A Catholic bishop in the Philippines has urged youth in the Catholic-majority nation to conti-nue advocating for social change while seeking out truth, drawing lessons from the People Power Revolution. Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan made his remarks in a message sent to Radio Veritas Philippines ahead of the 39th anniversary of the 1986 popular protest, Radio Veritas Asia reported on Feb. 21.
“In February 1986, we, your grandparents, stood for four days at the Epifanio delos Santos Avenue [EDSA] in Quezon City, between Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame,” Villegas said. “We offered food and prayed the rosary to the soldiers who had been deployed to disperse us. We sang Bayan Ko [‘Our Fatherland,’ a protest song] and slept on the streets,” Villegas added. The pre-late noted that on Feb. 25, 1986, following a peaceful protest, the “dictator and thief” Ferdinand Marcos Sr. fled to Hawaii in exile. “We ousted the dictator without violence and bloodshed,” Villegas emphasized.
An estimated 2 million Fili-pinos participated in the non-violent People Power Revolution from Feb. 22-25, 1986, which ended Marcos’ 20-year-long dictatorship and restored demo-cracy in the nation. Villegas underlined the significance of standing up for what is right and refusing to ignore the wrongdoings of leaders or those in power.
“Abp Socrates loves you. I will not lie to you. I will not mis-lead you. I was there. I saw the corruption, torture, killings, and illegal arrests. That is what ha-ppened,” Villegas said. Villegas pointed out that the revolution was the response of God-loving Filipi-nos to “evil men and evil deeds.”