President Aquino yesterday said the commemoration of the People Power revolution is no longer just about Edsa.
“Narito po ako ngayon dahil higit pa sa pagbaklas ng diktadurya ang diwa ng petsang ito. Lagpas pa sa pagtitipon sa isang kalsada ang Edsa,” Aquino said in a televised speech.
(I am here because today is more than just our triumph over the dictatorship. Edsa is beyond the gathering of people on a road.)
The President said “Edsa” is taking on a new meaning.
“Ang Edsa ay pagdiriwang ng kakayahan ng Pilipinong bumangon mula sa anumang pagsubok at daigin ang anumang madilim na kabanata ng ating kasaysayan,” he said.
(Edsa is a celebration of the Filipino’s ability to rise above challenges and dark days of our history.)
The President was in Cebu and Leyte yesterday to check on the rehabilitation efforts and the situation of supertyphoon Yolanda survivors. Earlier in Cebu, the President led the rites marking the anniversary of the
People Power revolution, the first time in 28 years that the event is held outside Metro Manila where Edsa or Epifanio delos Santos Avenue is located.
On the 28th anniversary of the Edsa uprising, Malacañang chose to celebrate it in Cebu where, according to the President, the struggle to restore democracy began its “first chapter.”
In his speech during t
Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III leads the celebration of 28th Edsa People Power Revolution at the Cebu provincial capitol in Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)
he ceremony at the Cebu Provincial Capitol grounds, the President preached the gospel of “love for others”
The President said this expression of selfless giving—shown when about a million Filipinos massed on Edsa in 1986 until President Ferdinand Marcos stepped down—was evident in efforts to assist natural calamity victims more than two decades later.
“What drove us in Edsa was the same one that drives us to help one another each time there’s a calamity, not because we want to take advantage of others or to get something in return,” he said in Filipino.
“To so many Filipinos, the strongest driving force is the love for others, love for country, love for God,” he added.
Touring disaster-hit areas as part of this year’s commemoration of the Edsa uprising, Mr. Aquino said: “The Filipino is capable of loving, not just his kin, not just his friend, but even strangers.”
“He can sacrifice (for others) like what was shown by those who helped in repacking millions of food packs for (calamity) victims,” he said, citing relief efforts for those affected by typhoons Yolanda and Pablo, the Bohol earthquake and the Zamboanga siege.
Mr. Aquino rejected a suggestion that his administration was “revising history” by holding the Edsa anniversary rites outside of Metro Manila.
“Those in Edsa were not the only ones who joined the revolt, right? There are those in Cebu, Davao and so many other places. It’s about time to recognize other’s contributions after 28 years,” he later told reporters.
Edsa People Power, he said, involved the struggle of Filipinos all over the country, “not just (those) in Metro Manila.”
FIRST CHAPTER
In his speech, Mr. Aquino said Cebu could be credited with representing the “first chapter” in the struggle to restore democracy. He recalled it was in Cebu where his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino, called for civil disobedience against the Marcos dictatorship.
“If we could say that the last chapter in the struggle for democracy happened on Edsa, perhaps we could say that the first chapter happened in Cebu,” he said.
“I was at ease then because my mother was in Cebu. She was in good hands,” he said. “’Those who wanted to harm her would not succeed because she was in the company of ardent supporters.”
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