Edsa: a story worth retelling

It’s a school holiday on Wednesday, Feb. 25, yet how many of our students and especially their teachers know and appreciate what this day in recent history really means?

Yes, I know what the cynics will say. What is there to celebrate about Edsa? What has it done to our country? Haven’t our own Edsa heroes fallen from the pedestal? Has People Power lost its gravitas?

I cannot ignore the significance of the day, and am grateful for the freedom regained after being muffled by martial law for years. Wasn’t it the symbol of the woman in yellow and all that she stood for that kept us determined and unwavering in winning this battle? Even if critics were to minimize Cory Aquino’s role, let us just consider who and what led us through this overthrow of the dictatorship. Certainly not the empty rhetoric of the usual suspects? Let it not be said she did it alone, as she never claimed that, because there was the dynamic Cardinal Jaime Sin and the clergy, the military participation of then Gen. Fidel V. Ramos and then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, and the vigilant citizenry that showed true People Power. Let us remember what a long struggle it was, not a mere weeklong caper on a national highway.

This is why 29 years later, the Edsa story needs to be told and retold especially to the youth. Fortunately, the Edsa People Power Commission has in recent years initiated the publication of two children’s books with the intent of keeping the Edsa People Power story alive for everyone to know, appreciate, and draw lessons of citizenship and nationhood from. Teachers in the elementary and high school levels will be greatly aided in their Edsa discussions by these two titles in

Filipino from Adarna House Inc.

Launched last Nov. 27, Ninoy Aquino’s birthday, was “Isang Harding Papel” written by Augie Rivera and illustrated by Rommel Joson.

It is based on the true story of a daughter visiting her mother, Aling Chit, who is detained in a military camp during the martial law regime. The story unfolds, focusing on what the seven-year-old Jenny undergoes. The details that acclaimed writer Rivera chooses make it a very moving

account: the food items Jenny brings so her mother will not be hungry, the books and magazines to while away the time, Jenny’s Monday-to-Friday account of how her week went, including giggling over the broken record of the martial-law anthem “May bagong silang” during the flag ceremony, and her pique at being twitted by her classmates because she has neither mother nor father at home.

In an attempt to make her presence constantly felt, the mother decides to make Jenny a paper flower every time she visits. The result? A magical garden profuse with paper blooms.

Martial law is concretized through the billboards of the Marcos couple all over town, the postage stamps bearing their portraits, and the “Bagong Lipunan” dream. When Jenny needs to know why her mother is in detention, Aling Chit can only say that the anti-Marcos drama that she and her colleagues staged during protest rallies must have angered the dictator.

That the Edsa revolution is effectively narrated in two short concluding paragraphs is testimony to the skillful handling of Rivera and Joson. This is not a history lesson per se, but a human-interest story of a daughter and her detained mother. In the conclusion, it is now 1986, Jenny is now 14, and her mother ends seven years of detention, signaling a period of freedom and change.

The other book is “Edsa,” a counting book released in 2013 and produced by another acclaimed team—writer Russell Molina and illustrator Sergio Bumantay. History through a simple counting book? It’s a uniquely interesting concept with evocative images and a very small word count. The numbers unravel the story.

The number 1 stands for a bird being sold on Edsa, portrayed on the opening page with a rolled newspaper and a yellow ribbon on its cage bars. One can almost hear “Bayan Ko” being sung in the background. Two radios bring the hot news. There are three yellow ribbons embracing (“nakayakap”) a tree. Four students are singing heartily, five soldiers are charging speedily, six tanks are rolling by, seven nuns and priests are fervently praying, eight flowers are dancing in the wind, nine trucks are carrying food and water, 10 families are in kapit-bisig position, 11 flags are fluttering in the crowd, and 12,000 people are clasping hands.

The solitary bird on the first page returns, freely flying over Edsa. The repeated image ties up the story and ends with the bird looking down on the millions of people who are finally free.

How subtly the revolution’s signature yellow is woven in the book. It is a gentle, nonintrusive reminder of the People Power symbol’s eloquence. There is a yellow hat that is also the abbreviated “Laban” sign, a yellow balloon, and umbrellas. This is not propaganda material, as there are only two sketches of Ninoy Aquino and one of Cory—in contrast to large images of an infamous couple in the past.

And, of course, the Edsa struggle continues. It is all up to us, you and me, and especially the present generation, to continue this unfinished revolution—if we care enough for our country.

Neni Sta. Romana Cruz ([email protected]) is chair of the National Book Development Board, a trustee of Teach for the Philippines, and a member of the Eggie Apostol Foundation.