CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – The scene was strikingly familiar. A crowd spilling into the streets, the sharp blare of car horns echoing through downtown Cagayan de Oro – an echo of the final, defiant years that led to the fall of Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986.
On Tuesday night, February 25, hundreds of students and faculty from the Jesuit-run Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan stepped out of their campus, many too young to have witnessed the bloodless revolt that drove Marcos and his family into exile.
Yet they knew the weight of history and took up the same chants that once rang through these streets decades ago, when Cagayan de Oro stood at the forefront of the anti-Marcos movement in Mindanao.
The demonstration unfolded near Plaza Divisoria – the same ground in the 1980s where many residents had once staged noise barrages, hurled slogans at the dictatorship, and collected coins to help bail out their embattled mayor, the late Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., a relentless critic of the Marcoses and their cronies.
Cagayan de Oro was more than just a backdrop in the history of the EDSA revolution as it served as a political battleground in Mindanao. The city then was the political stronghold of the Pimentel-founded Partido Demokratiko Pilipino (PDP), which later merged with ex-senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s Lakas ng Bayan (Laban) to form the leading anti-Marcos opposition bloc, PDP-Laban.
In his memoir, Martial Law in the Philippines: My Story, Pimentel recounted how black streamers hung at Xavier-Ateneo and the then all-women Lourdes College, a protest against his third arrest in 1983 – just months before Aquino’s assassination.
Pimentel had been red-tagged and accused of arming communist rebels in a bid to topple the Marcos regime.
“On April 23 (1983), approximately 15,000 Cagayanons marched from the St. Augustine Cathedral grounds to the bandstand in the heart of the city, where a rally was held to protest my incarceration in Cebu,” Pimentel wrote.
That bandstand, now called Kiosko Kagawasan (Freedom Kiosk) at Plaza Divisoria, became the city’s center of defiance against Marcos. It was in the area, decades later, that Xavier-Ateneo students gathered again Tuesday night to raise their voices for democracy.
It was students leading the charge, many of whom had only encountered the People Power Revolution through books and lectures. Yet, as they urged passing motorists to honk in solidarity, they made their message clear: freedom, once won, must still be defended.
Their chants pierced the night. “Silbato alang sa demokrasya! Panalipdi ang kagawasan! (Honk for democracy! Defend freedom!)” shouted 18-year-old Albert Vinc Melodia, his voice rising above the street noise as he called on motorists along Corrales Avenue near the university’s main gate.
“The struggle for good governance did not end with EDSA in 1986. This generation will continue the struggle,” Melodia said.
Just a few feet away, 19-year-old agriculture student Godwin Cabanatan clutched a placard with a battle cry once hurled at the Marcos dictatorship: “Makibaka, huwag matakot (Fight, do not be afraid).”
He and his friends lit candles, their flickering glow illuminating the area as they urged drivers to sound their horns – an act of defiance, a signal that the memory and spirit of the 1986 People Power Revolution are still alive.
Cabanatan, standing firm beside his friends, spoke with conviction. He had seen the distortions creeping into the EDSA narrative, the attempts to rewrite history.
“The truth and freedom should be defended by our generation,” he said.
For the young demonstrators, February 25 was not just an anniversary, but also a warning. While they had never seen the crowds that flooded EDSA in 1986, never felt the weight of millions demanding the downfall of the dictator, but in that moment, as their voices echoed in downtown Cagayan de Oro, they felt something close.
Even local reporters covering the event – many born in the 1980s and 1990s, long after the revolution – found themselves caught in the moment.
“I had goosebumps seeing the students exhorting the passing vehicles to honk their horns,” said reporter Menzie Montes of DXCC-Radio Mindanao Network. “Maybe this was how it felt in 1986.”
Earlier in the day, the Xavier-Ateneo community marked the ESDA revolt anniversary with a “Mass for Democracy” at the Immaculate Conception Chapel, followed by a rosary walk around campus.
Students and faculty also took part in the “Democracy Hour,” a campus event which featured music, poetry, and art about the EDSA revolution.
Yellow ribbons, once a symbol of the revolution, were absent. Instead, white ribbons – a neutral color meant to represent political non-partisanship – were tied to trees across the campus. – with reports from Herbie Gomez, Rappler.com