When Filipinos trooped to EDSA in 1986, they had with them nothing but hope. To be sure, they were angry as they chanted, “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na.”

But inscribed too in that very chant was hope. The promise of change inspired in them a rock-solid affinity with one another that not even the military might of Ferdinand Marcos could break. 

For ordinary Filipinos, however, EDSA today is no longer the site of a revolution that inspired peaceful protests around the world. 

It has instead become the representation of everything that is wrong with our society: the corruption of law enforcement, the privilege of the private sector, and the suffering of the working class. Even the Virgin Mary — icon of the revolution — has been dwarfed by malls, shrines of consumption that offer brief reprieve in a city where people wake up in the morning only to make ends meet.

In effect, EDSA — both the place and the event — does not only symbolize maldevelopment. It is maldevelopment. 

35 years since People Power, does anyone even care?

Disappointment

Writing for the 25^th anniversary of People Power, Miles Santiago’s words in 2011 remain true even today:

“Noong EDSA namigay ako ng boiled eggs sa harap ng Channel 4, sa area ng Channel 2 ngayon. Maulan noon pero madaming madre at tao…. May dala rin kaming mga dahon ng saging panangga sa ulan; pinamigay namin. Sharing ang naramdaman ko at kaba dahil that morning sumugod ang mga marines sakay ng tangke. Akala ko noon giginhawa na ang mga Pinoy. Pero hindi pala. Nagpalit lang ng mga pasaway sa gobyerno.”

This sentiment is not just anecdotal. Majority of Filipinos would resonate with her conclusion.

In 2005, Pulse Asia administered a national survey asking Filipinos whether they benefited from any of the People Power protests in history (one in 1986, and two in 2001). 

The response on the first People Power is instructive. Only 36% of Filipinos thought that it did them any favors. And when the statistic is disaggregated according to class, the results are far more staggering:

55% of classes A, B, and C affirmed that they benefited from People Power 1. But only 35% and 32% of classes D and E, respectively, agreed. 

Evidently the survey needs to be updated. And yet it is very telling that in 2005 — just two decades after the 1986 revolution — only upper and middle class Filipinos considered the event to have benefited them.

What about the youth?

Our country has had 6 presidents since that fateful day in 1986. 

While we cannot deny the progress our society has achieved since, we cannot deny too the endurance of social ills. From everyday forms of aggression in the bureaucracy to the political interests protected by the elite, ordinary Filipinos are at the mercy of our leaders. 

None of the Filipinos who evicted Marcos and his family from Malacañang ever thought that this was going to be the case. One is again reminded of Miles Santiago’s words above.

And so 35 years since People Power, one wonders if hope really springs eternal. 

Indeed, this is a reality facing young adults and the succeeding generations today. Post-Marcos all of them, they experienced neither Martial Law nor the events that led to the removal of the dictator. 

The work of my colleague, sociologist Gretchen Abuso at Xavier University, is a wake-up call. Based on her interviews with college students around the country, she argues that the inadequate education dedicated to Martial Law and its human rights abuses accounts for the pervasiveness of revisionist notions about that era. 

At best, one of her informants describes the period as “something disputed whether it was good or bad.” Although some students are aware of its human rights abuses, others assert that “if you cross the line, the government will really counteract. And then, here comes the media that [hypes] everything so Martial Law is immediately portrayed as human rights violations.”

We have in effect a perfect storm. 

The disillusionment among those who went through Martial Law and the inadequate education among those who came after it have led to the public ambivalence towards People Power.

To celebrate or not to celebrate?

It has been 35 years. But can we still celebrate it?

Perhaps the answer lies in the question itself: We cannot celebrate People Power. It is a moment whose fading honor must be relived, reenacted, and reasserted. 

This is the only way to temper the disillusionment of the public and inspire steadfastness among the youth.

There is, in other words, no point in celebrating that which has failed many Filipinos. But there is wisdom in remembering what earlier generations of Filipinos were angry about and what they hoped for.

Today, those aspirations remain the same. We all want a just society where the weakest among us could have a chance at a better life. 

If we talked about People Power in this manner, we’d realize that there’s no need to feel that it was a failure. Nor is there a need to be mesmerized by the lies peddled by the Marcoses. – Rappler.com

Jayeel Cornelio, PhD is Associate Professor and the Director of the Development Studies Program at the Ateneo de Manila University. A sociologist, he is the editor of Rethinking Filipino Millennials: Alternative Perspectives on a Misunderstood Generation (2020). Follow him on Twitter @jayeel_cornelio.