25/02/2026
๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐ค๐ค๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐ง๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ง๐จ ๐๐จ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐๐ค๐ฃ; ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ข๐๐ข๐ค๐ง๐ฎ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐ฅ๐๐ค๐ฅ๐ก๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฉ๐จ ๐จ๐ค๐ช๐ก.
Forty years ago, the streets of Manila didn't just carry the weight of a million footsteps; they carried the collective breath of a nation finally exhaling after two decades of silence. The 40th Anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution isn't merely a date on a calendar. It is a haunting, beautiful reminder of the day when yellow ribbons tied the broken pieces of our democracy back together.
Yet, as we celebrate the light of that February sun, we must be brave enough to look into the shadows it cast. True remembrance is not just about the flowers placed in gun barrels; it is about the 11,229 souls whose lives were rewritten by the ink of state-sanctioned cruelty. To speak of EDSA without speaking of the injustices that preceded it is to sing a song with no melody.
Beneath the grand narrative of a peaceful uprising lies the jagged reality of the Martial Law era (1972โ1986). We carry the weight of:
2,326 lives extinguished or vanished into the void of "disappearance."
The thousands who endured the unspeakable: the 238 r***d and forcefully abducted, and the 217 souls, including children, whose bodies were treated as battlegrounds for mutilation and abuse.
The 1,467 survivors of psychological and emotional torture, living monuments to the mental scars that no revolution can fully heal.
The arbitrary detention of thousands: those held for months or years without a voice, and the thousands more forced into involuntary exile, their homes and businesses stripped away by greed and intimidation.
The 40th year asks us: What do we do with this inheritance of pain?
We do not let it gather dust. We recognize that every number in that 11,229 is a name, a family, and a dream that was deferred by iron fists. The spirit of EDSA is a living thing. It is the persistent, poetic refusal to forget. It is the understanding that freedom is not a gift given once, but a garden that must be watered by the truth, even when the truth is uncomfortable.
Let us march forward, not with eyes closed to the past, but with the clarity that only history can provide. We honor the fallen by ensuring their stories are never silenced again.
๐ก๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป. ๐ก๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ด๐ฒ๐.
Source: Human Rights Victims' Memorial Claims Board (HRVMCB) pursuant to Republic
Act No 10368 via Human Rights Violations Victims' Memorial Commission/site an
Rehts UPIHR
https://law.upd.edu.ph/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/UP-IHR-Martial-Law-Album-Plan.pdf
๐๏ธ: Cyrell Anne C. Atacador | President & Managing Editor
๐ผ๏ธ: Tricia De Vera | Junior Graphics Committee
