EDSA LIVES ON

By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
THE spirit of People Power at EDSA lives on, 29 years to the day later.
And, one man who saw it all—from the dark days of Martial Law to the reinstatement of democracy—believes in the significance of those four historic days that changed the course of the country’s history.
“If you want to regain your liberty, you must be ready to take the risk of losing your liberty in the process of regaining it,” says Regional State Prosecutor Antonio Arellano, a political prisoner during the Martial Law time.
Arellano believes that the EDSA People Power was relevant to the lives of every Filipino nowadays despite of the problems that the country experiencing. He said the essence of the People Power was to restore the essence of democracy which now experience by every people.
Arellano, who was imprisoned on January 1985, the year before EDSA, narrated that under the regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship, people lived in a very oppressive and tyrannical government since all the rights were removed.
People were deprived of their freedom, from freedom to assemble and freedom of speech because people whoresist government will be imprisoned.
Arellano, who recounted his imprisonment experience he and other two companions, lawyers Laurente Ilagan and Marcos Risonar really suffered it.
“We were arrested without any cases filed against us, detained without warrant of arrest… we were all deprive of our freedoms,” said Arellano, who was imprisoned along with lawyers Laurente Ilagan and Marcos Risonar.
During their detention, the trio were also deprived of their economic capability since they have to provide for their respective families.
“Even your family will suffer because we could no longer work and earn for my family,” Arellano said.
“When we were detained, of course, we were not so happy about it. But, then we also accepted the fact that when we decided to stand for freedom and the rights of the people, we know that one of those days the dictatorship will really run after us. Then we were ready for it,” he added.
When the people were already exhausted and became impatient for the long period of the very oppressive regime of Marcos, the Filipinos decided, with the help of military to assert themselves and to remove from the government the power.
When liberty was regained, there were groups who decided to take up arms.
“So, you have for example, MNLF under Nur Misuari and CPP-NPA-NDF and there were other groups also who took arms just to put an end to the dictatorship,” Arellano said.
“We remembered that there was a 1973 Constitution that time and the EDSA People Power is actually a violation of the constitution because it was setting up of another government contrary to the existing laws” he added.
When the dictatorship was eradicated and he democracy and reinstated, Arellano said the sovereignty reigned again in the people and all government authority emanated from them.
“So, that principle is actually in our constitution. The political power should from the people and the power of government should emanate from them,” he said.
However, the lawyer said that although democracy was reinstated, the poverty problem is still there because it is a continuing problem.
“It is a working democracy but the problem remains that most of our people are poor,” Arellano said, adding that when there is poverty other problems will follow which are closer to poverty.
If poverty is present, there are some people who do not have access to education, health services.
“Our problem is not new; it is already with us for a long time,” Arellano said.
Government, Arellano said, has adopted his main objective formulating inclusive development which means development should be in such a way that nobody left behind.
“What is the purpose of government if it is not meant to promote the welfare of everybody that means when a person get sick it must get medical services and all the children should have to free education, they should have shelter ,food and other social services,” Arellano said.