President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not, after all, ignore the memory of the first People Power Revolution of February 1986. Speaking at the wreath-laying ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani [Heroes? Cemetery] on Sunday, on the eve of the anniversary of the outbreak of the popular rising, on Feb. 22, 1986, she urged the people ?not to relive? EDSA People Power I but instead learn from it.

?The world embraced EDSA I in 1986. The world tolerated EDSA II in 2001. The world will not forgive an EDSA III, but it will instead condemn the Philippines as a country whose political system is hopelessly unstable,? she said.

In choosing the date of launching the commemoration of EDSA I on Feb. 20 instead of on Feb. 22, the President deftly avoided being identified with the interpretation that EDSA I should be celebrated on the day the military revolt against Marcos broke out at Camp Aguinaldo, not on Feb. 25, when opposition leader Corazon Aquino took her oath as civilian president at Club Filipino, instead of at a military venue, Camp Crame. But the wreath-laying ceremony honored soldiers and the group that mutinied against Marcos rather than the civilian component of the revolution.

The first interpretation is favored by the military component of the revolt, and the second, by the civilian wing, whose representatives were inconspicuous at the wreath-laying. Aquino was not in sight. The stellar role at the cemetery was played by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Ferdinand Marcos? defense minister, who led the mutiny at Camp Aguinaldo together with then Vice Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos.

For 23 years, Enrile had snubbed the commemoration on Feb. 25, which underlined the interpretation of history that gives the main credit for the successful revolt to the civilian mass movements while devaluing the critical role of the soldiers. President Arroyo, who led the wreath-laying ceremony, gave Enrile a platform to expound his revisionist view of EDSA People Power.

Enrile?s prominence and Aquino?s absence underlined the deep-seated dialectical cleavage that has fractured the EDSA I People Power movement. The presence of Enrile highlighted the fact that he is a key political ally of President Arroyo. It was seen as a move to gain the loyalty of the military as an institutional backbone of her unstable and extremely unpopular regime. The absence of Aquino revealed the deep-seated grudge the President has nursed against Aquino, who in 2005 led the movement for the resignation of Ms Arroyo.

Enrile took the occasion to unburden himself of a long-festering grievance over the downgrading by the Aquino administration of his key role in EDSA I. In his speech, Enrile extolled the role of the soldiers in the EDSA revolution. He said: ?For the past 23 years since 1986, I have taken part in attending and offering a Holy Mass every 22nd day of February at the Libingan ng mga Bayani before the tomb of the late Col. Tirso Gador. It has always been a quiet and solemn tribute to the man and all the soldiers of the Reform Armed Forces Movement (RAM) who, together with him, played a key role in what is now known as the ?EDSA Revolution,? as the significance of that revolution, has year after year, been celebrated and observed officially every 25th of February. Indeed, that date deserves the nation?s remembrance. That day, after all, brought into a dramatic climax the collective and overwhelming clamor of the people for change and a return to genuine democracy.

?Yet, seemingly lost in the festivities and often in the yearly celebration are the patriotism and sacrifices of our soldiers who were willing to lay not only their careers, but their very own lives, on the line to pave the way for such a change to happen.

?For this reason, I have mostly foregone the opportunity to celebrate the EDSA Revolution publicly. I have long nursed a certain discomfiture at being paraded as an EDSA hero while those who bravely dared to fight the hard battles seemed to have been forgotten, their idealism ignored, and even their heroic contribution belittled as a catalyst of change.?

The President gave her own spin to EDSA I: ?One lesson to be learned from EDSA I is boldness, a quality Filipinos should show in the face of the global financial crisis. Our political stability today is one of the reasons why we have escaped thus far the worst effect of the global recession.?

As a method of leadership change, the President condemned EDSA People Power as a movement that leads to political instability. She said another popular uprising would only earn ?condemnation? from the rest of the world.

In warning against another EDSA uprising, she revealed her own anxieties over repeated coup attempts since 2005 and against mass movements in protest against her governance. While she benefited from EDSA II, she dreads an EDSA I type of revolution exploding in her face.

EDSA I was a one of a kind convergence of political and social events, triggered by a military revolt against the abuses and human rights atrocities of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. Political and social unrest feeds on public outrage over corruption scandals and distress stemming from economic crisis. They are looking for a vehicle to express these dormant and smoldering grievances. And People Power is one such mechanism for the expression of social and political protests.

It is wrong to claim that repeated People Power is a manifestation of a ?hopelessly unstable political system.? The world will not condemn another People Power upheaval. It will condemn post-EDSA I governments for having failed to take advantages of the opportunity opened by the revolution for social and political reforms. It will not blame People Power for the instability.