Affirm EDSA

By Artchil B. Fernandez

Downgrading the EDSA People Power Revolt, it seems, has become the unofficial and silent policy of the present administration.

Proclamation No. 727, issued by Malacañang on Oct. 31, 2024, included the EDSA People Power Revolution anniversary on Feb. 25 among the holidays for 2025 but downgraded it to a special working holiday.

Controversy erupted last year when the current administration removed the EDSA anniversary from the country’s list of holidays. The public outcry that followed may have prompted the administration to restore it this year—but with a downgrade to a working holiday.

Declaring the EDSA People Power Revolution anniversary a special working holiday could be the compromise the administration has arrived at. It cannot highlight the event as a special non-working holiday, but removing it from the list of holidays altogether could trigger a perilous backlash, which the administration is trying to avoid given the volatility of the current political situation due to the intensifying clash between Team Tigre and Team Agila.

The caution the present administration has taken in handling a delicate and sensitive matter such as the anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolt is a testament to the precarious position it finds itself in.

Bongbong Marcos (BBM) is walking a tightrope amid the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte. The anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolt could be another flashpoint in the pivotal clash between House Marcos and House Duterte. House Marcos cannot afford to upset and provoke the EDSA forces—for now.

EDSA forces are generally antagonistic toward the Dutertes. During the administration of the Duterte patriarch, EDSA forces were subjected to severe ridicule, marginalization, vilification, and persecution—to the delight of the Marcoses, who were itching for a political comeback. A diminished EDSA force was a crucial political ingredient the Marcoses needed to return to power. The Dutertes did a terrific demolition job of the EDSA forces, paving the way for the political resurrection of the Marcoses.

The irreparable fracture and implosion of the UniTeam—Duterte-Marcos alliance—have placed the once-erstwhile allies, as well as the EDSA forces, in a complicated and knotty situation.

Before the rupture of UniTeam, BBM could afford to take bold steps, such as removing the EDSA People Power Revolt anniversary from the list of public holidays. Had the UniTeam remained united, BBM would have continued what he did last year. But in the context of the intensifying conflict between his family and the Dutertes, BBM cannot afford to provoke a significant portion of the population.

BBM, however, cannot honor the EDSA People Power Revolt. The event marked the end of his father’s 20-year repressive and corrupt rule. He and his family were driven from power on Feb. 25, 1986, through a people power uprising.

Certainly, BBM has no appetite to remind Filipinos of the dark years of his family’s rule, especially the horrendous human rights violations and rampant graft and corruption.

After years of maligning the EDSA People Power Revolt, the Dutertes have suddenly found its significance.

Vloggers and TikTokers identified with the Dutertes are excavating the legacy of EDSA, using it as ammunition against the Marcoses. They are digging into the past misdeeds of the Marcoses, exploiting the events and incidents that led to the EDSA People Power Revolt to paint the Marcoses as the villains who ruined the nation.

Declaring the EDSA People Power Revolution anniversary a holiday would provide the forces of EDSA and the Dutertes a platform to remind the nation of the wickedness of the dictatorship of Marcos Sr.

This, BBM cannot swallow.

But removing the EDSA revolt anniversary from the country’s list of holidays this year would not only vex but could also galvanize the EDSA forces against the present administration and push them closer to the Dutertes.

BBM’s Solomonic solution is a working holiday.

Notwithstanding the Dutertes, the forces of EDSA must reject the downgrade of the People Power Revolt.

This is a step toward erasing the legacy of EDSA from the collective memory of the nation. The downgrade is still part of the Marcoses’ concerted effort to rewrite and distort history. Expunging the significance of EDSA is the only way for the Marcoses to cover up their past transgressions against the Filipino people and escape the judgment of history. The Marcoses must not be allowed to conceal their dark past.

The forces of EDSA must also not permit the Dutertes to hijack the legacy of the EDSA revolt and its significance for their own selfish ends.

The Dutertes’ rediscovery of the values EDSA stood for is fake and phony.

They disparaged EDSA before to serve the Marcoses.

Now that they have been double-crossed by the Marcoses, the Dutertes are reclaiming the gems of EDSA for their war against their former allies.

Filipinos must affirm EDSA by keeping its legacy alive, despite the Marcoses’ attempt to downgrade it and the Dutertes’ bid to usurp it.

One pushback is the action taken by prominent private schools to declare Feb. 25 a non-working holiday in defiance of the administration’s declaration. These schools vowed to resist efforts to devalue and diminish EDSA’s legacy.

Catholic schools along EDSA-Ortigas swore to “keep the spirit of EDSA alive despite active efforts to undermine it.”

The observance of a public ritual such as a holiday is a collective action of the people.

No state machination can prevent Filipinos from observing the significance of a historic event such as the EDSA People Power Revolt if they choose to.

Preserving the legacy of EDSA and keeping its spirit alive is not dependent on a government declaration.

The people are the ultimate arbiters of whether an event is worth celebrating or not.

In the end, the legacy of EDSA resides in the hearts and minds of the Filipino people—not in an edict of the sitting administration or in the scheming of the Dutertes.