THROWBACK! Makinig at makinood: Sights and sounds of EDSA from 40 years ago
- Konekonek Team
- Feb 25
- 3 min read
Every February, our feeds fill up again with grainy clips—sepia footage and shaky shots from analog cameras. Mga boses na parang galing sa lumang transistor radio. For EDSA’s 40th year, the story feels less like a history lesson and more like pressing play on a forgotten mixtape. Luma, pero sana hindi napag-iiwanan.
For most of us, EDSA isn’t exactly a direct memory, but more like… a vibe. Faded videos and clipped audio snippets of reporter voices softened by age, old familiar slogans being chanted by the crowd in the background. The “sights and sounds” of 1986 live on—hindi lang sa mga docu sa TV, but also on raw, archival uploads of pixelated news reports, digitized interviews, and even old live recordings from radio stations.
And somehow, that rawness makes the experience more intimate. Watching and listening feels like someone handing you an old cassette and saying, “Pakinggan mo, baka may marinig ka na bago.”
Here are some YouTube videos and Spotify playlists that let us revisit EDSA the way we encounter it today—fragmented, human, and quietly powerful.
Footage from the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution (GovPH)
This video courtesy of NHK is from a Japanese newscast aired on March 2, 1986, less than a week after the revolution.
On EDSA's 40th anniversary, hear the sound of a revolution (PumaPodcast)
What does toppling a dictatorship sound like? This features the first three parts of Radyo Malaya, a radio drama produced for the Cultural Center of the Philippines using archival sound recordings from Radyo Veritas and the Philippine Information Agency.
EDSA 20: Isang Larawan (INQ TV)
This documentary special was released in 2006 to mark the 20th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution. Produced by INQ TV and aired on ABC 5, the original documentary itself is unavailable, but this particular version was uploaded on YouTube shortly after airing. It features voices that had previously never been heard from before.
EDSA 25: Sulyap sa Kasaysayan (Full Documentary) (ABS-CBN News)
Directed by Jim Libiran, EDSA 25: Sulyap sa Kasaysayan (A Glimpse of History) is a 2011 documentary produced by ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs for the 25th anniversary of the People Power Revolution — recounting the final years of former President Ferdinand Marcos in power up to the historic three days of February 1986. The film stitches together archival footage of the ’70s and ’80s with the voices of eyewitnesses and key players in the events leading to EDSA.
And of course, a music video:
Handog ng Pilipino Sa Mundo
What echoes stay with us
Music and videos offer its audience texture—the sound of footsteps on pavement, the murmur of crowds and laughter among strangers. The static‑filled voices of reporters take us back to the time when everyone was simply trying to make sense of unfolding events
These small, sensory details remind us that EDSA is more than just a headline. It was a lived moment made up of ordinary people doing ordinary things that, together, became extraordinary. Even if you’re not deeply invested in the history, the surviving sounds and visuals invite you to lean in—not because you’re being asked to believe something, but because you’re hearing something real.
Perhaps that’s the quiet power of these old archives--they simply let you witness and listen. And sometimes, that’s enough to make us rediscover a moment we thought we already knew.
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