IT TAKES more than just remembering a date on the calendar to uphold the spirit of the EDSA People Power Revolution. This is why we must salute the schools that suspended classes on February 25, defying the government’s downgrade of the occasion.
Their decision is more than symbolic — it upholds the very values of EDSA: truth, democracy, human rights, and social justice. By standing their ground, these institutions and their communities remind us that history is not for those in power to rewrite.
The decision of these schools is not an act of defiance for defiance’s sake. It is a principled stance, a commitment to truth over convenience, and a declaration that education must go beyond textbooks and theories.
The universities, colleges, and basic education schools that declared February 25 a non-working day send a strong message: remembrance is an act of resistance, and forgetting is complicity. Their actions mirror what education is truly about—not just producing graduates but molding critical thinkers who can discern, analyze, and uphold what is just.
UST, De La Salle Philippines, UP Cebu, Adamson University, St. Scholastica’s Academy-San Fernando, Imus Institute Inc., Holy Child Catholic School Inc., General de Jesus College, Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae-Philippines [Maryhill School, St. Louis Colleges and Universities, and St. Mary’s University], and the EDSOR Consortium [Xavier School, La Salle Green Hills, Poveda, and Immaculate Conception Academy], among others, stood firm in honoring EDSA’s legacy. Their decision resonates when historical distortion is creeping into the national consciousness.
These institutions — including UP Visayas, UP Los Baños, UP Diliman, Ateneo de Manila, Assumption College San Lorenzo, and Phinma that also encouraged their communities to hold alternative classes to commemorate the day — serve as fortresses of truth, refusing to let a legacy built on courage be diluted into irrelevance. In making February 25 a holiday on their own terms, they have drawn the line against forgetting.
Critics may argue that class suspensions are unnecessary because remembrance requires no holiday. But that argument is precisely why these schools’ decisions matter.
Remembrance loses its weight if left only to fleeting mentions in classrooms or online tributes. By dedicating a day to EDSA’s legacy, these schools make remembrance a conscious choice, not just nostalgia. It is a reminder that democracy is fragile and must be protected.
Efforts to downplay EDSA’s significance show how power quietly reshapes history. The Marcos administration’s attempts to water down the revolution are unsurprising, as it directly led to their family’s downfall. It is a strategic effort, wrapped in the guise of economic productivity, to detach Filipinos from the very event that ousted a dictatorship.
These schools refuse to participate in that erasure. By marking the day as sacred, they refuse to let the sacrifices of those who marched on EDSA fade into the background of national amnesia. (To be continued)/PN
