MANILA PH—EDSA I, being painted as a bloodless picture of a revolution, is perhaps one of the dubious claims in Philippine political history.
The EDSA Uprising is never a bloodless revolution.
While it is true that no bloodshed was witnessed in the square where the Edsa Shrine is now erected, history cannot deny its eyes to the death of thirteen individuals.
Along the stretch of Bohol Avenue, gunshots were fired between the Marcos loyalist soldiers and the AFP reform movement. Professor Xiao Chua of the De La Salle University highlights in his authorship, that the former armed group was tasked to maintain the acquisition of the Channel 4 TV station at the hands of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos on the 24th of February, 1986.
More bloodied killings maneuvered the historical scene. Chua further reveals that an armed altercation between the loyalist army and the reformist faction transpired in order to acquire Channel 9 TV station, located at Panay Avenue, Quezon City. The exchange of bullets had slain a certain Romeo Sese.
Violent dispersals of activists in Plaza Avelino were killed in cold blood by the Marcos loyalist groups and soldiers, killing more or less 20 civilians on the 24th and the 25th of February 25, 1986.
Three weeks before the 25th of February 1986, former Governor Evelio Javier oversaw the canvassing of votes for the 1986 Snap Elections in the province of Antique. While the honorable governor sought an honest and clean election amid the worsening political climate, two armed men in fatigue open-fired at him. Javier was laid dead by 24 armalite bullet shots.
Thus, to claim that the heart of the EDSA I People Power is its ‘bloodless’ face is to downplay the lives that were left unsung.
For all the lives that were lost in time at the hands of the dictator, cancelling classes and remembering their spirit should not just be a moral imperative and a mere token of reliving the masses’ collective effervescence. But also, the Filipinos should further mobilize amid the dwindling political situation, and fulfill the promise of a collective struggle for a nation that never forgives, and never forgets.
EDITORIAL NOTE: The editors speak for the publication as a whole, represented by the Editorial Board on the crucial matters and prevailing national issues.