What’s the holiday for again?

James Soriano — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:00:44 +0000

PUBLISHED: Student & Campus Section, Manila Bulletin, 25 February 2009 Issue (Page E-2)

“Whereas it is but fitting that the entire Filipino nation be given the opportunity to observe this milestone in our country’s history; I… by order of Her Excellency… do hereby declare February 23, 2009 (Monday) as a special holiday for all private and public schools at all levels throughout the country.”

Reading this part of Presidential Proclamation No. 1728, I could not help but giggle involuntarily. Not that there is anything wrong with the segment: the youth is pretty much the ‘entire Filipino nation’, and it is only fitting that we be given an occasion to celebrate, regardless of the fact that we were probably too young to understand the significance of what happened twenty-three years ago, if we were alive at all.

No, what really made me laugh was the fact that the administration was going to celebrate it on Wednesday anyway, which accomplishes two things. First, everyone (even the older people) still gets to celebrate anyway—never mind that it’s not a national holiday like it has been the other twenty-two years, what matters is that everyone, even the older people, gets to commemorate it! Second, we get a free pass away from school, without having to remember what this holiday was for.

Really, what was this holiday for?

I would think that a historical event of such monumental significance would be something that we all collectively treasure, like we would money, especially since the people who witnessed and made it happen are still alive, and the memories and accompanying emotions must still be fresh in their hearts and minds.

It has not been too long ago. America’s Declaration of Independence happened two-hundred-and-thirty-three-years ago, and they still celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks. Now that was too long ago. Here, we don’t even watch the proceedings anymore.

It has only been twenty-three years, yet the importance of People Power seems to have been lost to us already.

Maybe it’s because the People Power Revolution was not truly national in scope. True, millions of people flocked to EDSA. But of those millions, a huge majority came from Metro Manila and the areas surrounding it. The same is true for the second People Power, which changed regimes but not socio-political structures, or the third one, which was not without massive violence. All of these shifts may have been significant to us as a nation, but they were brought about by and for the sake of the urbanites.

I think this is an important observation, because Manila, as our social-political-and-economic center, is where everything is, and therefore everything is bigger in Manila. And because everything, including politics, is bigger in Manila, there is an illusion that the general desire for political change and calls for “people power” are national in scope, when in fact they exclude majority of our country’s opinions.

Or maybe it’s not so much the concept of Imperial Manila as it is the reality that things haven’t changed all that much. It is not seldom that I hear the remark, “I bet we were better of under Marcos,” when it comes to talking about politics and the importance of this revolution. What might be more alarming is that these words are uttered by my peers, who cannot claim to have truly experienced the regime, unlike those people who took to the streets that fateful week in February 1986.

But it is hard to suppress the feeling that we tend to change masters more than we actually change conditions. And if that is all we’ve done in the past twenty-three years, can we truly claim to have broken free from the bonds of slavery?

This reminds me of a chance conversation I had with an older friend during last year’s holiday, which was surrounded by controversy due to the ZTE issue and talks of breaking the national holiday tradition (which is the case this year, except without protest). The most memorable bit of that conversation was as follows: “Alam mo, it’s just the same thing over and over again. What reason is there to celebrate if we have taken more steps backward than [we have] forward?”

And if those who were part of the revolution have no reasons to observe it, what reason do we?

james.soriano » edsa revolution

What’s the holiday for again?