Historian Leloy Claudio says post-EDSA generation should take part in democracy

With the EDSA People Power Revolution marking its 36th anniversary, historian Lisandro “Leloy” Claudio said Filipinos should take part in the democracy it sparked to keep its legacy alive.

According to Claudio, this has been an “ethos” of those born after the 1986 movement.

In an episode of “The Howie Severino Podcast,” the academic and historian said “public engagement” was important for those born post Edsa-revolution.

“Sa post-EDSA moment kasi, napakatindi ng balitaktakan sa Pilipinas, ’di ba? Because malaya na tayo,” he said.

“When you’re born into that moment, you really wanna speak,” he added.

“I think important for me to participate in this democracy that really became so vibrant after EDSA from 1986. Grabe magbalitaktakan at magbanatan ang mga Pilipino.”

Claudio said while democracy was revived after the EDSA revolution, Filipinos shouldn’t stop there.

“After that, ano na? Mayroon na tayong freedom of speech, freedom of religion. Nakahinga na nga tayo, ’di ba? I think of EDSA as, it stopped the bleeding,” he said.

“But if you stop the bleeding, are you healthy? Not necessarily. Baka kailangan mo pa ng transfusion,” he added.

“Hindi na kasing sama pero kailangan mo pa ring palusugin ’yung bayan.”

While saying the revolution and the events after it still had a sense of “brokenness,” Claudio added it wasn’t an excuse to go backwards further.

“But to say the present is (also) broken doesn’t mean you go back to a system that’s even more broken,” said the historian.

Especially now that human rights were being abused and “demonized” by some, he said it was essential for him “to keep telling the stories of Filipino liberals to show that liberalism is a Filipino tradition.”

“Mayroon ’yung suffering pero a lot of us don’t share the suffering. Out of sight, out of mind tendency. It applies to our reading of the present, but also applies to the reading of the past,” he said.

“Sometimes, yes, pain leads to an insight that we need freedom and liberty, but we don’t share the pain. Then, we’re not gonna come up with that insight collectively as a Filipino.”

Claudio is currently a professor of Philippine culture at University of California-Berkeley. He is also an author of books on Philippine history.

Among his published works are “Jose Rizal: Liberalism and the Paradox of Coloniality (Palgrave)” and “Liberalism and the Postcolony: Thinking the State in Twentieth-Century Philippines.” – Franchesca Viernes/RC, GMA News