A famous photo from the Edsa People Power Revolution 31 years ago: Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile (center) and Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan (right) cross Edsa from Camp Aguinaldo to Camp Crame. Today, both are incumbent senators. —AP
President Rodrigo Duterte skipped the ceremony commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on Friday.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte will instead be in Davao City to attend the relaunch of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.
The President ’s schedule released by Malacanang also showed that Duterte would be at the turnover of a drug rehabilitation facility in Davao del Norte.
Instead of Duterte, Executive Seretary Salvador Medialdea was the guest of honor and speaker during the annual event at the military headquarters in Quezon City.
Former President Fidel Ramos and former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, the two officials whose breakaway from the Marcos regime on Feb. 22, 1986 prompted the people power revolt, were present at the ceremony. Other prominent personalities seen at the event included former Vice President Jejomar Binay, Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, former Rep. Jose Cojuangco, and former Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan.
Malacanang earlier said the Duterte administration would hold “a simple and quiet” commemoration of the Edsa revolution, explaining that “it’s time to move on from just celebrating the past.”
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But it was quick to add that the administration was not giving less significance to the historic peaceful uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.
President Duterte attracted the first public protests of his term after he favored the burial of the late president Marcos at the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.
In an interview during the campaign season in 2016, when he was still Davao City mayor, Duterte said democracy was restored after the 1986 Edsa uprising but “the economic and social structure remains a lopsided equation in favor of the few and the many are poor and neglected.”
“We restored democracy but it is only for the elite,” he said. JN
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