Still our finest hour

For a while, it seemed as if the memory of the 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution—the most monumental event in contemporary Philippine history—was itself on its way to that proverbial dustbin of history. Year by year, the crowds were thinner, the cheers less enthusiastic, the holiday treated more as a break from humdrum daily life than an occasion for proper remembrance.

“Edsa fatigue” didn’t arise from a vacuum. It was the result of the unfulfilled promise of the revolution, in which the people themselves successfully toppled a dictatorship and restored democracy to their land, but had to grapple afterward with systemic, institutional problems far bigger than the fight against authoritarian rule.

The regime of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. may have ended on Feb. 25, 1986—40 years ago today—but in its wake, the country continued to suffer from long-festering issues: appalling social inequality, widespread poverty and hunger, corrupt governance, dynastic politics that would only explode in the next decades, a crumbling educational system, and so on.

The new republic bookended by the two Aquino presidencies (Cory Aquino, 1986 to 1992; and Benigno Aquino III, 2010 to 2016) would see itself progressively hobbled by such unresolved predicaments. The spark of Edsa was evidently not enough to radically undo all the ills of Philippine society, and that failure to deliver on the revolution’s promises of progress and a better life for all bred increasing despair and cynicism.

Most direct slap

Something had to give, and in 2016, all that frustration resulted in the election of Rodrigo Duterte as president, who presented himself as the antithesis of the rot and stasis of the post-Edsa order: decisive, hard-hitting, disdainful of institutional processes. Duterte harked back to Marcos’ strong-arm politics, and he fortified that association not only by allying his administration with the Marcos family and faction, but also greenlighting their most fervent wish at that time: the burial of the late dictator’s body in the hallowed Libingan ng mga Bayani.

That was, up to that point, the most direct slap at the memory of Edsa: Marcos, once upon a time driven to exile by the wrath of his own countrymen, now rehabilitated by presidential fiat and interred among the nation’s heroes.

The Marcos restoration project found friendly terrain during the Duterte administration, culminating in the juggernaut tandem of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte, which triumphed in the 2022 presidential elections and brought another Marcos to Malacañang.

Anniversary downgraded

Under the Marcos scion, the campaign to erase Edsa would take the form of diminishing the occasion, the anniversary downgraded to a “special working day.” The march to oblivion, it seemed, would continue, ensuring that new generations would know little of that moment when the Philippines’ four-day revolution was the darling of the world, eventually inspiring similar mass uprisings across the globe.

But in that void—wonder of wonders—the youth stepped in. Young Filipinos roused by the 2022 campaign to look more closely into their country’s history took it upon themselves to resurrect Edsa. Schools nationwide now lead the charge of pushing back against official amnesia by suspending classes on Feb. 25 and allowing students to participate in events commemorating the day.

Ironically, even the Duterte forces, which had been the most vehemently hostile to the memory of Edsa next to the Marcoses, would find it convenient to summon the tropes of People Power whenever they needed it. Pro-Duterte demonstrators appropriate the name for their marches, and in a recent rally, a diehard Duterte vlogger had his fist up in the air while singing “Bayan Ko,” the People Power anthem—mimicking the iconic imagery of defiance they so openly disdained not long ago.

Eternal vigilance

In 2017, then Davao City mayor Sara Duterte also slammed Edsa, saying, “I find it hard to understand why this bloodless revolution has become the standard definition of freedom for our country.” Seven years later, in 2024, as Vice President, she surprised the nation with a statement describing the 1986 revolution as a “momentous occasion,” and calling on Filipinos to “remember the lessons of Edsa—the power of unity, the strength of the Filipino spirit and the importance of standing up for what is right.” Her office deleted that statement afterward.

Duterte has declared her intention to run for president in 2028. If she prevails, efforts to expunge Edsa from history may well continue, even accelerate.

But just as well, the resistance will be there, from Filipinos still able to remember where they were when the dictatorship was ousted and freedom was regained, occasioning the country’s finest hour. And from young Filipinos, too, clear-eyed enough to acknowledge that the fight for a better country didn’t end on that stretch of highway, but must forge on, requiring eternal vigilance as the price of hard-won liberty.

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