ILOILO CITY - The president of the influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has called on Filipinos to re-live the sacred memory and principles of EDSA People Power I as the country commemorates the 20th anniversary of the popular revolt that toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said the people should continue aspiring for good governance, characterized by justice, honesty, credibility, accountability and integrity.

"They should not stop until they get it," Lagdameo said in an e-mailed statement. He recalled the pivotal period after the snap presidential elections on February 7, 1986 when the CBCP, then headed by Cardinal Ricardo Vidal of Cebu, met on February 13 to pray and discuss the conduct of the elections.

The bishops then issued the now historic declaration: "In our considered judgment, the polls were unparalleled in the fraudulence of their conduct…

According to moral principles, a government that assumes or retains power through fraudulent means has no moral basis." Lagdameo pointed out that a bloody encounter between opposing groups of the military was aborted by the call of the late Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin through the Church-owned Radio Veritas for the people to gather in EDSA and prevent a possible civil war.

Sin's call was heeded by millions who flocked to EDSA in defense of former President Fidel Ramos, who was then Armed Forces deputy chief of staff, and Marcos' defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, now a senator, after the two withdrew their support from Marcos and holed up in Camps Aguinaldo and Crame.

Lagdameo said the millions who flocked to EDSA staved off a bloody confrontation.

"The Dictator must have also been watching the television. How could he order the first shot? Goodness too had softened his heart. He also had made a heroic decision. He left Malacañang hastily and quietly without a shot ringing in EDSA," Lagdameo said.

He said Filipinos failed to pursue the vision of EDSA I and "allow it to bear fruit" in all levels of society. "Graft and corruption started to creep in again. Or have they really left? Graft and corruption breeds poverty and poverty breeds graft and corruption," Lagdameo said.

But he said something good has happened and is happening today and urged the people to continue looking for good governance.

Earlier, Lagdameo had pointed out that the time of EDSA I was different amid mounting calls for another popular uprising to oust President Macapagal-Arroyo.

He said the conditions present in EDSA I and in EDSA II in 2001, when another popular revolt ousted former President Joseph Estrada, are absent and impossible to reenact.

"We have been waiting for the opposition and the people to unite. They may be arm in arm but (they are) coming from different political perspectives."

He said the Church, whose role especially of Cardinal Sin was pivotal in the two popular revolts, will respond to the demands of the present time and not as it was before.

"That is why the one that should be in the frontline is the CBCP, not any figure. That's the reason why we have work together," Lagdameo said.*NPB

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