The celebrations for the past four decades had been concentrated in that small piece of land named EDSA and never once in the wider planes elsewhere all over this country. The limited celebration has practically placed in the dustbin of the forgotten, those real heroes who really fought the dictatorship to regain our lost freedom and democracy. We have been captivated by the big event at EDSA that we lost sight of the essence of the long struggle.
It is really inaccurate to celebrate the People Power Revolution as a mere EDSA incident.
The portrait of opportunists who sneaked through the thick crowd that converged at EDSA just to grab the limelight at the hour of victory is simply revolting. Those who managed to be at center stage to be acclaimed heroes were in truth the cowards who holed themselves hiding in fear at the most dangerous moments. These are the people who defected from the dictator but instead of leading the people in confronting the enemy, they hid in fear and called on the people for protection, only to come out when the despot had flown away in defeat and claim credit as heroes of the peaceful revolution.
A year less than two scores since the successful ouster of the conjugal dictator of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the title of the book written by Primitivo “Tibo” Medrana Mijares (November 17, 1931 – disappeared 1977) was a Filipino journalist, author, war hero, and former press censor and propagandist. He served the Marcos dictatorship before defecting in 1974 to testify before the US congress about the despotic rule of the conjugal dictatorship.
Over the years, the Marcos family managed to return to the country and eventually regained power using the riches they have from the dictator who was hailed for the greatest robbery of a government by the Guiness Book of World Records. Mysteriously, the link in that Guiness Book of World Records disappeared and could no longer be accessed since 15 March 2022. Meanwhile, the namesake of the late dictator is now the magical president that is being tagged by the former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte as a dictator, such allegation coming after the breakup and eventual impeachment of his daughter vice-president. They too have managed to surreptitiously bury the dictatator in the Libingan ng mga Bayani by the grace of then president Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
The true spirit of that People Power Revolution is now being waylaid by the very people who shamelessly grabbed power and the accolade of that historic event. It is indeed a catastrophic landslide of misfortunes to have one doubtful leader who rose to power by the second staging of People Power desecrate the spirit of that peaceful revolution. This was followed by the rise to the presidency of the magical president who is the namesake of the ousted dictator. A déjà vu of the evils that People Power defeated more than two decades ago are confronting us once more because the leaders who are but mere opportunist pretenders had kept abusing EDSA.
comments to alellema@yahoo.com
Sports for the youth
It is a familiar scene—a kid slumped in a plastic chair, staring at a glowing screen, fingers only moving to tap, swipe, or peck. Outside, however, a ball rolls down the street, a soccer ball flies over into the ditch, and a bike rusts in the yard, its chain long dry, and unturned since time immemorial. The tragedy is not that youth are turning away from sports; it’s that they’re missing out on something much greater—something that shapes character, toughens the body, and instructs in life itself in ways no schoolroom or smartphone ever could.
I have never known an athlete who did not know patience. A swimmer knows the torture of waiting for the starting pistol. A runner senses the searing seconds before the race begins. A boxer absorbs the blows, rides out the rounds, and waits for his moment to strike. Sports involve a kind of waiting that is not passive—it is an art form in itself, a sign of how well an individual can keep in check the fire within without it burning out. Children, more than ever before today, need to learn that not everything is immediate, that wins are sometimes decades in the making, and that life’s greatest experiences are earned, not taken.
And what of discipline? Anybody who’s ever trained an athlete knows that discipline is the quiet force behind every triumph. Discipline is getting up with the sun before everyone else, doing a run when nobody else has the self-control to. It is doing the same drill, the same movement, over and over until muscle memory kicks in. It is refusing distractions, refusing sloth, and embracing effort, sweat, and improvement. Sports instill the type of discipline that overflows into all other areas—into schoolwork, work, and personal success. A student who learns to struggle through fatigue on the field can struggle through adversity in life.
Aside from individual values, sport provides something no single activity can—esprit de corps. A basketball team is not a group of players; it is a commitment, a promise to struggle, to win, and to lose together. A relay team makes all their speed irrelevant if they cannot properly pass the baton at the precise moment. Football players know that nothing can replace weak teamwork no matter how great an individual. In a time when young people are more isolated from one another by social networking and virtual lives, sport provides us with an actual, bodily connection with other people—something that cannot be substituted by a “like” or comment online.
And finally, there’s resilience—most likely the greatest lesson of them all. All the players are familiar with defeat, but only those who come back to the game, to the track, to the ring ever win. Losing a game is shameful. Hurting yourself hurts so much. Seeing someone else hold the trophy you have worked so hard for is painful. Sport allows young people to stand up, dust themselves off, and try again. In a world that sometimes teaches them to give up at the very first sign of challenge, sport educates them that failure is not a finale but a stepping stone to achievement.
Even health—so rudimentary, so instinctual—is in jeopardy now. Childhood obesity is increasing, posture is on the decline, and energy is in freefall because children are sitting more and moving less. The body wasn’t designed to be sedentary. It was made to move, to work, to play. Sports, or sports will not happen, and teen bodies pale, and young minds become unsettled. And yet we stand in awe asking why depression, fear, and inattention are more terrible than ever among youth. Movement is therapy, and the best prescription for it is sport.
Others claim that sports are nothing but a distraction, an avoidance of something more “serious.”. But I disagree—sports are some of the most honest teachers out there. They teach patience when life requires waiting. They teach discipline when distractions abound. They promote friendship when loneliness is waiting. They teach perseverance when failure is knocking. They keep healthy when contemporary life is attempting to kill it. To refer to sports as play is to miss the whole point.
So let the children run and jump and play. Let them grunt and sweat, win and lose, fight and fall, and rise again. Let them learn, not merely how to shoot a goal or hit a ball, but how to live—with patience, self-discipline, strength, with heart. Because at the end of the day, sports don’t make athletes; they make people who know how to conquer the world. And that’s a game worth playing.