What would have happened if Edsa didn’t happen?

National Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and General Fidel V. Ramos together with anti-government supporters celebrate at EDSA after President Ferdinand Marcos and family leave the palace then fled to Hawaii during the 1986 People Power Revolution. PDI PHOTO

Chidlhood nights spent at my mother’s hometown were never complete without the sound of the karaoke drifting throughout the house, and “Tie A Yellow Ribbon” was surely a favorite. My father always had the habit of teaching me little things, so he taught me the comeback song of an exiled politician and how his assassination sparked the People Power Revolution. I learned from my elementary teachers all about the restoration of peace and order and the bringing back of democracy.

Even then, I have always pondered upon this: what could have happened if Edsa hadn’t?

My father narrated how my grandmother initiated their whole family into cooking ginataan to bring to the people rallying and the soldiers who stood guard there. What could have happened if my dad and his family hadn’t cooked and helped the people there? What if Cardinal Sin hadn’t called the people through Radio Veritas to rally? What if nuns hadn’t given out rosaries and flowers as a symbol of unity and peace? What if people didn’t take the initiative to go to the Edsa Shrine because they didn’t think they could make a change?

My father told me that without People Power, the country would have lived on chained in colonization to a Filipino dictator. The press would have been forever silent, desaparecidos would have been a part of everyday vocabulary, and people would have been now living in fear.

I am a millennial, but I can keep the Edsa flame alive by remembering it and never letting it fade. As a campus journalist and aspiring writer, a Facebook status with the use of a few well-thought out words can inspire other millennials to never forget the day when democracy was restored.

I yearn for the day when the Edsa will no longer be just another holiday, but a day when millennials will actually remember the dark days of the past, not to wallow in it but to always protect and fight for the country’s freedom. I protect the Edsa flame by never forgetting, and always remembering where we would now be without it.

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