In February 1986, millions gathered on EDSA. For four days, we stood our ground against tanks and troops, fueled not by spectacle but by a stubborn insistence that the dictator must go. We prayed, we sang, we blocked armored carriers with rosaries and our bodies. And when we went home, we had not just shouted…we had toppled a regime.
Fast forward to September 21, 2025. Tens of thousands filled the streets once again. This time, the battle cry was not “tama na, sobra na, palitan na,” but “stop corruption, stop the flood.” The symbolism was deliberate: the anniversary of Martial Law turned into a rally against today’s scandals.
For one day, the nation’s outrage was visible.
The difference? EDSA was endurance. September 21 risks being ritual.
EDSA worked because it did not spring from nowhere. It was prepared by years of organizing: by journalists exposing abuses, by church groups protecting communities, by activists documenting violations, by opposition figures building networks despite repression. When people finally massed on EDSA, they had behind them a structure that could outlast the dictator’s fall.
EDSA was not simply a protest. It was the culmination of a movement.
By contrast, the September 21 rallies were powerful but fragile. They brought together students, church groups, civic leaders, flood victims but without a structure to keep pressure alive, such energy risks dissipating. One day of marching is not enough to break entrenched systems. Outrage, without strategy, collapses into catharsis.
And here lies the problem: today’s political class knows this. They have mastered the waiting game. They deny, they delay, they distract, confident that anger burns fast and public attention moves on. They bet on the selfie generation: a flood of posts one day, silence the next.
For them, protest fatigue is not a risk. It is a strategy.
The challenge now is whether September 21 can break that cycle. Will the networks formed that day persist? Will communities continue to watchdog budgets, pressure Congress, protect whistleblowers, demand prosecutions? Or will September 21 be remembered only as a cathartic roar that died before it could force change?
Because without endurance, protests become anniversaries. And anniversaries are safe for the powerful: they can march too, issue statements, and wait for the crowd to go home.
Final Word
EDSA was not magic. It was persistence. It was the refusal to forget. It was the knowledge that the dictator would not fall unless people stayed in the streets, day after day, until power cracked.
September 21, 2025, showed that Filipinos are still willing to rise. But the real test is whether we are willing to last to match the brazenness of corruption with the stubbornness of memory.
Indeed, one truth is certain: corruption can outlast hashtags. Corruption in flood control is not abstract. It is the collapsed dike, the barangay swallowed by flood, and the classroom under water. To fight it requires stamina measured in months and years, not hours. But if the outrage ends with selfies, then the only thing washed away will be hope itself.
Sadly, power today counts on amnesia. EDSA defied it. EDSA proved what endurance can achieve. September 21 will prove or disprove whether we still have that kind of stamina.
Therefore, September 21 must decide.
