What do Christmas, Good Friday and the People Power anniversary commemorated on Feb 25 have in common? For many Filipinos, it could mean just a break from school.
A breakdown of the Philippine population based on age structure shows that roughly six out of 10 Filipinos weren’t born yet when Ferdinand Marcos was ousted as president in February 1986.
According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, Filipinos 14 years old or younger represent 34.02 per cent of the population.
Those between 15 and 24 years old make up 19.18 per cent of the population.
Filipinos between 25 and 29 years old represent approximately 8.3 per cent of the population, which means 61 per cent of the country’s people did not exist in 1986.
According to July 2015 estimates, which the World Factbook statistics are based on, the Philippine population is slightly less than 100.1 million.
The 30th anniversary of the historic event, which peacefully ended 20 years of dictatorial rule by Marcos, has dominated local media coverage, but has People Power’s significance resonated with many of the country’s 20-somethings and its school-going population?
There are some on Twitter who are just looking forward to the time off from school or none too pleased about writing what one describes as a boring essay about the revolution.
Some tweets are just cringeworthy in their shallowness at best and stupidity at worst.
News sites have been relentless in churning out stories that teach EDSA’s lessons, working under the belief that we’re doomed to repeat mistakes if we don’t learn from them.
As more Filipinos are born who are far removed from those four glorious days in February 1986 and further more from the atrocities of a dictatorship, that job of reminding next generations can never, ever stop.
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