Implications of the 1986 People Power Revolution

In a 1996 article for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Amando Doronila wrote that the 1986 People Power Revolution hindered a military plot to seize the government. He said that ten years later, the Philippines did not make a clean break from the Marcos dictatorship so its democracy and its transition remain flawed. Following is a copy of Doronila's analysis of the People Power Revolution.

"The prediction that the fervor of celebration of the People Power Revolution would wane over the years has been proved wrong. Ten years after the event, Edsa is commemorated with even more intense passion and partisanship than it was in the past..."

"If there should be a coup after the collapse of civil authority, it is certain to come from segments of the armed forces which not only monopolize the power of state coercion. The military also continues to harbor messianic officers who believe that the army has a right to intervene to save the nation from chaos..."

The EDSA Shrine on the corner of Ortigas and the People's Power Monument on the corner of White Plains were the center of the tenth anniversary celebration of the uprising. (Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer / February 25, 1996)