It takes time and social momentum to unleash an upheaval.

Social uprisings do not solely rest on the clarion call of particular personalities.

It’s the meeting of the people’s minds, the tapping into the collective consciousness, the gathering and unifying of symbols of dissent, that produces the groundswell which erupts into an energetic dismantling of existing social orders.

But there will be respites. Looking back, it took us 300 years to unburden the Spanish yoke, 20 years to topple a dictator, 15 years to regenerate a mass uprising.

But when the moment arrives, those who foolishly undermined the capacity of the people to unite and defy the powers that be, will find themselves in the most woeful state as they find their versions of ancien regime crumble.

Nothing can be more sorrier than to see the faces of those Spanish peninsulares and frailes while they were being surrounded in Intramuros by Filipino insurrectos.

Or Marcos, as he was being ferreted out to Hawaii while insisting to take refuge in Paoay.

Or Erap, while he was being ferried out of Malacanang while the militant groups were marching towards Mendiola.

Verily, in this conflict-ridden country of ours, political storms may take time to brew, but they are sure to make landfall.

History is seen differently from both ends of a gun. What may be seen as a victory for political institutions and power wielders may be viewed as the demise of truth and justice in civil society. Even so.

Let us take consolation that we remember our past not with exultation of victories brought by might but with solemn recollections of those who sacrificed in the midnight of time, at the height of evil’s domination.

Thus we remember GomBurZa, Rizal, Bonifacio, Ninoy…

The usurper and her minions may have prevailed for the moment, but those whose conscience has been touched by the truth will make sure that this injustice in our history will never be forgotten.

The names of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, de Venecia, Ramos, Gonzales, Defensor etc. and those 158 members of Congress will forever be etched in our country’s annals of iniquity.

In the final reckoning, that’s all that matters.