Freedom-loving people marched towards the People Power Monument along EDSA on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025, to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the People Power Revolution.

“We are here not only to commemorate a significant date in our history but also to remind our nation and the world that our freedom was hard-fought. EDSA is not only an occasion but a covenant to keep,” said PEPP Core Group Member and Movement Against Tyranny co-convenor Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB in her statement during an afternoon program.

“We are here because the dream of EDSA has yet to be realized,” said Sr. Mananzan. “I’m telling you, EDSA did not fail us. We failed EDSA because we had left our fellow countrymen alone in the struggle. Society needs to steadfastly seek not only individual change but more importantly a social transformation.”

Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kidapawan and Caritas Philippines President lamented how our democracy is still perverted by corruption, deception, and abuse of power up until today. “Aren’t these the reasons why we struggled before? Why did we allow the shadows of the past back into our lives again?”

“Thirty-nine years after EDSA, plunderous dynasties remain in power. Enough is enough! We are sick of a system that only benefits a few. We have had enough of them squandering the taxpayers’ money in dynasties and wars and barely providing for our education, health, and other social services,” said De La Salle University professor and Taumbayan Ayaw sa Magnanakaw at Abusado Network Alliance (TAMA NA) lead convenor, Dr. David Michael San Juan. “Let us fight! Let us not be afraid!”

Oriang chairperson Flora Santos perseveres in her struggle despite being a golden-ager. Santos organized urban poor movements and was arrested during the former Marcos Sr.’s regime.

At that time, house demolitions were rampant, as former First Lady and Human Settlements Minister Imelda Marcos dreamt of turning Manila into a ‘city of man’ composed of different development sites. The Marcos matriarch envisioned hiding poverty from the sight of foreigners.

Santos then called and challenged the youth to perseveringly continue the struggle that the older generation started in the 1970s and 1980s. “You must press on because our nation badly needs a government that will genuinely serve us.”

Despite not declaring the day a regular holiday, it did not stop Filipinos, especially students and the youth, mostly from Catholic academic institutions, from pausing their four-cornered classroom classes and taking the opportunity to learn outdoors and voice their calls for justice and peace.
“For our youth and fellow students, our understanding of the past is the key so we can fight and protect our future,” said Student Council Alliance of the Philippines NCR Secretary-General Nina Laron.

Laron added, “Our commemoration of EDSA is unbound by a holiday or an absence of such. Moreover, this is not simply a day of rest but of fruitful retrospection and collective movement. The spirit of EDSA is not merely a memory but a continuous reminder to us that we laboriously work for our freedom and democracy and not wait for them to happen by itself.”
“Elections are around the corner. We now know their tactics. They will use money and insincere promises to deceive us again,” Bishop Bagaforo added. “But we will not trade the future of our nation into receiving some aid and getting hoodwinked by a plethora of propaganda or empty promises of those who are greedily after power and money.”

In a unified statement of One Faith One Voice One Nation, Church leaders and lay people from different Christian denominations emboldened their fellow Christians to speak and take a stand in the face of injustice.

“The prophetic tradition of our faith calls us to be the voice of the voiceless, to expose lies with truth, and to resist evil with love,” they said, reiterating the biblical mandate for justice stated in Proverbs 31:8-9.
They added: “Faith without works is dead. Our commitment to Christ must manifest in concrete actions—advocating for human rights, supporting the poor, exposing lies, seeking accountability for misdeeds, and challenging the systems that perpetuate suffering.

“The spirit of EDSA is alive whenever we choose to act in faith, speak truth to power, and build a nation where justice and peace reign.”

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