The mainstream depiction of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution (EDSA 1) as a spontaneous outburst of the people’s outrage to the Marcos dictatorship bothers me. From how I hear it from martial law veterans and in history books, revolution has long been waging and brewing in the decade before the massive EDSA protest. EDSA 1 was simply a product, not even the culmination, of more than a decade of struggle against the dictatorship.

It also bothers me how certain personalities and families are depicted as heroes of EDSA 1, when some of them were never part in the build-up to the overthrow. It seems to me, even, that they only hijacked the opportunity when it was ripe. In fact, their only role in aiding the culmination of the people’s desire to oust Marcos were as the oppressors, being the architects and the implementors of martial rule. It’s deplorable that for all the abuses they committed the years before EDSA 1, they are remembered as its heroes simply by their last-minute act of finally riding the wave of the people’s anger. Yes, I’m talking about the military through the leadership of Juan Ponce Enrile and Fidel Ramos. Worse, the real heroes who have persisted and died have consistently been sidelined and “airbrushed” out of the credit they deserve more than Enrile, Ramos, Sin or even the Aquinos.

Today some sectors are celebrating in revelry the victory of EDSA 1. But we commemorate the triumph that was at a time when our people languish in poverty and progressive reforms and resistance are suppressed by a tyrannical government. Has EDSA 1 failed? The seeming indifference of many of our people to the commemoration is telling.

I may sound ungrateful for the democratic fruits of the bloodless revolution. But to clam that without EDSA 1 we wouldn’t be enjoying the freedom we now experience is a sham. Even without the military coup, even without Cardinal Sin or Corazon Aquino, a revolution would have erupted, and I’m sure we would still be enjoying the freedoms we enjoy today, I daresay even more.

So, has EDSA 1 failed? No revolutionary triumph will ever last and succeed without the masses at the forefront and without their decisive leadership. There is no genuine triumph in a revolution that does not dismantle the old institutions that have shackled the people for centuries. Revolutions taken advantage of by oppressors posturing as heroes are bound to fail.

Social conditions today are ripe for another uprising. When the next people power revolution comes, we should have learned the glaring lessons.