Marcos admin slammed for excluding Edsa anniv in 2024 holidays

SAN LUIS, Pampanga — Sen. Risa Hontiveros and former Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III have criticized President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for excluding the Edsa People Power Revolution in the regular holidays and special days in 2024 in Proclamation No. 368.

Hontiveros called the removal of the Feb. 25 event — the ouster and exile of the elder Marcos in 1986 to Hawaii— part of what she called “historical distortion” being done alongside the “rehabilitation of the memory of the dictator.”

In Filipino, she said President Marcos would “forever bury into oblivion the courageous battle of Filipinos to restore democracy, their struggle against human rights violations and corruption, which are among the most serious crimes under the martial law dictatorship.”

“Hindi po natin dapat isuko ang ating alaala, ang ating kasaysayan (We should not surrender our memories, our history),” she added when interviewed shortly before the unveiling here on Saturday of a monument in memory of Luis Taruc and other freedom fighters in the anti-Japanese peasant army HUKBALAHAP.

“The anniversary of Edsa People Power Revolution should not be removed from among the significant days of Filipinos. Whatever the day is, regardless of it being a Sunday, it is a very important date in our history. We should continue retelling it,” Hontiveros said.

Tañada said he was surprised by Proclamation No. 368.

The removal of the Feb. 25 event was a step to “erase the ouster of the late strongman from power.”

“It should not be erased because it is historical fact,” he said. He also pointed out that the non-extension of Feb. 25 to the next day went against holiday economics.

“I don’t understand why it would be removed,” he said, adding that the Edsa People Power Revolution was the start of restoring democracy in the country.

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