By Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III
Minsan lang tayo maging bata. Let’s face it, young people will always have enough energy to do just about anything and everything they want. That has always been the case. Alam ko dahil minsan rin akong naging bata.
When I was young (…younger!), long, long before I set foot in the halls of Congress, I was in the streets. Twenty five years ago, I was in EDSA. And today, after 25 long years, we will once again hear the stories of how the Filipino, armed only with faith and resilience, marched for change. Today, we begin to retell the stories of how the Filipino, fuelled back then by the passion of youth and idealism, marched in EDSA.
Some young people hearing this would probably think, “Oh no, not again. Pagsasabihan na naman tayo ng matatandang nakaranas ng EDSA Revolution na umayos tayo at huwag maging pasaway!” Unfortunately, now will not be that time. Personally, as a student of the Universities of EDSA and Mendiola, I have learned that no one, not one single freedom-loving Filipino, is apathetic. I believe that apathy is not a characteristic, but a judgment. Walang Pilipino, bata man o matanda, ang wala man lang pakialam.
Leave politics to politicians, they say. I say, no. Politics entail power and people can and must take hold of this power. That is the spirit of democracy. That is the spirit of EDSA. That, my young comrades, is the spirit of People Power.
Maybe young people are prejudged as apathetic by some. However, in my eyes, young people are simply not given enough venues and means to be truly empowered. We, the young people back then, marched in EDSA not just to be empowered, not just to empower other age groups we locked arms with, but to empower young people not yet born in our time. Bottom line: EDSA is for the youth of today.
Hindi ko sinasabing magsilabas tayo sa lansangan para mabigyan ng kapangyarihan. May pinipili itong lugar at oras. Noong panahong iyon, na nakapiring ang katarungan, nakagapos ang kalayaan, at lugmok na sa karimlan si Inang Bayan, kinailangang magmartsa. Kinailangang sumigaw na “tama na, sobra na, palitan na!” (I am not saying that we go out to the streets to be given power. There is a place and time for this. During that time, when there was no justice, when freedom was shackled and the motherland was in darkness, we had to march. We had to shout “enough now, we need change!”)
Now, threats to our freedom and democracy still prevail. Marami na kaming napatunayan noon, at marami pang kayang patunayan kayo ngayon. Don’t get me wrong. You don’t have to prove anything to us, your elders. The challenged placed before you is for your generation and the ones that will come after you. This, for me, is part of the collective consciousness that wrapped around the heads of young people in picket lines, holding placards and stopping tanks, back in 1986.
At kung kailangan ninyong lumabas sa mga kalsada upang ipahayag ang pagnanais ng pagbabagong panlipunan, huwag kayong matakot. At least in the case of this Administration, I am confident that dissent will not be muzzled. Moreover, the liberties that we should enjoy now are those that we fought for in the past.
Ngunit hindi sa lahat ng pagkakataon, kailangang sumigaw. Maraming bagong uri at anyo ang aktibismo sa panahon ngayon. Young people are creative and innovative. I am certain that you can find ways to express yourselves and catalyze change in the nooks and crannies of society. Kabataan, magsimula na ng pagbabago at ipagpatuloy ang mga nasimulan na. Take the lead. Employ principles in running program-based student councils. Reform the Sangguniang Kabataan. Value volunteerism as a form of activism. Maximize all possible venues for consultation and participation. Train yourselves to be all sorts of leaders in all sorts of fields. Maliban sa pagiging Iskolar ng Bayan, maging Iskolar para sa Bayan. Maraming maaaring gawin. Minsan nga lang tayo maging bata. Let’s make the most out of it.
Ipakita ninyo na kayo ay tunay na mga anak ng EDSA, ang sagisag ng tuwid na daan na sabay-sabay nating tinatahak, linilinis, inaayos, at pinauunlad. Ituloy ninyo ang laban habang kaming mga mas nakatatanda, naririto pa rin, patuloy na maglilingkod at handang umakbay at umagapay. (Show that you are genuine sons and daughters of EDSA, symbol of the straight path we are altogether traversing, cleaning up, putting in place and developing. Continue the struggle while we the elders are still here unceasingly serving you and ready to guide and be with you.)
Mabuhay ang kabataan! Mabuhay ang EDSA! Maraming salamat.
*May be translated as “We are only young once”—delivered as inspirational speech during the EDSA Stories launch, 24 February 2011
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