We survived the Marcos Sr. tragedy. Now let’s overcome the Marcos Jr. farce.
The Malaya Movement USA joins the Filipino people in celebrating and remembering the 37th anniversary of the EDSA People’s Power Uprising that toppled the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. In this year’s anniversary celebration, we especially call on the Filipino people to study and critically evaluate the past, both its achievements and shortcomings so as to understand our current situation and draw necessary lessons for our present struggle against the restoration of the Marcos dynasty.
We in the Malaya Movement USA believe that the uprising was correct. It was necessary to oust and overthrow the Marcos dictatorship. It is because the Marcos dictatorship not only caused so much suffering to the Filipino people but also served as the main hindrance for the country’s progress. It is an act of the people exercising its sovereign power to remove a tyrannical regime.
We also believe that the EDSA uprising is not an overnight process. Rather, it is the culmination of decades of activism that raised the Filipino people’s consciousness and built people’s organizations that served as the core of the sustained struggle that ultimately defeated the Marcos regime. We do ourselves and the current fight against historical revisionism and tyranny a disservice by incorrectly retelling EDSA as a mere spontaneous three days of mass protest against a dictatorship Filipinos “disagreed” with.
We must also challenge the narrative that EDSA was just a rivalry between the Aquinos and the Marcoses. To bill EDSA as a mere political division is part of the Marcoses’ ongoing whitewashing of Philippine history of their crimes against the Filipino people. The EDSA uprising, ultimately, is the struggle between the Filipino people against Ferdinand Marcos Sr., his fascist regime and the system that they represent.
Marcos Jr. is trying to sweep under the rug the crimes of their dynasty committed. The theft of monumental proportions, tens of thousands of stolen lives, and debt his family has imposed on generations of Filipinos is being muddled by his calls “unity” and “reconciliation.” What Marcos Jr. means by telling the Filipino people to embrace “reconciliation” is for us to forgive the crimes his family completely refuses to acknowledge and atone for.
We in the Malaya Movement USA believe that the EDSA uprising is an unfinished process. While the Filipino people deposed Marcos and his family 37 years ago, the uprising and the post-uprising administrations failed to address the fundamental socio-economic and political problems in the Philippines. The exploitative and oppressive systems in the Philippines that reserve power to political dynasties, breed corruption, and treat Philippine democracy and ordinary lives as inconsequential and disposable were left mostly in place. We believe that this is an important factor among many that allowed the return of the Marcoses.
The EDSA uprising reminds us that even 37 years later, the Philippines is still limping along due to the economic disaster the 20-year long Marcos dynasty put us in. It reminds us that we survived the tragedy that is Marcos Sr. and now we must overcome the farce that is Marcos Jr., who is now presiding over a recession that is plunging millions more Filipinos into further poverty.
EDSA provides us with a partial blueprint for securing genuine change in the Philippines. It was the strengthening of the anti-tyranny movement overtime that resulted in united people power, by organizing ever growing numbers to repeatedly take daring action, brave certain dangers from the Marcos state, and boldly speak out. Since then, the Filipino people have needed to learn these lessons that led to EDSA as well as the shortcomings to complete a movement for genuine democracy. It’s this legacy that the Malaya Movement USA aims to uphold.
We also remember and celebrate the legacy of Filipinos in the US and overseas that were integral to the anti-dictatorship movement decades ago. Overseas Filipinos were crucial in turning the global tide against the Marcoses, with Filipinos in the U.S. playing a special role, as US support was essential to the Marcoses’ hold on power. With more than four million Filipinos in the U.S now, political support and funding from the United States, Filipinos in the United States have an indispensable role in this fight.
This 37th anniversary of EDSA, the Malaya Movement USA calls on Filipinos in the United States to continue where history left off and join an organized mass movement against tyranny and fascism. Let us complete this unfinished struggle. Join the Malaya Movement for human rights, democracy, and sovereignty for the Philippines!
