Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman on Monday, Oct. 16 filed a House bill seeking to declare February 25 of every year as a regular national public non-working holiday in commemoration of the peaceful EDSA People Power that ousted late former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
Lagman shared a copy of House Bill No. (HBN) 9405 on his official Facebook page.
"I filed a bill memorializing Feb 25 as a regular national public non-working holiday in commemoration of peaceful EDSA people power," he said.
Under HBN 9405, Lagman said there must be a law institutionalizing the EDSA People Power Revolution, which started on Feb. 22, 1986, and culminated on Feb. 25, 1986, as a regular national public non-working holiday.
"The law will (a) perpetuate the commemoration of the Filipinos' triumph against the despotism and profligacy during the darkest era in Philippine history; (b) memorialize the heroism and sufferings of the victims and survivors of the martial law period; (c) promote historical truth and help guarantee non-repetition of massive violations of human rights; and (d) forego the varying degrees of celebration decreed by Philippine sitting presidents to the extent of ambivalence and negation," he said.
According to the Albay lawmaker, Filipinos having a short memory was "unsurprising" given that the Philippines "failed to institutionalize memorialization compared with other States."
He stressed that "memorialization constitutes the intertwined processes of preserving the collective memories of a people."
"Memoralization brings the current generation back to the past so as to learn from its lessons and challenges and better understand the prevailing problematic national situation," Lagman added.
EDSA Commission
In the same bill, the House solon proposed to establish an EDSA Commission that will "reconstituted to plan and implement appropriate nationwide ceremonies for the observance of February 25 as the culmination day of the peaceful EDSA People Power Revolution."
He said the Executive Secretary shall serve as the EDSA Commission's chairperson.
The members will be coming from the government agencies, including Department of the Interior and Local Government; Department of Labor and Employment; National Historical Commission of the Philippines; Commission on Human Rights; Human Rights Violations Victims' Memorial Commission; Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance; Task Force Detainees of the Philippines; and Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates.
Also part of the EDSA Commission are representatives from the private sector and the academe who are "known advocates of the promotion, protection, and fulfillment of human rights and of the continuing celebration of the peaceful EDSA People Power Revolution."
The two representatives, he said, shall be appointed by the majority of the EDSA Commission members.
"At least ten million pesos (P10,000,000) annually shall be appropriated in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) and allocated to the EDSA Commission for its operations, together with a private donation," Albay lawmaker said.
Lagman added that appropriate fund for EDSA Commission's operations could be source from the Office of the President's savings and/or contingent fund if there would be "pending inclusion in the GAA."
