Wow! I can't believe 29 years have passed since the EDSA Revolution. I still remember that week quite vividly. I was just in fourth grade then and I remember my parents explaining to me why we had to stay home and why they were so worried that my Kuya decided to go to EDSA on his birthday. There were a lot of things happening during that time and I was told that it was dangerous to go out.
During that week I learned how to ride my shiny red bike. I didn't really like the color of my bike because red symbolized Marcos and, of course, I was pro-democracy so I was hoping to get a yellow bike (I eventually did when my red bike got stolen). Back then before we had our freedom my parents were very strict with my Ate and Kuya about coming home late. "Delikado ang panahon" they would always say. We only went out during special occasions and only went to the supermarket when we needed to buy groceries (there was no such thing as malling back then). We stayed home often and family trips was limited to going to our hometown in Bicol, but we had to stop going for awhile because of the NPA.
I guess I'm in that generation that experienced Martial Law, but didn't understand it that much since I was too young then. I did experience coup d'etats during the first Aquino administration, blackouts during the Ramos administration and the disgrace that was the Estrada and Arroyo administration. We acquired the freedom we wanted and there were a lot of improvements after, but we were bogged down with bad leaders and their personal motivations.
As much as the media keeps saying that it's all bad in the Philippines, it's not (they just love to sensationalize things). We're just culturally very sensitive people and we absolutely love to rant. For me though I like to see a half-empty glass as a glass half-full rather than half-empty. As I mentioned in a previous post, things have to go through a tedious process in order to become perfect (e.g. glass goes through fire to be formed, diamonds need to be processed to look beautiful). I am sure that our country did not have an easy time to recover after the Battle of Manila and that's what we are going through currently.
Back in 2008 my Dad wrote a blog post about "Moral Discipline" and he mentioned that in 1939 President Manuel L. Quezon formed a "Moral Code Committee". President Quezon eventually issued Executive Order No. 217 (Moral Code, 1939). The code points out very sensible things we can do on our own to help in nation building.
Let's all do what we can to build our nation and I hope that by the 50th anniversary of EDSA we would have learned how to manage our freedom.
During that week I learned how to ride my shiny red bike. I didn't really like the color of my bike because red symbolized Marcos and, of course, I was pro-democracy so I was hoping to get a yellow bike (I eventually did when my red bike got stolen). Back then before we had our freedom my parents were very strict with my Ate and Kuya about coming home late. "Delikado ang panahon" they would always say. We only went out during special occasions and only went to the supermarket when we needed to buy groceries (there was no such thing as malling back then). We stayed home often and family trips was limited to going to our hometown in Bicol, but we had to stop going for awhile because of the NPA.
I guess I'm in that generation that experienced Martial Law, but didn't understand it that much since I was too young then. I did experience coup d'etats during the first Aquino administration, blackouts during the Ramos administration and the disgrace that was the Estrada and Arroyo administration. We acquired the freedom we wanted and there were a lot of improvements after, but we were bogged down with bad leaders and their personal motivations.
As much as the media keeps saying that it's all bad in the Philippines, it's not (they just love to sensationalize things). We're just culturally very sensitive people and we absolutely love to rant. For me though I like to see a half-empty glass as a glass half-full rather than half-empty. As I mentioned in a previous post, things have to go through a tedious process in order to become perfect (e.g. glass goes through fire to be formed, diamonds need to be processed to look beautiful). I am sure that our country did not have an easy time to recover after the Battle of Manila and that's what we are going through currently.
Back in 2008 my Dad wrote a blog post about "Moral Discipline" and he mentioned that in 1939 President Manuel L. Quezon formed a "Moral Code Committee". President Quezon eventually issued Executive Order No. 217 (Moral Code, 1939). The code points out very sensible things we can do on our own to help in nation building.
Let's all do what we can to build our nation and I hope that by the 50th anniversary of EDSA we would have learned how to manage our freedom.
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