Today we mark the 39th commemoration of the People Power uprising that toppled the Marcos dictatorship. It was the culmination of 14 years of struggle by our people to end tyranny, widespread human rights violations, and the plunder of our nation’s coffers.

Amid a massive disinformation campaign to distort history and to paint the martial law years as the great era of our republic, we consecrated persons comprising the Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines refuse to forget the horrors and monumental thievery of that time.

It was a time of darkness and light.

It was a time of terror and courage.

It was a time of repression and resistance.

It was a time of subservience and sacrifice.

It was a time of silence and protest.

Consecrated persons lived and struggled with the poor, deprived, oppressed masses—workers, peasants, urban poor, women, youth, middle class, and the rest of society. Our forebears saw the need to link faith with action. Inspired by Jesus Christ, the religious immersed themselves with the struggling poor. They formed various task forces to serve the workers, urban poor, peasants, detainees, women, and indigenous peoples.

Nuns, priests, and lay people formed basic Christian communities to strengthen the link between faith and action further.

Many suffered, and some paid their lives for their prophetic stand against human rights violations and injustice, against tyranny and repression.

Today we remember and pay tribute to the countless and often nameless martyrs and heroes of the anti-dictatorship struggle.

Today we remember their courage, sacrifice, and resistance so that we can be free of tyranny and dictatorship.

But even as we remember, we are faced with new challenges, with the new face of tyranny and plunder in our midst.

The Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines:
Sr. Cecilia A. Espenilla, OP
Fr. Lino Gregorio V. Redoblado, OFM
CMSP Co-Chairpersons