I was not in Edsa when the people had revolution.
I was 10, at school, in a province when they occupied Edsa and declared revolution in 1986.
They unseated Marcos whom they loathed for his wealth & power. I don't remember Marcos leadership except for what was written in history books & the presence of eloquent rebels who knocked at my grandparents home,near our farm, on some rare nights for quick accommodation. My grandparents didn't have qualms and was innately a peaceful family, solving problems & managing farm like a daily chore. They were easily humbled when they saw armed men. They didn't want violence.
I was barely a teenage girl, not interested on television, when soldiers attacked some parts of the hinterlands in our province. Some Cafgus said, 'this could be the end of revolution.' This was post-Edsa period. This was when Cafgus beheaded a rebel & showcased to media workers--which was highlighted as a 'political horror' in national dailies thereafter. Walking from school, I thought, revolution did not end violence and human rights violation.
I remember I ran with the rest of the adult males to see a person summarily executed in a nearby farm. The hush of stories were passed from ears to ears among those who congregated with the dead. I looked at a corpse like how other males saw a cadaver: reviewing the wounds & recreating stories what could have happened that sad night without witnesses sight. The story from that community died within the silence of memories. Post-Edsa and I was already in high school.
They unseated Marcos whom they loathed for his wealth & power. I don't remember Marcos leadership except for what was written in history books & the presence of eloquent rebels who knocked at my grandparents home,near our farm, on some rare nights for quick accommodation. My grandparents didn't have qualms and was innately a peaceful family, solving problems & managing farm like a daily chore. They were easily humbled when they saw armed men. They didn't want violence.
I was barely a teenage girl, not interested on television, when soldiers attacked some parts of the hinterlands in our province. Some Cafgus said, 'this could be the end of revolution.' This was post-Edsa period. This was when Cafgus beheaded a rebel & showcased to media workers--which was highlighted as a 'political horror' in national dailies thereafter. Walking from school, I thought, revolution did not end violence and human rights violation.
I remember I ran with the rest of the adult males to see a person summarily executed in a nearby farm. The hush of stories were passed from ears to ears among those who congregated with the dead. I looked at a corpse like how other males saw a cadaver: reviewing the wounds & recreating stories what could have happened that sad night without witnesses sight. The story from that community died within the silence of memories. Post-Edsa and I was already in high school.
I read the same violent stories from national newspapers in a library. In fact, more violent than what I have seen; gruesome than nightmares; heart-wrenching than the recorded death of national heroes; and, more painful than soldier's blood that soaked my faded pants in a war zone where houses were torched and lives,of the same nationality, were killed. It took years before the spirit of Edsa reclaimed the relevance of talks and negotiations from the street to the countryside.
Again, post-Edsa and I was in college-- far from home & living in a community whose native tongue is not my own.
In memory of those quirky days.
Of course, nandiyan ang hele ni Gary Granada, Joey Ayala, Bayang Barrios, Herber Bartolome at iba pa. There were red-painted shirts, statements, political discourses, community immersion and academic exchanges that sharpened our wits and humors. We learned simple-living-hard-struggle principle that made us carry the entire problem of the world and the universe. Probably, this motivated the President to correlate Edsa revolution and climate change. We have post-conflict reconstruction and also post-typhoon rebuilding. Where is former senator Panfilo Lacson? Sir, its Edsa. The President was in Cebu. Are you in Tacloban?
Sigh, but life was such. Our intelligence wasn't enough to have an instant realization that the wrath of nature is rather extremely deathly than the series of wars that took place in the countrysides. Our fate directed us to experience Yolanda to realize that the magnitude & horror of death and devastation could either immobilize a nation or move us to action. It helped us appreciate international solidarity more. Thank you, world! [No, this last phrase didn't sounded like Kris.]
More than two decades passed. We are still talking about social transformation, economic development, need for job creation, of land rights, of harnessing cultural identity, pursuing peace talks with communist party, institutional reform, and the need to recreate a revolutionary leadership management that could espouse genuine reform. We are still writing about discomforting traffic areas despite widened roads & color-coding scheme when advanced nations are developing or adhering to walking zones. We are still Pinoy.
But issues are unending. We advanced. We recreate. We exchange. We're like microchips that are more functional when we're interconnected. Some of us may have less tendencies to converge to celebrate what has become of us and our story as people. But we innovate. Technology bridged us, though in itself, couldn't entirely understand the meaning of Edsa revolution. Perhaps, it could only identify it as a street in Googlemap. We evolved and have even become more complex throughout although people from our farms remained simple with their very lives & livestock.
Happy Edsa! Lets enjoy the holiday for our self-revolution too.
Again, post-Edsa and I was in college-- far from home & living in a community whose native tongue is not my own.
In memory of those quirky days.
Of course, nandiyan ang hele ni Gary Granada, Joey Ayala, Bayang Barrios, Herber Bartolome at iba pa. There were red-painted shirts, statements, political discourses, community immersion and academic exchanges that sharpened our wits and humors. We learned simple-living-hard-struggle principle that made us carry the entire problem of the world and the universe. Probably, this motivated the President to correlate Edsa revolution and climate change. We have post-conflict reconstruction and also post-typhoon rebuilding. Where is former senator Panfilo Lacson? Sir, its Edsa. The President was in Cebu. Are you in Tacloban?
Sigh, but life was such. Our intelligence wasn't enough to have an instant realization that the wrath of nature is rather extremely deathly than the series of wars that took place in the countrysides. Our fate directed us to experience Yolanda to realize that the magnitude & horror of death and devastation could either immobilize a nation or move us to action. It helped us appreciate international solidarity more. Thank you, world! [No, this last phrase didn't sounded like Kris.]
More than two decades passed. We are still talking about social transformation, economic development, need for job creation, of land rights, of harnessing cultural identity, pursuing peace talks with communist party, institutional reform, and the need to recreate a revolutionary leadership management that could espouse genuine reform. We are still writing about discomforting traffic areas despite widened roads & color-coding scheme when advanced nations are developing or adhering to walking zones. We are still Pinoy.
But issues are unending. We advanced. We recreate. We exchange. We're like microchips that are more functional when we're interconnected. Some of us may have less tendencies to converge to celebrate what has become of us and our story as people. But we innovate. Technology bridged us, though in itself, couldn't entirely understand the meaning of Edsa revolution. Perhaps, it could only identify it as a street in Googlemap. We evolved and have even become more complex throughout although people from our farms remained simple with their very lives & livestock.
Happy Edsa! Lets enjoy the holiday for our self-revolution too.
