Revisionism deters national unity, critics say

Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, then AFP vice chief of staff, and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile rally their civilian supporters outside Camp Crame on Edsa shortly after they broke away from President Ferdinand Marcos. The four-day standoff that ousted the Marcoses became known as the People Power Revolution. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration’s move to drop the Edsa People Power Revolution anniversary as a public holiday reflected its “inordinate arrogance” in continuing to distort the country’s history.

Independent opposition solon and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman made the remark on Saturday as he joined critics of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Proclamation No. 368, excluding Edsa People Power in February from the list of the country’s official nonworking holidays in 2024.

“The inordinate arrogance of the second Marcos administration in failing to celebrate Feb. 25 as a regular public holiday is a continuing distortion of the verities about the evils and repression of the Marcos martial era,” said Lagman, whose brother Hermon disappeared during the martial era, which lasted from 1972 to 1980.

In a statement, he stressed that Feb. 25 “commemorates the Filipino people’s success in ousting the dictator,” referring to the president’s father, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who fled the country because of the People Power Revolution.

Campaign promise

Another martial law victim, former People Power Commission chair Lourdes “Bing” Pimentel, agreed that Proclamation No. 368 contradicted the President’s campaign promise of national unity.

Pimentel is the widow of former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr. and the mother of former Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III.

“Mr. President, you have advocated for the unification of our country. But that cannot be done if we ignore the lessons of the past and of the aspirations of our people that the 1986 People Power Revolution celebrates,” she said in a letter to the President.

She said the message of the Edsa People Power revolution reminds Filipinos to be “forever vigilant” in preserving the gains of Edsa, [which is] the freedom and democracy the country enjoys.

In San Luis town in Pampanga, Sen. Risa Hontiveros and former Quezon Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tañada III also criticized Proclamation No. 368 as an attempt at “historical distortion.”

“We should not surrender our memories, our history,” Hontiveros said at the unveiling of a monument to anti-Japanese guerillas Luis Taruc and other members of the Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon.

Tañada, who was also at the unveiling, said the proclamation was a step to “erase the ouster of the late strongman from power.”

Erin is the son of Wigberto, a former senator, and grandson of Lorenzo, another former senator. All three Tañadas fought the martial law regime.

“It should not be erased because it is historical fact,” he said. “I don’t understand why it should be removed.” Should the President insist on Proclamation No. 368, Bayan Muna executive vice president Carlos Zarate and Bayan secretary general Mong Palatino called on the public to “defy the president” and join the 2024 celebrations to assert its importance in Philippine history.

“We will counter this systematic assault on the history of people’s resistance,” Palatino said.