Commemorating the Original EDSA Revolution

Happy EDSA day, friends!

Earlier today, my family and I were inside the car, listening to the news regarding the many rallies and protests, and cursing the PNP and the MMDA for closing parts of EDSA resulting to very heavy traffic. We were so engrossed with what is happening today when suddenly I said, “What were WE doing this day in 1986, on the (last) day of the original EDSA revolution?”

My dad was in Bangkok for an international airline conference which supposedly was to be held in Manila but has to change venues at the last minute because of the political turmoil in the country. My mom, who just gave birth to my brother (born the day before the snap elections), was busy taking care of my brother, while I, who was not even going to school yet, was busy eating and playing. We seem to be unlikely candidates to have joined the revolution then, but had we been then who we are now, could we have joined? My parents: still unlikely. Bro and I: maybe. But the question is, how?

Unless we were staying with schoolmates or co-members of organizations, at that time, I could not have imagined how we would be encouraged to come if without the communication facilities we have now. No cell phones, no internet – how will my brother and I know where to go or how to find our peers? Sure, they may call us at our landline – “Let's meet up in front of LSGH in an hour, ok?” – but how are we going to find one another in that sea of people? At that time, there were no “text brigs” yet, which is so common now, so I presume the people who participated had planned their move and their particular participants, even days before. Encouraging people to go were done in a more personal way: hearing one's voice live (or maybe on the phone), feeling the leaders' anger and desire through their facial expressions and body language, and not just words.

This year, it seems that the loud minority wanted to repeat the magnitude and success of the original ESDA revolution, but to no avail. This, amidst the advances in communications technology! Oh well, maybe it's just because, as the saying goes, nothing beats the original.

(How about you? Where were you on February 25, 1986?)