It’s been 40 years since that fateful day when the Filipinos showed the world how to revolt without shedding fellow Filipinos’ blood. Although I was far away from home, doing my fellowship in immunopathology in the United States of America, I distinctly remember those days. Watching people flock to EDSA in defiance of the Marcos rule, I was in awe of their courage in confronting tanks, armored vehicles and heavily armed soldiers equipped only with prayers, flowers and goodwill towards their fellow citizens. The events unfolding on CNN when it was just a struggling network brought tears to my eyes.

It was then that my wife and I decided that it was time to go back home. Before Feb. 25, 1986, we were discussing ways and means we could stay in the USA, applying for asylum or accepting hardship posts in rural areas that will give us a way to immigrant status, and eventually becoming US citizens. That was because we frankly felt despair over what was happening back home. We knew of friends and classmates who sacrificed their lives, were imprisoned or decided to take up arms against the dictatorship. Now, there was hope, hope that the country can recover from those dark years of oppression.

We came home in October 1987 and started our medical practices, struggling to make a decent living. To supplement our income, I turned to an incipient hobby, orchids. I put up a small-scale orchid cut flower business in my parents’ home in Lucena City. Soon, I was balancing my time between my pathology profession in Manila and going home to Lucena on weekends to bring dozens of white dendrobium flowers back to florists in Manila the following Monday. It helped tide us over the lean days until I was quite busy with my practice and ultimately had to let go of the business.

I was quite fortunate in that my fellowship gave me the tools to improve laboratory practices locally when very few understood immunologic principles. I introduced dozens of new tests which eventually became standard practice. More notably, I started HLA testing, an essential tool in transplantation medicine. It was also a way to determine paternity instead of the less conclusive blood typing method. That was until DNA testing came along, which I also introduced.

The election of Joseph Estrada to the presidency jolted me into asking if we made the right choice in going home. With scandals mounting, I started making plans of relocating back to the USA, only to stop when he was forced to step down from the position. What followed were nine years of more scandals in the Macapagal-Arroyo presidency, and I wondered once more about our decision. But we stayed put, choosing to persevere and give our fellow citizens what we can offer.

The death of Cory Aquino and the subsequent rise to the presidency of her son, Noynoy Aquino, once more gave us hope. He was the president who saw the people as his “boss” and under his leadership, made the Philippines a rising economic star in Asia.

But it seems we were taking a roller coaster ride again with the ascendancy of Rodrigo Duterte, under whose regime thousands of people, mostly poor, died in a “drug” war. Not only was the Duterte term saddled with death and violence, it was riddled with tales of rampant drug smuggling and corruption, the most brazen of which was the Pharmally scandal during the Covid pandemic. No big fish were caught while the minnows were initially tagged as culprits only to be let go later.

The 2022 presidential election campaign once again brought hope that we would see progress and prosperity for the common folk. We campaigned fervently in hopes of electing our choice. It was a giddy period when we joined rallies, designed and printed campaign materials and went online to boost our candidates.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Despair once again flooded our lives, and we wept openly over the outcome. But it was the will of the people, and we resigned ourselves to wait and see what happens next.

The Marcos 2.0 presidency, though not a repeat of the first, also has its share of massive corruption, with billions of pesos in taxpayer money allegedly going to the pockets of the so-called “congtractors.” At least, they have been exposed. We just have to see if justice will be done.

Hope springs eternal. The youth vote is making strides in electing honest and competent leaders. We will keep trying to make a difference. The EDSA People Power Revolution lives on, in the hearts and minds of the just, even after forty years. It also lives in the yellow orchid hybrid I made and named Spirit of EDSA86.

Long live the spirit of EDSA86!