EDITORIAL – A lesson from EDSA

It has been 34 years to the day since the EDSA Revolution, also called the People Power Revolt, the movement credited for removing the conjugal dictatorship of then president Ferdinand Marcos and first lady Imelda Marcos.

What started as a simple call by the Church to prevent government and rebel forces from fighting each other later morphed into a mass movement that soon led to the call to oust one of the most-reviled strongmen in Asia. And, as we all know, the event ended in the Marcoses being “exiled” in Hawaii.

The revolt did not only change the country, it also captivated the rest of the world. For a long time to come, the EDSA Revolt would top the top 10 list of what Filipinos are known for globally. For many, especially those who took part in it, it is the greatest shining moment of the Filipino.

It may not hold much significance to the younger ones and even some of the older ones today as it happened over three decades ago, but there are still some things you can learn from this event. And one of the greatest of these is that we Filipinos we are capable of achieving seemingly impossible changes if we want them bad enough.

Marcos was well-entrenched, he had armed forces at his beck and call, but somehow, people armed with nothing but flowers, rosary beads, and just the grim determination to demand change and do everything they could to get that change after years of oppression managed to topple his administration and send him running.

There are many things that should be changed right now. Practices that make the poor even poorer and the rich even richer, laws that perpetuate political families in power, even foreign “partnerships” that are actually detrimental to our country.

The Filipino is capable of demanding for these changes and moving to achieve them. Not necessarily in the way the EDSA Revolt was done, with people marching in the streets, but legal and tangible means nonetheless.

It doesn’t even have to be those big political, economic, or social changes. Among ourselves, we can even change those habits that make our environment more dirty or hazardous, or vices that make us poorer, or sicker, or a burden to society.

If we Filipinos want so badly and desperate to change something, then this can be done.