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The 1986 People Power Revolution made its mark when millions of Filipinos gathered in EDSA to fight for freedom and free the nation from the Marcos dictatorship.
But former President Fidel V. Ramos — an EDSA hero — on Thursday said that fight for freedom 30 years ago is far from over.
"The EDSA Revolution of 1986 is still unfinished," Ramos, now 87, said in an interview after a conference marking the historic event.
"The younger people now must take up the mantle of responsibility," he added.
The former president was the acting chief-of-staff of the armed forces and director-general of the Philippine Constabulary and the Integrated National Police, when he joined then defense minister Juan Ponce Enrile and soldiers affiliated with the Reform the Armed Forces Movement who broke away from the chain of command and made a stand denouncing the fraudulent Feb. 7 snap presidential elections.
Ramos and Enrile would later be joined by members of the August Twenty One Movement led by the late Agapito "Butz" Aquino as they holed out at Camps Aguinaldo and Crame on EDSA. Tens of thousands of unarmed civilians would later join them and formed a buffer to prevent Marines loyal to President Ferdinand Marcos from attacking the rebels. The uprising at EDSA forced the Marcoses to flee to Guam then to Hawaii as opposition standard bearer Corazon Aquino took power.
Aquino retained Enrile as her defense minister while Ramos was promoted to 4-star general and appointed chief-of-staff of the armed forces. Enrile however, left the Cabinet a few months later and joined the opposition. Aquino meanwhile, "annointed" Ramos as her successor. Ramos went on to win the presidency in 1992.
"We are under different conditions in the 21st century. We have all kinds of social media...at the same time, we have all kinds of super typhoons, super diseases. Everything has transformed into something new. The young people understand this better," Ramos said.
Eyewitnesses and frontliners during the EDSA revolution gathered together in a conference titled "Overcoming Dictatorship: 30 Years of People Power" organized by Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), a political foundation, on Thursday to celebrate the revolution that ended Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship.
With the elections just around the corner, it is more important than ever to remember the EDSA Revolution.
For Ramos, the ultimate value of the bloodless revolution is the lessons it gave to Filipinos.
"Let others learn from it," he said d.
President Benigno Aquino III in his message echoed Ramos' words.
In his message read for him by Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, the President said EDSA is a "continuing revolution."
It is time for the younger generation to take up the fight of 1986, especially now that the country is facing another crossroads, the President said.
President Aquino reminded the youth that their decision matters, and reiterated the belief of his father, Benigno Aquino Jr., whose assassination triggered the revolution.
"I know full well that my countrymen...will continue to prove the belief that I, my parents, and so many have long held: The the Filipino is worth dying for, worth living for, and definitely worth fighting for." — APG, GMA News
