Feb. 25, 2025 came like an ordinary day. This year’s EDSA People Power Anniversary was the quietest with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. declaring Feb. 25 as a special working day. While the Palace clearly said that there is no intent to fade the memories of the EDSA revolt, commemorating the so-called EDSA Revolution is akin to opening old wounds that forever scarred the Marcos family, who was shamefully chased out by angry Filipinos after the patriarch’s downfall. It is therefore understandable for the namesake of the ousted dictator, his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., not to include Feb. 25 in the list of 20 or so national holidays for the year.
While no law makes Feb. 25 a compulsory holiday, Malacañang’s downgrade of the date did not sit well with the academic community, calling PBBM’s action a “distortion of history.” Over 50 educational institutions in the Philippines suspended classes on Feb. 25 to “keep the EDSA spirit alive.” Quoting EDSOR, a consortium of schools in the EDSA-Ortigas are, which includes Xavier School, Poveda, La Salle Greenhills and Immaculate Conception Academy, “The freedoms we enjoy today were hard-won, and we owe it to the next generation that we protect and safeguard the same.”
I welcome the move of the academic community not to diminish the significance of Feb. 25. It is a testament that our people have not forgotten the enduring values of freedom, peace and democracy. It is a powerful reminder to reinforce the importance of change and reboot.
Indeed, the experiences and lessons learned during those tumultuous years of the first Marcos administration must be kept in our collective memory, especially as the Philippines under the Marcos Jr. administration veers towards dictatorial rule. EDSA is not a one-day event but a culmination of decades-long fight for freedom, justice and democracy.
The presidency of Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. is replete with stories of arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, suppression of dissent and civil liberties. The so-called economic golden age, a defense of the tyrannical rule of the elder Marcos, is part of a highly successful “disinformation” propaganda by Marcos supporters. The truth of the matter is, the economy crashed with negative growth, -6.86 percent in 1985, the final full year of the Marcos Sr. administration. From the second most advanced country in Asia, next to Japan, during the administration of Diosdado Macapagal, the Philippines was dubbed as the sick man of Asia at the end of the Marcos dictatorship.
Marcos cronies amassed wealth and many had landed juicy government positions, while nearly half of the population – at 44.2 percent in 1985 – were impoverished. Sounds déjà vu? Yes. Business, according to the private sector, is better under PBBM. In 2023, Forbes reported that the 50 richest Filipinos increased their wealth by 11 percent to $80 billion. However, Marcos Jr.’s out-of-touch leadership made poverty the highest in 21 years and hunger is the worst since the COVID-19 lockdown. No amount of optics can mask the bangungot presidency our people have to endure.
History is repeating itself with the distrust of government institutions in the Marcos Sr. administration reaching all-time high in the Marcos Jr. administration. The integrity of the 2025 National Budget, which has been referred to as the most corrupt budget in Philippine history, institutionalized corruption. Who did the mekus-mekus in filling in the blanks and on whose authority? As of this writing, there is no answer, no explanation and no apology.
Today we undeniably have the worst President and the worst Congress. Bagong Pilipinas, indeed. The closure of media establishments and the imprisonment of journalists during martial law are now unfolding before our eyes with the creeping normalization of oppression, such as the shutdown of SMNI and the silencing of Duterte-linked vloggers through the conduct of a joint inquiry of the House of Representatives.
I reiterate the stance of the Noisy 37: criticism is not a crime. Opinion is not fake news. Dissent is not disinformation. The most important lesson EDSA has taught us, and a lesson that we must remember, is what we are capable of. It is about the power of the people who dare to stand up and choose courage and resistance over convenience and silence.
EDSA reminds us genuine change requires putting real action and not just about dreaming of a better future for our countrymen. Real action means Filipinos rising to the occasion, reclaiming this great nation of ours from the plunderers in the government, and taking responsibility to shape our country’s future.
After all, people power is a victory of the people against tyrants and criminals in the government and we have demonstrated that through strength and unity we can change the course of history.
To those who claim EDSA is a failure, this I have to say: history can never be erased. People Power is real. It is alive. Let us not be mistaken that people are simply passively watching from the sidelines. We have seen the mammoth crowd last Jan. 13, and we fully know that history can repeat itself.
Let us therefore channel the spirit of EDSA and guard against suppression and oppression, protect freedom and democracy and demand a good government that we all deserve.