IT HAS been three decades since the historic 1986 People Power Revolution, but for former president and Edsa personality Fidel V. Ramos, its legacy as an “unequaled model” to the world of a peaceful uprising for democracy still remains up to this day.
“The Edsa revolution, up to now, is the unequaled model of common people collectively getting together to reject an oppressive regime and succeed in doing so, non-violently,” Ramos told INQUIRER.net.
Citing the plight of refugees and the war in the Middle East, Ramos said the world today, contrary to the bloodless 1986 revolution, was “all bloody.”
Ramos, then head of the Philippine Constabulary and vice chief of staff to Ferdinand Marcos, became known for breaking away from the dictatorship and pledging loyalty to democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino.
Ramos has also a message to the younger generation of Filipinos who did not experience the oppression during the martial rule, especially to those who are feeling “nostalgic in a positive way” toward the Marcoses.
“They should visit the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City, where the names of the martial law victims are,” he said, when asked about the popularity of the dictator’s son and namesake in preference surveys.
Marcos Jr., who had repeatedly refused to apologize for the crimes of atrocities and human rights violations committed during the reign of his father, is running for vice president in the upcoming national elections in May.
Ramos said the government and elder people who witnessed martial law should help educate the youth or the so-called millennial generation on the struggle for freedom and the price that came with it.
“It is the responsibility of the parents to impart to the children if they are still very young,” Ramos said.
“This government is trying its best but it’s not good enough,” he added, reiterating the need to establish a center that would lay down the “context of the happenings in 1986.”
Highlighting a “balance mix between discipline and democracy,” Ramos also urged the youth to play their part in nation-building by “sharing, caring, and daring for the Philippines,” and by taking a “concerted action to make a difference,” especially less than three months before the May polls.
“I would hope that whoever would be elected, together as a team, will succeed better as our top officials, better than successors, better than me,” Ramos said.
“To wrap it up, no one wants World War III. Not even that crazy guy from North Korea,” he added in jest.
Ramos was one of the personalities featured in the documentary “People Power: 30 Years On,” which will air on Discovery Channel on Feb. 25, 9 p.m.