‘People Power’ transferred to Historical Commission

President Duterte yesterday issued Executive Order No. 47 directing the transfer of the EDSA People Power Commission (EPPC) to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP).

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque the new executive order is aimed to ensure an affective integration of the functions of the EPPC and the NHCP.

Accordingly, Roque said EO 47 amends EO 82, which was issued in 1999 during the administration of former President Joseph Estrada.

Under the new EO, the chairman of the NHCP will now serve as exofficio chair of the EPPC.

With the transfer, the NHCP will now be responsible, among others, for initiating activities that will expand awareness of the principles and values that the EDSA People Power Revolution stands for and the planning, organizing and implementation the yearly commemoration of the 1986 EDSA Revolution every 25th of February.

The President also directed the NHCP to assume the management of the People Power Monument in EDSA and assure its continued maintenance and upkeep.

Operating under the office of the President, the EPPC was initially given the mandate of closely coordinating with private sector groups to perpetuate and propagate the spirit of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

The EDSA Revolution was the peaceful, bloodless culmination of the series of street protests and civil disobedience that ousted former President Ferdinand Marcos who ruled the Philippines for decades, some of those years under martial rule.

On the other hand, NHCP is responsible for the conservation and preservation of the country’s historical legacies. One of its functions is to undertake the commemoration of signifcant events and personages in Philippine history and safeguard the blazoning of the national government and its political divisions and instrumentalities.