By VICTOR GREGOR LIMON
If you google the words "EDSA" and "millennials," the search results would include articles such as "Do millennials still recall Martial Law, EDSA?" or "EDSA for Millennials: Like a Breakup from an Abusive Relationship." Written with such condescension by non-millennials, patronizing articles like these often have cynical undertones and hint at a presumption that the youth regard people power as so exotic, so remote from their lives of apathy and decadence.
I guess it's time to put things into proper perspective. For the truth is that millennials are not ignorant about EDSA, we have not forgiven the Marcoses for their corrupt and murderous rule of our country, and, most importantly, the truth is that we have not been idle.
During elections, we register highest voter turnout rates and have consistently elected a representation in Congress through Kabataan Party-list. On the streets, we have joined our forces with other sectors in condemning the worsening corruption in the government and in calling for justice for the continuing violations of our human rights. In the countryside, many youth have even decided to join the army of the revolutionary government.
And this is not surprising as the youth have remained at the losing end of the EDSA bargain. Education remains for sale at a high price, pushing some students to such desperation that they see suicide as their last resort. The youth are also the most susceptible to the government's labor export policy, stunting their potential through the K to 12 program and luring them towards the global labor market.
Indeed, the EDSA People Power revolts have failed and the reason is not because millennials know little about the horrors of fascism or that they have forgiven Marcos. EDSA failed to deliver long-term and meaningful change because it got rid of Marcos, but not the structures that made their rule possible. Farmers remain landless, wages remain low, prices of basic commodities and utilities are high. The powerful families of the oligarchy remain firmly In control of our economy and government.
If, indeed, some of the youth do not have the correct appreciation of EDSA, it is because its meaning has been hijacked by the Aquinos. The commemoration of EDSA for the past six years under Noynoy Aquino's administration has been nothing but a staged farce—protesters cannot even approach the shrine because hundreds of policemen have been deployed to bar them from challenging the government's version of remembering EDSA.
If indeed some millennials fail to see people power as a potent weapon against state fascism, it is because of those who romanticize EDSA but also pronounce radicalism as either extinct or passe. It is on account of those willing to turn a blind eye to the crimes of the Marcoses in exchange for political expediency. They are the ones who have forgiven and forgotten. ●
Published in print in the Collegian’s February 27, 2016 issue.
