The Filipino nation should muster “people power” for unity and reconciliation to effectively confront the country’s pressing problems, including ill-effects of El Niño phenomenon, rather stage another revolution in the streets, Malacañang said Sunday.

As the nation commemorates the 24th anniversary of the first EDSA people power revolt this week, Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar urged people to remember EDSA “in substance and not in form,” in an apparent reminder there was no need for similar uprising in dealing with challenges besetting the country.

Olivar said people should set aside political differences and band together to come up with peaceful solutions to these urgent problems to show the world it deserves the legacy left by the heroes of Edsa in 1986.

“In commemorating EDSA, this should be an occasion to look for unity and reconciliation. Let’s look for the things that bind us and get us together instead of the things divide us from each other especially during the campaign season where throwing accusations and criticisms are so popular. We have to be able to stay together as a nation especially for the things that matter,” he said over government radio.

Olivar said the country is facing “serious” problems, such as the effects of El Niño on the country’s water and power situation that require “unified action” from all citizens.

But Olivar was saddened that some political divisions are undermining the consensus that people should be building to tackle these urgent woes.

“It is in moments like these that we will in fact show that we deserve the inheritors of the two EDSA legacies that have been left to us and by being more than inheritors, thereby prove to the world that they need not worry about that EDSA 3 or EDSA 4 happening again in our country,” he said.

Olivar, meantime, said the Arroyo government remains sincere in extending the olive branch to its opponents, especially since it needs all hands on deck to resolve problems facing the country.

He said the President intends to leave a “legacy of stability and reconciliation together with economic achievements” when she relinquishes her post this June.

“This is a continuing task. We need to continue to work on our reconciliation,” he said, when asked if the reconciliation with the Aquino family and other government critics is still a priority of the Arroyo government.

It was still unclear if Mrs. Arroyo, who was installed president in the second EDSA revolt in 2001, would join any EDSA 1 commemorative rites this Monday, according to Olivar. The President is scheduled to visit Albay province Monday.

In commemorating first bloodless people power revolution, Olivar said they hope political parties would join calls for reconciliation and keep the campaign at higher level.

In an apparent reference to Liberal Party standard bearer Sen. Benigno Aquino III, Olivar also asserted that the EDSA revolution was not owned by any particular group. Aquino is the son of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and late President Corazon Aquino who played key roles in the restoration of the country’s democracy .

“The color of Edsa is not only yellow. It is a moment that many people came together, there were red, yellow, brown, and white so it was a rainbow coalition,” he said.

“Let us respect this rainbow of colors during the election campaign because the fact we are having elections rather than Edsa revolts to replace leadership is already a huge achievement and success of our democracy,” Olivar added.