EDSA. An acronym that has become synonymous to traffic and subjugated to so much hate nowadays, a stretch of concrete that has been the bane of every motorist’s existence.Thirty years ago, EDSA wasn’t packed end to end with cars honking their horns aggressively. Three decades ago, the highway named after historian Epifanio De Los Santos was packed with people who were clamoring for change, fighting for their rights and freedom, standing up against tyranny and dictatorship to regain democracy. That was EDSA. Or what it used to be.
This Sunday (February 28), Bernadette Sembrano tries to relive and remember one of the most important pieces of history of the Filipino people and understand and discover the true significance of the EDSA Revolution in a documentary titled “EDSA 30 Taon” that will air on ABS-CBN’s Sunday’s Best.
Join Sembrano as she travels to Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo, and the EDSA Shrine area, right where the action took place. Through interviews with the likes of former president Fidel V. Ramos and ABS-CBN News correspondent Henry Omaga Diaz, who were in the middle of the revolution, she hopes to answer these questions: Is EDSA still relevant to this country? Is the spirit still there? Or is it somewhere, out there, limited to being just an idea, a thought, a school lesson?
“For me, the spirit of EDSA continues to live on,” said Ramos, reminiscing about one of the country’s biggest fights, about what happened in those four days, the events that led to it, and why it remains to be relevant, adding, “We should continue spreading the word what EDSA was able to achieve: a revolution where blood was not shed, peaceful, but attained its goal of overthrowing an oppressive power, and continue remembering it.”
Agreeing with the former president, ABS-CBN News correspondent Henry Omaga Diaz believes that it was a turning point in the history of the Philippines, one that should be remembered and never forgotten. “The curtailing of journalistic freedom was something I felt on a personal level. When the People Power movement was starting, when (current senator) Enrile bailed on Marcos, I was there. In my mind, I will cover this to very end, magkagulo man o hindi,” he said as he remember what it was like covering the four-day revolution.
Sisters Maribel Carceller, Digna Dacanay and Edy Talastas, said what pushed the revolution was not just prayer, but the heart of the people, the desire to see evil in the form of the Marcos regime to go away. “It never occurred to us that we were fighting their guns with our rosaries, especially when we followed what the late Cardinal Sin told us then, to welcome the breakaway group of then Secretary Enrile, to aid them. Back then it was really chaotic. We really did not know there would be a People Power movement, we just went to EDSA to join them, and help however we can,” they said.
As not many of the youth know or appreciate what EDSA is, Sembrano’s historical-educational documentary with a modern vibe will show why it is important to understand its relevance to Filipinos, including the ones who are too young to know what it really means, what triggered it, and why it had to happen.
Through Sembrano’s eyes, viewers will see how the events from February 21-25 in EDSA were indeed momentous and worth remembering, sharing, and celebrating on this special ABS-CBN News documentary. Catch “EDSA 30 Taon,” this Sunday (February 28) on ABS-CBN’s Sunday’s Best after “Gandang Gabi Vice.”
