Daryl Lopez | Literary Editor, The OLPSian Times

Photo Courtesy: Human Right Foundation (Hrf.org) 

There is no executive order abolishing EDSA People Power Revolution as a holiday. No direct proclamation, no public announcement. Just a President under whose administration February 25 has coincidentally gone unrecognized.

That is the reality of President Marcos Jr. and February 25. The absence can always be denied. In 2023 President Marcos Jr. moved it, justifying it through holiday economics, a policy he applied to other holidays too – fair enough. But then in the succeeding years it quietly dissolved into the background and disappeared from his proclamations altogether. No explanation. No replacement. Just silence.

And today, facing growing criticism, the Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said this Tuesday that the president was “ready to study” whether to make it a stronger national holiday, as if he is doing our country a favor. As if it didn’t already exist for decades before he took office. As if the conflict of interest isn’t obvious to everyone.

The proclamation – specifically Proclamation No. 1006 where EDSA People Power Revolution was reclassified as a special working day, is the president’s to sign. So when February 25 goes unrecognized, there is only one office to look at.

Some can argue that the EDSA People Power Revolution belongs to the people, not to the president. But they must recognize what it means when this particular office withholds its name.

To put it simply, the son of the dictator decides whether the anniversary of his father’s ouster is worth commemorating. That decision should never have been under his sole discretion. It should be codified in law; permanent, untouchable, and beyond the reach of any administration with a conflict of interest this obvious.