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By Efren L. Danao Senior
Reporter
It is ironic that the
commemoration of EDSA 1 on February 25 will be held without the
participation of its two key players—Senators Juan Ponce Enrile
and Gregorio Honasan.
They said that designating
February 25 as EDSA Day is a “rewriting of history” and that
they continue to regard February 22 as the day that should be
considered as such.
“The real EDSA Day is February
22. February 25 is the day of the coronation of Cory Aquino [as
president],” Enrile said.
On February 22 or Friday,
President Gloria Arroyo will lead the nation in the wreath-laying
ceremonies to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of EDSA 1 at the
Libingan ng mga Bayani at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.
Enrile said that the February 25
commemoration is only for those who benefited from what he, Honasan
and their small group of followers had planned, when they withdrew
their support for then-President Ferdinand Marcos. Enrile contended
that history gives more emphasis to the start of a revolutionary
struggle, not the time when the struggle ended.
Enrile and Honasan said they
would commemorate February 22 silently and without fanfare.
“We will pray and perhaps, go
to the Libingan ng mga Bayani where one of our members, Col Tirso
Gador, is interred,” Honasan said.
Honasan, then a colonel and an
aide of Enrile, said that he would not join the February 25 affair
because he did not want to compete for attention with those who want
to rewrite history.
Enrile doubts if another People
Power could come about, this time against President Gloria Arroyo.
“Let them call People Power and let us see if people will come,”
he said.
According to Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita, Chairman of the EDSA People Power Commission (EPPC),
this year’s theme for the 22nd anniversary of EDSA 1 is
“Kapayapaan at Pagkakaisa Tungo sa Kaunlaran.”
EPPC Commissioner Alex Magno
believes that “it is the community, with its best values on which
civility might be sustained, that has reclaimed control over its
fate when the events of February 1986 unfolded.”
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