Ambeth, EDSA, America

Hmmm. Very interesting this reconstruction by Ambeth Ocampo of Day one 22 Feb 86 based daw on primary sources including declassified US state department documents of the period.

I take issue with 3 items, for the record:

1 That “Ramos and Enrile … moved from Camp Aguinaldo to Camp Crame” some hours after announcing their defection to the press. FACT: That night, only Ramos moved to Camp Crame which was his turf as PC chief. Enrile stayed in Aguinaldo until the next day; he moved to Crame Sunday afternoon 23 Feb and only because the tanks were coming; RAM finally agreed with Ramos that Crame would be easier to defend.

2 That “an estimated 20,000 people, many bringing food for the rebel soldiers, had heeded the call of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin to lend their support by going to Edsa.” FACT: Butz Aquino’s call on Radio Veritas for people to join him in a march to EDSA and help prevent bloodshed came first, at 10:20 p.m. The Cardinal had to be convinced to make a similar call and he finally did so at 10:40 only to say that “Those of you who wish to help should do so.” At midnight when he spoke on Radio Veritas again and finally echoed Butz’s call for non-violent action, Butz and some 20 to 30k people were already marching to the EDSA camps from Isetann Cubao.

3 That “Cardinal Sin and Enrile called for nonviolent resolution…” FACT: Enrile was always saying that they would not fire the first shot, but nowhere in the newspaper accounts of those days or in the snap and not-snap EDSA books was he ever said to be calling for non-violence. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Eager to read what the next three days were like, according to Ambeth and the Americans.