Senator Franchis “Chiz” Escudero. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ARNOLD ALMACEN
Senator Francis Escudero was a 15-year-old freshman student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City when the People Power Revolution broke out three decades ago.
“I was going to school…” Escudero said in a text message on Thursday when asked where he was exactly at the time people power was taking place.
His father, the late Sorsogon Representative Salvador “Sonny” Escudero III, was agriculture chief during the time of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
“In so far as my father’s concerned, it’s one thing and I learned this way back in 1986 after the EDSA revolution. He actually told me and I actually saw it happen that nothing is permanent in this world,” he said in an interview with INQUIRER.net in April 2013.
READ: Escudero: I’m no thief
“Whatever position you’re holding or handling right now, that will not last forever. If you say you’re president, if you say you’re senator, you’re a congressman, you’re a mayor, a governor, — that will not last forever. Better be sure that the people you meet on your way up, will be still smiling at you if you meet the same people on your way down,” the senator added.
Escudero said people should always learn from history to prevent whatever mistakes were committed in the past.
“Ang dapat na pag tingin natin sa kasaysayan ay hindi parang arithmetic o addition or subtraction lang, kung saan lahat ng positibo ima-minus mo lahat ng negatibo ng kasaysayan,” he said in a recent interview.
“Take the good with the bad. Hindi mo puwedeng pakinabangan ang magandang ginawa pero ayaw naman patungan ng responsibilidad iyon pangit o mali na nagawa o ginawa. Para sa akin, dapat ang kasaysayan laging kapulutan ng aral. Para hindi natin pilit na inuulit iyong mga pagkakamali ng nakaraan.”
The senator is now running against one of Marcos’ children and namesake, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., in the vice presidential race in May 2016.
Escudero and Marcos shared the top spot in the vice presidential survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations from February 5 to 7 among 1, 200 respondents.
READ: Marcos, Escudero share top spot
“So many events have unfolded since February 25, 1986. So many have analyzed and interpreted this memorable part of our contemporary history. History is both beautiful and bizarre, if not ugly,” Escudero said Wednesday.
“Let us try to correct the bizarre components, errors and mistakes committed along the way of our long difficult and complicated quest to build a better, more compassionate, and more inclusive society and nation for all Filipino people,” he added.
As the nation commemorates the 30th anniversary today, Thursday, Escudero and his presidential candidate Senator Grace Poe are scheduled to visit Abra and La Union provinces.