EDITORIAL — EDSA: The unfinished revolution

Today is the 40th anniversary of the event that made Filipinos known the world over; the peaceful overthrow of a conjugal dictatorship that had been ruling the country --and running it to the ground - for too long already.

Last February 25, 1986, an estimated two million people took to the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in Metro Manila following the call of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin to prevent bloodshed between two opposing military camps. That call eventually snowballed into the movement that toppled President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. and drove him and his family out of the country.

What made this entire thing a miracle was that all that was achieved without bloodshed. Prior to this, the only way to remove an entrenched political family, especially in third-world countries like the Philippines, was a bloody coup followed by prolonged internal conflict. But that day the Filipinos showed the world it could be done without anyone getting killed.

For many Filipinos it was their proudest moment. It even became the template for a bloodless revolution and has even been replicated by desperate masses in different parts of the world, with protesters achieving various degrees of success.

That revolution has been analyzed, dissected, and studied to death by students, political observers, historians, and even ordinary people throughout the years, even decades, with many saying that until now it hasn’t been finished yet.

Because that day many Filipinos sought not to end just the conjugal dictatorship; they also wanted to end the cycle of poverty, political dynasties, corruption, and administrative mismanagement.

And today, in the spirit of EDSA 40 years after that fateful day, people will again take to the streets. This time no longer to overthrow a dictatorship, but to protest against more or less the same things that existed way back then: the cycle of poverty, political dynasties, corruption, and administrative mismanagement

In some ways we can say that these are even more entrenched now than ever.

The dictator and his cronies may no longer be there, but many Filipinos are still trapped in the cycle that threatens to put the future of future generations of Filipinos in jeopardy.