18/02/2026
ATOM STATEMENT: HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY PEOPLE POWER!
This coming Sunday is the 40th Anniversary of when Butz Aquino, Atom founder, made the first call to EDSA, on the night of February 22, 1986. The night People Power was born.
We remember how many people were skeptical that Sunday night, when Butz made that call on Radio Veritas at 10:20 p.m.: "Nandito ako sa Camp Aguinaldo. Nandito ako upang hadlangan ang pagdanak ng dugo. Nananawagan ako sa mga kaibigan ko sa Atom, Bandila at FSDM, magkita-kita tayo sa Isetann sa Cubao." The call to Atom members and the people.
A call for the ages. A call that many people wanted to dismiss as just another one of those antics by that "crazy old Butz." But it was a call that Cardinal Sin also believed in when he decided to follow the announcement of Butz with his own appeal to the people.
People Power was unheard of up to that time, but People Power has been in the womb of our Motherland, waiting for the right time to be born since Marcos Sr declared Martial Law in 1972.
It was first conceived through the resistance of Filipinos; no matter how small those pocket uprisings and revolts were after martial law was declared. Those actions paved the way for the conception of People Power. But it will take several more years in the womb of our Motherland before it is born on the night of February 22, 1986, in Cubao.
A marker was once installed in that location immediately after the 1986 EDSA Revolution, but just like Butz's initiative in 1986, the marker on the birthplace of People Power has since been lost and forgotten over the last forty years as Filipinos wander in the political desert searching for the promised land and the completion of the unfinished revolution.
Just like any pregnancy, the third trimester was the critical period, from Ninoy's assassination until the Boycott Civil Disobedience of 1986 led by the widow of Ninoy, Cory.
It can never be disputed that Butz Aquino's decision to form the August Twenty-One Movement or Atom after his brother, Ninoy, was murdered in broad daylight, helped organize the middle class and parts of the elite to join the masses in the parliament of the streets. It fast-tracked the readiness of People Power to be born at the earliest time. With all the non-activists joining the fight.
Today, almost forty years since that fateful call, we remain at the crossroads as a nation, as we commemorate the call of that night that nobody ever believed in at first.
Maraming mga problema na gusto sana natin mawala noong 1986 ay kinakalaban pa din natin ngayon. Ang political dynasty na naimbento noong panahon ng Marcos dictatorship, kung saan marami sa kamag-anak ni Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. at Imelda Romualdez Marcos ay nakapwesto sa gobyerno.
Kasama na ang anak nilang si B**g B**g Marcos, at ang kapatid ng First Lady na si Kokoy Romualdez, sa mga nakinabang dito. Political dynasty na bawal sa Konstitusyon ngunit ayaw bigyan ng klarong parameters ng ating Kongreso sa matagal na panahon.
Ang massive modern systematic corruption na naimbento din noong panahon ng Marcos dictatorship ay isa pa sa mga issues na kalaban pa din natin ngayon.
But if there is one big difference now from 1986, kung dati si Butz Aquino lamang at later on, Cardinal Sin, ngayon marami nang mga Butz ang nananawagan sa taumbayan upang bumalik sa diwa ng People Power mula February 22 hanggang February 25, 2026 at alalahanin at ipagpatuloy ang naudlot na laban ng bayan noong 1986, para makamit ang tunay na demokrasya para sa lahat ng Pilipino.
It's true that just like in 1986, except for those four miraculous days of February, the people remained fragmented into many factions to this day. Pero tulad nang ma-alamat na apat na araw ng 1986, walang imposible sa People Power.
How do we dismantle the Marcos-Duterte corruption? Let us all forcefully push them as a people to pass a legitimate political dynasty bill and jail all the corrupt! Regardless of their names. Whether he's Marcos, Romualdez, or even a Duterte, a disciple of the old dictatorship. Because they will never do it on their own.
The Israelites took forty years in the desert to find their promised land. Notwithstanding the failed promises of the Marcos administration to jail the big fish last December, if People Power is remembered, the values that go with it are reclaimed by the people, we might just reach our own promised land, forty years since we freed ourselves from the chains of our own Egypt, the Marcos Dictatorship.
Happy 40th Birthday, People Power!
Remember, tayo ang People Power!
