MANILA (UPDATED) — Students and other academic community members in some state-run universities staged walkouts from classes on Tuesday to commemorate the 39th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution.

School was out for the day for those in the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) who joined a rally in front of the Sant Mesa campus before proceeding to the EDSA Shrine to join in EDSA 39 activities there.

They criticized the PUP administration for not suspending classes on the Palace-declared special working day, after a number of private schools suspended theirs.

Student groups including Student Regent Kim Modelo have been urging PUP President Manuel Muhi to follow suit.

According to a post by the PUP Office of the Student Regent, Muhi had told PUP Main Campus Office of Student Services Director Jim Fernando that the other schools have “more authority” to suspend theirs unlike the state university.

But Muhi nonetheless is “encouraging student formations to “invite students to participate in any EDSA-related activity”, student regent Kim Modelo said in the post.

The student regent said PUP “should set an example for many schools and the young.”

“This should be a place where we can safely and freely study the ills of the society that affect our daily lives, from personal to academics…The Philippines now face[s] various social issues that continue to burden the lives of normal people, and we should not tolerate that by showing solidarity, especially on the day of remembering the militance of those who came before us,” the post read.

Student organizations at the PUP Quezon City campus also led a walkout to join EDSA commemorations.

Before that, they held a showing of the Martial Law-set movie "Dekada '70" that detailed the struggles of those who opposed the regime of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

A number of students at the Cavite State University main campus in Indang, Cavite also held an academic walkout after calls on the university administration to suspend classes were unheeded.

At a program outside the campus, the students urged fellow “Iskolar ng Bayan” to give importance to the spirit of the revolt and never forget its triumph against dictatorship.

From north of Metro Manila, students at Bulacan State University also initiated a walkout wearing black and yellow clothes.

Bulacan State University President and Student Regent Queenie Quintero led the walk out and protest to remind the student community that EDSA spirit lives on.

She mentioned that the BulSU administration rejected their prior petitions to suspend classes today, February 25.

The BulSUans concluded their protest where students, who exclaimed "Buhay ang EDSA!", took an oath to continue serving the country and remembering the revolt.

The University of the Philippines (UP) did not suspend classes but instead declared February 25th as an alternative learning day throughout the university system.

The university administration said this was to enjoin the UP community to continue to commemorate the 1986 uprising that led to the downfall of Marcos Sr. and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Ateneo students, teachers & other community members also held a program at the Ateneo De Manila University campus with speeches and community singing to encourage students to involve themselves in the country’s issues & problems.

As part of the program, they jointly sang “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo”, the anthem inspired by the 1986 EDSA People Power revolt, together with its composer and Ateneo alumnus Jim Paredes.

--With a report from Ched Gatchalian, ABS-CBN News