After 25 Years: Power to the People

I was about 9 years old then when such historic event in our nation's history happened. It was an event when a dictator who ruled our land for 21 years was evicted from his throne. An event when his power was given back to the people. At such time, I wasn't aware of the impact of such an event. I can remember fondly, I was quite busy playing with my Yoyo learning some new tricks while the maid was glued on the television set. My parents were not home for they too marched to Edsa. When nightime came, i heard the frogs making noises. It rained that afternoon. I went out to seek and listen to them, maybe, they too, wanted change. I stayed up late waiting for my mom and dad. I slept and woke up with my parents still not home.

25 years later, i started thinking, what has changed since then and now? i tried the best that i could but i guess im still too young at that time to make such comparison (based on my own personal experience of course). i am thus confined to make my reflection on where we are now 25 years later.

When you watch the television or listen to the radio, people have different opinions as to where we are now. It depends also from where opinions are coming from. Clearly, after 25 years, people are still divided as to the significance of Edsa. The question is, how do we really measure the success or failure of Edsa? In my opinion, to answer this, we need to go back to what was our battlecry when we marched to EDSA 25 years ago. Let me focus on three main expectations.

End corruption. Has it really ended after Martial Law? I believe on this note, we can all sing in unison that No, corruption has not ended and continues to weaken our society. As a matter of fact, it has only "decentralized" corruption to almost all government agenies. We are all of course aware of the current corruption scandal that has rocked our armed forces which even ended Angelo Reyes life.

End poverty. Let me refer to a study to be able to reflect on this. Based on the Arangkada Philippines 2010: A Business Perspective, a study conducted by Joint Foreign Chambers, "The number of poor declines from 1985 to 1997 from 22.2 million and then increases to 23.6 in 2006, an increase of 1.4 million over the 1985 level." Based on the result, people who were poor then, are still poor even to this day.

End tyranny. This was I guess the only obvious achievement of EDSA. But tyranny is not only about allowing a leader to rule us with clenched fist but also allowing a corrupt leader ransack the coffer of our country which I believe still exists in our country.

In my own assessment, there were alot of expectations in EDSA that were not realized. But what was EDSA really all about??? EDSA on its own was not the cure to our ailing society. EDSA is all about giving back the power to people. That by itself is the biggest achievement we gained from EDSA. And where we failed miserably is harnessing that power to drive change. The power to end corruption. The power to end poverty. The power to be united as one to move this country forward. For 24 years, year on year, this day continues to reminds us, that we have that power, and yet we continue to ignore its call. When will we ever heed such call?

Edsa wasn't a failure. We failed EDSA.