MANILA, February 25, 2009—The world learned from EDSA People Power 1 in 1986 because “it was the first successful expression of the will of the people which the world later replicated.”

This was how Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB described the peaceful uprising that brought popular opposition leader Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino to presidency.

It was the same uprising that sent then strongman Ferdinand Edralin Marcos and his family hastily packing their belongings to Clark Field, an American air base north of Manila and later on to Hawaii where he eventually died three years later.

Sr. Mary John, a popular human rights advocate and academician said it was the first time people who assembled peacefully and successfully changed the country’s course of History.

“For us people, those considered super senior citizens, we’re still in the streets and keeps the memory of EDSA 1 very much alive,” she said in an interview with Radio Veritas Wednesday morning.

She said both EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 are worth remembering and considers both exercises as “correct expressions of the people’s will.”

She, however, admitted the people simply left governance to those in power and never shared responsibility nor manifested vigilance to keep the peaceful uprising’s ideals alive in the hearts and minds of those who govern.

“We ought to be part of the watchdogs and as the elections draw near, we should be able to watch the country’s president from the very start,” she further added.

She suggested people should learn to lobby against corrupt practices and watch political appointed.

“I would definitely want to change the way we appoint members of the bench who turn out to be beholden to the appointing authority, just like lawmakers whose pork-barrel funds are released through the orders of the chief executive sacrificing the independence of the three co-equal branches of government,” she concluded. (Melo M. Acuna)