The People Power Project: EDSA and Beyond

Abstract

The events of February 1986 have been prominently billed as revolutionary so spectators believed that the government is revolutionary as well. But the Aquino government, which was hounded with issues of agrarian reform, the external debt obligations, and unreformed military, failed to deliver. It did not claim full control over military ranks. In 1986, the country paid more than $4 million in debt service, which is approximately 80% of the total foreign exchange earnings from commodity exports the previous year. The People’s Power may not have led to meaningful changes in the Philippine social structure, but it definitely gave many Filipinos enough reason and courage to question the existing system of privilege, of power, and of property. A wellspring of a sustained campaign for an authentic agrarian reform and of the quest for a far-reaching democratization of Filipino life has been established.