Build Edsa memorial now, FVR urges Duterte

Former President Fidel V. Ramos INQUIRER.net photo

Former President Fidel V. Ramos on Thursday urged President Duterte to finish by next year the long-delayed Edsa memorial center as a lasting tribute to democracy and the 1986 People Power Revolution that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

Ramos said the Duterte administration should be given “a little leeway” for the low-key celebration of the Edsa revolt this year “as long as they promise to do a better job next year by already having this long-delayed Edsa learning center or memorial center that will be a model for the whole world.”

“As long as this can be done during President Duterte’s term, he will get credit for it and the people will love him for it,” said Ramos, one of the key figures of the revolt 31 years ago.

Ramos said the Edsa learning center would be an interactive online museum. It had been planned during his term but the project did not push through due to a lack of funds.

“All information we have in the Philippines about Edsa and democratic change must be available to all other countries in the world,” Ramos said.

Ramos said the Edsa People Power Commission headed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea had not issued any guidelines or traffic plan for the commemoration “because of lack of emergency powers.”

“And so the celebration, which seems small, was moved inside Camp Aguinaldo so as not to worsen the traffic,” Ramos told reporters during the launch of his latest book, “XYZ Files,” in Makati City.