Embodying the Promises of the People Power Revolution: Public Service as Civic Engagement among Millennial Officers in a Philippine City Jail

Abstract

The EDSA I People Power Revolution (PPR) was supposed to overturn elite dominance as it championed the protection of human rights and vowed to restore justice in Philippine society. Thirty-five years since the peaceful revolution, how has the nation been shaped by this narrative? And how do millennials born in the same era that the promise of PPR has been created and shattered, carry and practice its values? Taking from the work of Cornelio (2016, 2020), this article unfolds the unexplored purview of Filipino millennials and empirically substantiates Arguelles’ (2020) claims on millennial practices of civic involvement. In doing so, this paper interrogates the concept of 'public service’ as a channel of choice by which millennials creatively contribute to worthwhile advocacies as a form of civic engagement. Specifically, this article analyzes viewpoints from criminal justice practitioners serving the country’s jail bureau by framing the everyday practice of public service within millennial jail officers’ notions of PPR’s grand narratives and ways by which they value their service to the public as a contribution to preserving its heritage.