As we mark the 40th year since the EDSA People Power Uprising, we are called to reflect: What changed since this historic uprising of the Filipino people? Today, the son of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., sits in the presidency, an unsettling reminder of how fragile people’s coopted “struggle” can be through the years. Many Filipinos must confront familiar and pulsating realities: persistent corruption, deepening poverty, and continuing human rights violations under a semifeudal and semicolonial decrepit social order—one that is run and perpetuated by bureaucrat capitalists.

The EDSA uprising was the culmination of years of difficult, life-and-death struggle waged by the Filipino people. It was not easy then, and the struggle remains difficult today. It is therefore fitting to remember the thousands of heroes and martyrs who offered their lives in the fight against dictatorship down from the grassroots—from the peasants, workers, women, and even church people who resisted and fled to the countryside and resist. We honor their courage and the righteous indignation that continues to inspire people of faith and the broader Filipino people to work for genuine democracy contributing towards the victory of the people’s armed struggle.

Under Marcos Sr.’s dictatorship, members of the Christians for National Liberation went to the countryside and joined the armed struggle, the highest form of struggle for liberation; joined the picket lines, breaking the culture of fear brought by fascist terror; and participated and supported the national democratic revolution in various forms. Since its birth in February 17, 1972, the CNL continued this long history of siding with the poor, oppressed, and persecuted by deeply rooting itself in the struggle of the Filipino masses, they stood one in the call for people’s revolution.

The People Power uprising is not a people’s revolution, but sells a false idea of democracy, assimilated by another ruling elite, and thus, gives us false hope. It promised genuine land reform, food security for every family, and accessible social services remains unfulfilled; poverty persists, worsened by global economic pressures and the climate crisis. With the same oppressive social structures in place, the one that brought back a Marcos in the Malacañang, the Filipino people would continue to be yoked by deepening poverty under enduring semi-feudal and semi-colonial conditions, compounded by worsening corruption. But blessed are we for the path towards genuine democracy and liberation are already being paved by the national democratic revolution through the people’s protracted war.

The CNL is strong in its faith and stance to be with the poor, advocate for agrarian justice, and work toward dismantling systems that perpetuate inequality. The surge of the Filipino masses to EDSA will always be repeated, as long as the three social evils exist: Imperialism, Feudalism, and Bureaucrat Capitalism persist. And the path of EDSA ultimately leads to level of revolution with a socialist perspective, and only then, that comprehensive change in society can truly be achieved. It is only then that a reality of peace where there is genuine agrarian reform, national industrialization, true democracy of the people free from the shackles of imperialist control can be fully realized.

Revolutionary change is ripe. As the legal democratic mass movement floods, so too must the strength of the underground revolutionary forces. The CNL unequivocally affirms that the national democratic revolution with socialist perspective is the only path toward genuine liberation of the people.

Again,

With the people, we march.
With the masses, we struggle.
With faith and revolution, we shall win.

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