This coming Monday is EDSA’s 16th anniversary

There was a time when the most important historical event that happened on the 25th of February was US President Theodore Roosevelt’s cabling Admiral John Dewey to remain in Hong Kong so that if war should break out with Spain, he could immediately proceed to the Philippines to engage the Spanish armada in battle. Sixteen eyars ago, that event was superseded by a greater event - the First EDSA Revolution, which we are commemorating this coming Monday. The first event was a mere prelude to the change from one colonial power to another. The Marcos dictatorship taught us that a nation can become the colony of its own people. EDSA was definitely one of the Filipino people’s finest hours.

Time Magazine couldn’t quite figure it out. It said: "Filipinos armed to the teeth with rosaries and flowers, massing in front of tanks, and the tanks stopping, and some of the soldiers who were the enemy embracing the people and their flowers. Call that revolution? Where were the heads stuck on pipes? Where were the torches for the estates of the rich? The rich were in the streets with the poor, a whole country up in flowers . . . There before your eyes a thought became a decision, became a deed, with no other impetus than that a people realized they had a claim on their own souls."

You had to be there to believe it. What Time Magazine failed to fathom was that it was a revolution in the traditional fiesta spirit. The fiesta is our highest community expression and that is what EDSA was - a fiesta revolution. People who came in groups did not identify themselves as members of any political party. Instead, they displayed the image of the patron saint of their respective parishes.

It was Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile who started it all. After the mock presidential elections between Marcos and Cory Aquino, Marcos retired Gen. Fabian Ver. But Ver insisted he was still in command. He would not allow his successor Lieutenant General Fidel Ramos to take over his post. So Ramos joined Enrile. And so on February 22, they announced their stance against Marcos in Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo, two military bases that happened to be in EDSA. That is why EDSA was the place where the people congregated. On Feb. 23, Cardinal Sin asked the people not to abandon Enrile and Ramos. Another individual who contributed greatly to the success of the EDSA Revolution was June Kiethley who was on the air for 17 hours every single day of the Revolution.

Next Monday is a holiday commemorating that great event. Sad to say, there is absolutely no enthusiasm on the people’s part. This has been true since the very first anniversary of the People’s Power Revolution. The reason is that the revolution failed to meet the people’s expectations. To date, no Marcos supporter has been jailed and the Marcos ill-gotten wealth has yet to be recovered. The EDSA anniversary celebrations have all had a Viernes Santo atmosphere. The people were mourning the death, not the birth of people’s power.