Official statement from ATOM

After years of demonizing the color yellow by no less than former President Rodrigo Duterte during the course of his presidency, why the sudden change of heart now, about the color? Why the urge to associate with a color that you once despised? And now claim that President Duterte is an original "dilaw"? While we agree with Senator Robin Padilla, that historically speaking, the PDP-Laban is one of the original political parties that used the color yellow as their motif, especially after Cory Aquino was drafted by the people to run against the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. and bring down the dictatorship in the 1986 Snap Elections, we categorically state that the PDP-Laban now has ceased to be the same PDP-Laban that the great Nene Pimentel and hero Ninoy Aquino once formed and eventually merged to go up against the Marcos, Sr. Dictatorship. It is not the same PDP-Laban yellow that Cory Aquino once belonged to. Hindi din namin nakakalimutan kung paano siniraan ang kabayanihan ni Ninoy Aquino ng mga alipores and troll supporters of the Duterte admin for years. We take offense to the fact that after desecrating the color for years during the Duterte presidency because of the lies that were propagated on social media, a color that for years stood for the democratic ideals that the people fought for in the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986, people are now ready to hijack this color again and use it because it is now convenient to do so. Duterte popularized the term "dilawan" to serve as an insult to Filipinos who identify with this color and its values. Yellow originally stood for the people's resistance against a dictator. It is the same yellow that tried to welcome Ninoy Aquino in 1983. The same yellow that our organization, the August Twenty-One Movement, started using in 1983 as a symbol of our desire to resist the dictatorship and to bring down an abusive dictatorial regime. Yellow is for the courage to stand up against tyrants. It should never be associated with people who once supported the killings of our fellow Filipinos and who acted like tyrants themselves. You betrayed the original ideals of the color yellow, and now you are trying to use it again? In the last few years, when almost no one else wanted to be associated with the color yellow, because of years of black propaganda, a revitalized ATOM tried to rebuild the color's lost legacy that was destroyed by the same camp you are now supporting, Senator Padilla. With all due respect, that is the highest of all ironies. Noong mga panahong halos pandirihan ang kulay na yellow, naglakas loob pa din kami sa ATOM para isuot ito at ipakita sa taumbayan na walang dapat ikahiya sa kulay na ito. Dahil kulay ito ng maraming Pilipino noong pinabagsak natin bilang Pilipino ang diktadurang Marcos sa pamamagitan ng mapayapang paraan. In fact, other countries started using this color also as a symbol of their own resistance to their abusive governments after 1986. It seems the trend nowadays is that both camps of the former allies in the UNITEAM tandem of Ferdinand Marcos, Jr & Sara Duterte are now trying to win the so-called "pinks" and now embracing the color "yellow"? The blowing of the winds seems to have made a change of course now, but still, this claim of Senator Padilla has to be corrected and called out for its irony. You don't just dump the true history of this color and go back to it just to use it again for your impure political plans.