QUEENS VILLAGE — Feb. 25 will mark the 40th anniversary of President Ferdinand Marcos’ fall from power in the Philippines. A young boy at the time, Father Patrick Longalong said he still remembers it, just as he recalls wearing a yellow headband in solidarity with demonstrators whose protests helped topple the regime.
Father Longalong’s sister Diana — who the family nicknamed Gigi — was a student at the University of Santo Tomas, a Catholic university in Manila, and took part in many anti-government demonstrations on her campus and on the streets.
Father Longalong, 47, recalled how he once accompanied his mother, Amparo, when she drove Gigi to the protests.
“My mom used to worry about my sister’s safety,” he said. “But she was determined to go because she believed it was important to fight for the dignity and rights of the people to be liberated from this oppressive regime.”
The anniversary brings back a flood of memories for Father Longalong.
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“One thing I remember is that people were hanging yellow ribbons everywhere,” he said.
Marcos came to power in 1965 and ruled like a dictator, imposing martial law in 1972, keeping an iron grip on the media, and cracking down on any form of dissent.
“People disappeared. People were tortured. There were curfews. You couldn’t be out in the streets at a certain time, or you get arrested,” he explained. “You felt that your life was being dictated by someone else and that you weren’t free.”
Finally, after years of oppression, the people of the Philippines had enough. It all came to a head in 1986. The Catholic Church played a pivotal role in toppling Marcos, according to the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, a ministry of the Maryknoll Sisters that monitors political events worldwide.
Under the leadership of Cardinal Jaime Sin, the archbishop of Manila, priests in parishes all over the country issued pastoral letters, delivered homilies condemning human rights abuses, and called for political prisoners to be treated with dignity.
Cardinal Sin was an outspoken critic of Marcos, repeatedly calling for an end to martial law and encouraging the public to protest the government.
The impetus from Cardinal Sin helped to galvanize hundreds of thousands of Filipinos to take to the streets to call for change. Priests and nuns were among those taking part in the anti-government demonstrations, which spread to college campuses.
The protest movement came to be known as the People Power Revolution.
“What was great about it was that it was a nonviolent protest,” Father Longalong explained. “People prayed the rosary and sang hymns.”
One demonstration drew an estimated 1 million protesters. On Feb. 25, 1986, Marcos fled the country and landed in Hawaii at the invitation of President Ronald Reagan.
“There was great jubilation and relief when Marcos left the country. People felt like they could breathe again,” he said.
After Marcos was toppled, Corazon Aquino, whom Cardinal Sin had supported, became president of the Philippines.
Aquino was the widow of Ninoy Aquino, the opposition leader who was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983, after he arrived back in the Philippines from exile.
Before he was gunned down, supporters of Ninoy waved yellow ribbons to welcome him home, a move that harkened back to the 1970s hit song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon,” in which a man getting out of prison writes his wife and tells her that if she wants him back, she should tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree.
When the nonviolent People Power Revolution was launched, participants remembered the tribute to Ninoy and wore yellow during their protest marches.
“I remember when I was wearing a yellow band around my head,” Father Longalong said. “I felt like I was a part of something really big.”