ILOILO City – The 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution was a “lesson on the power of willful, stubborn resistance,” according to progressive group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) – Panay as it marked the 37th anniversary of the historic event with a mass action on Friday.
“Against efforts by the government, historical revisionists, and Martial Law apologists to discount our proud history and understate the people’s revolutionary potential, we must continue to join and galvanize the masses in their struggle to improve their lives and bring about genuine change through collective action,” according to the group.
Thirty-seven years ago, massive protests sent dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and his family fleeing out of the country after ruling it with iron hands for over 20 years.
BAYAN-Panay staged a protest rally in front of the Iloilo provincial capitol to commemorate People Power.
“Ang aton diri nga panawagan kinanglan naton balikan ang leksyon, ang ginbilin sa aton nga esensya sang People Power. Importante ini sa subong nga panahon bangod ang kahimtangan naton subong halos parehas sang 1986 kun sa diin nagasupreher sang malala nga krisis, malala nga igod sa palangabuhian ang aton mga pumuluyo kag malala man nga pag-ipit ukon harassment sang isa ka diktador sadto,” said Elmer Forro, BAYAN-Panay secretary general.
People Power restored democratic institutions and ushered in political, social and economic reforms, he added.
His group underlined that the EDSA uprising was not the result of just the grand-scale fraud that marred the 1986 snap elections, or just the assassination of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., among other circumstances, but the culmination of years of struggle – armed and unarmed, legal and underground – waged by democratic forces throughout the country.
BAYAN-Panay specifically cited the struggle against the Marcos administration waged by activists on city streets, workers in factories, students in campuses, farm workers in haciendas, peasants and indigenous peoples in rural villages, and rebels in forests and mountains across the Philippines.
“With the Marcos family back in Malacañang, with Congress and all the other agencies of government under their yoke, with the vast majority of Filipinos enduring poverty and hunger, and with many opposition leaders and activists killed, jailed or otherwise persecuted, Filipinos face challenges similar to those that confronted by predecessors,” the group lamented.
Thus the celebration of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution must go beyond mere perfunctory ceremonies and citations, it stressed.
“Ang EDSA People Power nagpakita nga sa paghugpong maangkon sang pumuluyo ang ano man nga alibyo nga ginahandum sini. Kag wala sang ano man nga kakulba kag pamahog ang sarang makapugong sa demanda sang mga pumuluyo kung nagatingob ini,” said Forro.
The fight against authoritarianism and tyranny, against political and economic oppression, and for human rights and dignity endures so long as there is the courage to stay the course, according to BAYAN-Panay.
“We learned that lesson before, and we can learn it again,” it added./PN
