Castro: Removal of People Power anniv as holiday part of efforts to revise history?

MANILA, Philippines — ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro has questioned Malacañang’s decision not to include the Edsa People Power Revolution’s anniversary in the list of national holidays next year, asking if it was part of a concerted effort to revise the country’s history.

In a statement on Friday, Castro said they could not help but think that the move was in line with the revision of history to favor President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s father, former president Ferdinand Ferdinand Marcos Sr., since there were also changes to how history is being taught.

Marcos Sr., after clinging to power for over two decades marred by allegations of plunder and rights abuses, was unseated by a peaceful revolution that started along Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (Edsa).

“First, they changed the curriculum of students by shortening the class time for history lessons and made official the deletion of Philippine history in high school. Second, they tried to dissociate the name Marcos from the term dictatorship by again changing the curriculum,” Castro said.

“Third, the bare wall policy of the Department of Education even banned pictures of our heroes who fought for our freedom and even past presidents of the Philippines to be displayed on walls of classrooms. Lastly, this move not to declare Feb. 25 as a holiday shows that the Marcos administration does not value or even abhors People Power,” she added.

Earlier, Malacañang released Proclamation No. 368, which listed what days are considered holidays.  However, after the list was released, netizens began to notice that February 25, or the anniversary of the People Power Revolution was not included.

Castro expressed hope that Malacañang would reconsider this move because such a declaration would only polarize more people instead of ascribing to the administration’s catchphrase of unity.

“We hope that Malacanang will reconsider because this will create more polarization in our society instead of unity,” she noted.

This was not the first time, however, that Malacañang was accused of trying to dilute talks about the People Power Revolution.  For 2023, Marcos signed Proclamation No. 167, which declared February 24 as a special non-working holiday, in place of February 25.

The reasoning behind this was to maximize the long weekend to stimulate the economy by having more people spending money due to having more days off.

However, activist groups believe it was meant to dilute the significance of the event.

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