin Hamlisch
Feb. 22, 2022.
Today is the 36th anniversary of the first day of the EDSA People Power Revolution. The blurb of the book People Power, published by the James B. Reuter S.J. Foundation in 1986, describes the 1986 People Power Revolution as “a revolution without precedent.”
“Men, women and children — armed only with crucifixes, images of the Blessed Virgin, songs and rosaries to signify their prayers — made themselves into human barricades. Made invulnerable by their vulnerability, they faced up to armed marines and stopped tanks. Thus, the people disarmed the Marcos forces. Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as president and Marcos fled into exile. People’s power had regained democracy.”
The EDSA revolution was described as the days “the Philippines ousted a dictator and inspired the world” on the cover of Time magazine’s issue on EDSA’s 20th anniversary (Feb. 27, 2006).
***
There are at least a million memories of EDSA, because everyone who was on that highway from Feb. 22 to 25, 1986 has a story about that brief shining moment.
Much has changed and too little has changed. Has time rewritten every line about EDSA? Perhaps. But don’t let time and failed expectations disillusion you. (For have we all truly risen to expectations ourselves, expectations we placed upon our leaders’ shoulders?)
People Power does not have an expiration date. It will remain potent as long as it will continue to inspire.
***
I was pregnant with my first child when I braved the crowds at EDSA. I was ready to become an EDSA heroine. The distinction I still feel now at having participated in a moment that changed the course of history made it all worthwhile. You don’t go to EDSA with a death wish, but you are emboldened by the thought that you are there for a cause higher than yourself.
Thirty-six years later, EDSA still gives me hope because as I write this, because of people power, we have presidential elections every six years. Generally, people are no longer afraid to vote according to their conscience. I bet you aren’t. There are term limits for office, whether you are president or barangay captain.
People are more vigilant nowadays and less and less will keep silent if they are disenfranchised, treated rudely by a government employee or sold a faulty washing machine.
We have freedom of the press. Big fish have gone to prison for their crimes.
Let not time rewrite the lines of history, as written by those who lived and breathed it, and died for it.
(You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)
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