EDSA has the same message

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Last Saturday, the country marked the 26th anniversary of the unique revolution staged by our people, that has since become the model for so many other nations aching to be free of the tyranny and corruption that also held their citizens in bondage.

For more than twenty years, our people suffered under the dictatorship that had somehow crept on them after they voted into office a man who had beguiled them with honeyed words and effective sloganeering. Many were enticed when then senator Ferdinand Marcos lambasted his political opponent, and hypnotized his gullible countrymen with declarations that it was his fate to become president of the country. When some irreverent clowns – although many continue to believe that the gimmickry came from his own camp – circulated a contrived picture that humiliated his first lady, causing her to cry publicly, his promotions men promptly coined the battlecry “For every tear, a victory”.

It didn’t take long before the Filipino people found themselves the ones crying, over the state of their country, and the way they had allowed themselves to be charmed by clever demagoguery. Life became more and more desperate, mysteries of missing activists who dared speak out against the regime continued to come up.

And then came EDSA. All of a sudden, the Filipino people, stirred by the more appropriate slogan of “Sobra na, tama na (It’s too much, enough already)” began to wake up and be emboldened to stand up and be counted among those who wanted the repressive situation to end. The success of EDSA enabled Filipinos to hold their heads high everywhere in the world. Not only did they oust a dictator without bloodshed, they also began to feel hope again for their country.

On Saturday, we remembered that shining day, and held appropriate ceremonies, heard relevant speeches, lauding the accomplishments of EDSA. But there are now some who seem to have forgotten what it had meant 26 years ago, and have become blasé when they talk about it. But shouldn’t the recollection of EDSA re-charge us again, and renew our desire for a country where greed, lust for power and duplicity are condemned and their perpetrators driven away?

Let’s not forget what we were capable of doing on that first EDSA Day, and resolve again to revive our longing then to see a government where the people are free, and governance is run with complete honesty and transparency.*