Hundreds of students walked out of their classrooms to commemorate the EDSA People Power Revolution in the Philippines.

The late dictator's son and current Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, refused to suspend classes for the 39th-year commemoration of the uprising that ousted his father in Manila.

Footage shows enraged youngsters pouring outside of the building on February 25. They held flags and cardboard with slogans.

One of the students, Tiffany Brillante, said: 'We will not allow ourselves to be mere spectators in this distortion of our history, and we are ready to skip our classes to join and continue the commemoration of the EDSA People Power uprising.'

They held a program outside the building and marched to the main gate of the university.

President Marcos downgraded the event to a special working day in an alleged attempt to downplay the revolt that toppled his chronically corrupt dictator father in 1986.

The Edsa People Power Revolution was a peaceful uprising in the Philippines from February 22 to 25, 1986, that led to the downfall of President Ferdinand Marcos.

Millions of Filipinos gathered along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Manila, demanding democracy and protesting election fraud.

The Philippines finally gained independence in 1946 following centuries of struggle against colonial and imperial powers - only for the notorious Marcos family to fill the void and plunder state coffers of more than 10 billion USD. The endemic corruption was symbolised by Imelda Marcos' extravagant collection of art and more than 3,000 pairs of designer shoes.

The dictator's son Marcos Jr, or Bong Bong by his nickname, regained power for the family in 2023, leading to suggestions that the country was suffering from 'Stockholm syndrome'.

In 1995, a U.S. federal jury in Hawaii awarded nearly two billion USD in damages to 10,000 Filipino victims who suffered human rights abuses under Marcos's martial law regime.

While in 2003, the Philippine Supreme Court ordered the forfeiture of 658 million USD held in Swiss bank accounts, determining these funds were part of the Marcos family's ill-gotten wealth.

The Supreme Court also affirmed in 2012 the forfeiture of 3.3 million USD in assets held by Arelma, Inc., a Panamanian entity established by Marcos, ruling these assets were unlawfully acquired.

In 2014, the Philippine anti-graft court declared the MalacaNang Jewelry Collection, seized from the Marcoses, as ill-gotten wealth. This decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2017, leading to the collection's forfeiture in favour of the government.

Imelda Marcos, the former First Lady, was found guilty on seven counts of graft related to the creation of private foundations in Switzerland during her tenure as a government official from 1968 to 1986. She was sentenced to imprisonment totalling up to 77 years.

In 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that a 57.68-hectare property in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, was unlawfully acquired and ordered its return to the state.