The nation was crying, its people gathering. In the several hours to pass, the Marcosian regime would be over. Its dictator would be fleeing to Hawaii.
It was 1986. For Theresa Reyes, a journalist, it had to be the best day of her life.
The breeze felt different that day. “It’s like you’re in love,” Theresa says, of February 25. Her mother was crying; strangers around her were crying. Theresa’s family joined the crowd in a historic event that had just toppled a two-decade rule.
It was at first hard to believe, especially for someone who had all her early years shackled by the chains of martial law. It could have been just propaganda, for all she knew.
But the news was true this time. It was all over the media: The nation was free.
Years before, Theresa had already been against the status quo. In her college years she was a member of the Philippine Collegian, known for outrightly criticizing the authority. In many instances, just to print issues, they had to forge the signature of their editor-in-chief who was jailed at the time.
If people wanted to know what’s happening, they turned to the mosquito press. That was the daily grind.
After graduation she became features editor for alternative media outlet Veritas, backed by the Catholic Church. Marcos would not touch it, she says, and Theresa would never enter a dictatorship-ruled mainstream media, either.
But even the safest publications still took everyday risks. “They could shut us down any time,” she says. Soon enough, Theresa disengaged from the media industry, refusing to succumb to the system.
On this, she says, “What’s journalism for if you cannot tell the truth?”
For the years that came after EDSA I Theresa joined the press again, only to find the nation in disorder. The Philippines is a young democracy; people had to figure where to go from there, she says. No one could blame Marcos anymore.
But there are choices now, the current CNN Philippines news director says. “That’s the beauty of what we have now. There are sectors that may influence you, but you don’t give in.”
The struggle has continued, she says. “We just have to keep going despite it.”
For Theresa, one thing is clear: Martial law must never happen again. “And if anybody tries to bring it back again, it must be resisted in the strongest possible terms.”
This story is the last of UP Journalism Club’s three-part series of anecdotes on the events that led to and transpired during and after the 1986 People Power Revolution.
The contents of this post were retrieved from a Wayback Machine archive of UPJC’s old website dated July 15, 2024, 11:49:01 GMT.
