Edsa 2: A Nation in Revolt: A Photographic Journal

EDSA is a concrete highway that traverses the teeming city of Manila. In Feburary 1986, it was the site of a popular upsrising against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos. For three days, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos gathered in front of two military camps there, providing human shield to dissident officers who had attempted a coup against the president. They stayed there, facing tanks with rosaries and flowers until Marcos and his family were forced to flee. Since then, the anti-Marcos uprising has been called "Edsa" to commemorate the place where it took place. EDSA 2 is the sequel. In January 2001, Filipinos staged a revolt against Joseph Estrada, the popularly elected president who was undergoing an impeachment trial for corruption and grand malfeasance. When it looked like the integrity of the trial was being compromised, Filipinos took to the streets again in an uprising that was a much protest as it was celebration. EDSA is no longer just a strip of concrete highway but a symbol of righteous outrage. It has transcended its original meaning, no longer bound by time or place but wedded to the idea that citizen action is the ultimate check on the excesses of those who wield power. EDSA is a street uprising with touches of the carnival or fiesta. There is dancing, music, food, so it sometimes seems like a party or a picnic. But the rage is real, and the sense that people in their numbers make a difference is so powerful to those who were there that Edsa becomes a defining experience for them. EDSA 2: A Nation In Revolt is a photographic account of the events that led to People Power 2. It contains 252 photograhs by 53 leading Filipino photojournalists and leads off with the essay, "The Unmaking of a President" written by the director of the Philippine Center for Investigative journalism, Sheila S. Coronel. These photographs unmask the real Estrada and reveal that the image he projected was different from what he really was