Category: edsa

why coryistas marched to EDSA in 1986

everytime february comes around i check out the first-person accounts, sifting for details that would further flesh out my chronology and / or that would either confirm or dispute my reading of the four-day event as essayed in Himagsikan.

this from rafael alunan III‘s feb 21 business world column is a great find:

In the afternoon of Feb. 22, 1986, Manindigan! held an emergency meeting in Benguet, at the corner of J. Vargas and ADB Ave., to assess its options, in case the Marcos regime cracked down on the pro-Aquino protest movement. Cory Aquino’s political rallies and ” miting de avance” that produced huge crowds before and after the snap elections had the Marcos regime worried. With allegations of election cheating that triggered a mass walkout of computerencoders, the air was rife with rumors about a possible military strike by reform-minded elements in the military.

Jimmy Ongpin, Benguet boss and M! chair, presided. Unknown to many members, he was also secretly linked to RAM — the Reform the Armed Forces Movement. Many members, through their own sources, had been receiving more or less the same subtle signals that something was afoot, and to be prepared for any exventuality at any time. A handful were aware that Jimmy’s brother, Bobby, Marcos’s business czar,was divested of his RAM-supplied bodyguards earlier that morning on orders of Gen. Fabian Ver.

So that meeting (it was Saturday) processed information, aligned thoughts, and explored survival options. It broke up amidst high anxiety at around 4:30. On my way home, while traveling down EDSA, I spotted a helicopter over Camp Aguinaldo on a steep dive, climb out of it and dive again. It was intriguing to say the least and I wondered if it was somehow related to what was discussed earlier.

As I walked into my house, the phone rang. A cousin called to say, “We finally have an army, open your TV, quick!” The first image I saw was Defense Minister Johnny Ponce-Enrile, in a military jacket with an Uzi slung over his shoulder, declaring his breakaway from the Marcos regime. Beside him was Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, vice chief of staff of the AFP.

we finally have an army! exactly my thought that Saturday afternoon in 1986 when my father phoned to make sure i was listening to radio veritas, enrile and ramos were about to hold a presscon!   and when i heard them say they were resigning their posts, enrile admitting there was cheating in cagayan, ramos declaring that marcos was not the same president they had pledged to serve, my heart jumped in excitement and my first thoughts were of cory:  sinusuwerte talaga!   it was like a military force had landed on her lap!

remember, we were in the midst of a crony boycott and bank runs, and really feeling giddy and audacious and radical, convinced that the business community would have no choice but to compel marcos to step down before the economy collapsed.   a rebel military force was like a hulog ng langit, just what cory needed, panalo na!

but unlike alunan et al, ordinary coryistas had no idea what was going on behind the scenes.   they had no idea that the defection was plan b, following a foiled coup plot.   the thinking was simple: they must be supporting cory, or else why would enrile admit helping cheat in cagayan?   and so when they heard butz aquino and then cardinal sin calling on them to go to EDSA and shield the soldiers from marcos’s military to prevent bloodshed, it all sounded good.

however, it was a relatively small crowd that went to EDSA that night.   most people refused to be rushed, lalo na’t there was no word from cory.   they wanted to be sure they were doing the right thing.   and what convinced them later that long night was the marcos presscon on tv when the president accused the two of a coup aborted (the people laughed, he had lost all credibility) and enrile’s fearless reply via veritas: enough is enough, mr. president. your time is up.   that was it.   having no inkling that enrile had hopes of preempting cory, the people just assumed he was out there to support cory vs. marcos.   the next day they marched to EDSA.

EDSA fictions

funny and factual … history a la FB … clever … great tongue-in-cheek humor, great research … super-like … sana i-publish ng mga book company pampasaya sa boring na pagtuturo …

these are facebook comments on the link to gmanews.tv’s special feature  It was complicated: EDSA 1 as told through Facebook (The events and players are true, the status updates are based on fact, and the comments are totally imagined.)

funny the comments, yes, but the status updates are not entirely factual, which might be is quite inappropriate as it adds to the confusion about EDSA as an event, given a number of key players still refusing to tell their sides of the story and who wouldn’t mind keeping us confused and uncertain.

my sources are the periodicals and snap books of the time, interviews with cory and fvr (among others), and more EDSA books, foreign titles, published from 1987 to 1991.  the storyline is pretty set, and even lately confirmed by senate president enrile, if in trickles, as in the EDSA anniversary of 2000.

so it’s disconcerting to read supposedly factual status updates that are completely false and which foster misconceptions about what really happened, how they happened, and what key personalities were thinking and saying as events unfolded.

August 31, 1983 Ninoy’s funeral. Cory Aquino invited you.

there was no way cory could have invited the people.   marcos controlled all media.   like everyone else, cory was stunned amazed overwhelmed at the million or so who came uninvited.

December 3, 1985 Cory Aquino I am running for President of the RP. [Joaquin Roces, Salvador Laurel and 1,683,114 others like this]

imposible na salvador laurel liked it.   he was long set to run for president himself but was prevailed upon to slide down and run as cory’s vp instead.   at best he was resigned if not disappointed.

February 4, 1986 Miting de Avance

my chronology says feb 5.   my source, the newspapers of those days.   correct me if i’m wrong.

February 22, 1986 (Day 1) Fabian Ver my son Col. Irwin Ver informed me that members of RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement) are planning a coup. They plan to storm Malacañang at around 2am and declare Juan Ponce Enrilñe as head of a ruling junta. Sorry guys…HULI KAYO! Thanks for the tip Maj. Edgardo Doromal!

as if he had just heard of the coup plot?   according to alfred mccoy in “Coup!” (Veritas Extra, Oct 1986) the vers learned of the coup plot many days before feb 19 when the presidential security guards were put on red alert.   by saturday feb 22 ver had so fortified palace defenses, there was no way gringo and RAM would take themby surprise the next morning.  if anything, saturday was a sosyal day for ver.   he and imelda were principal sponsors at an afternoon wedding in villamor air base.   he couldn’t quite believe it when, after the wedding, his men told him of the enrile-ramos defection.

Feb 22 Juan Ponce Enrile FYI lang, we are not out to seize power. We will relinquish command to the rightfully elected President,

enrile was very careful not to say anything to that effect.   what he said was that he would “heed the will of the people” … but “No, I will not serve under Mrs. Aquino even if she is installed as a president.” it would seem that he had not given up hope of heading a ruling junta.   given a choice between him and cory, the people, he hoped? would choose him as the more qualified, the more experienced in government affairs.   cory was so unsure of his support, there were no seats for him and ramos when they unexpectedly arrived to attend her inauguration.

February 23 Cory Aquino just got back from Cebu and I’m going straight to my sister’s place in Greenhills. I am calling for more Filipinos to please support the rebel soldiers. I am also calling for President Ferdinand Marcos’ resignation before there is any bloodshed.

when cory just got back from cebu, according to joker arroyo, her plan was to call the people to luneta to prove to the rebel military that it was she, and not enrile and ramos, who had popular support.   but she was dissuaded by her advisers because the people would indeed follow her to luneta, and mawawalan ng depensa ang crame, na hawak na ng mga tao. [Himagsikan sa EDSA 2000, page 165 ]

February 25 US of A … Ferdinand Marcos It’s time to cut and cut cleanly. [7 hours after Marcos inauguration]

laxalt said this to marcos at 5 a.m. day 4, manila time, 7 hours before his inauguration.    sources: nick joaquin’s Quartet of the Tiger Moon 1986 (page 78) and stanley karnow’s  In Our Image 1989 (page 421).

February 25 Ferdinand Marcos is leaving for Clark, then Guam. Next stop: Hawaii.

when marcos left malacanang palace he thought he was going to paoay in ilocos norte.   it was only in clark that he learned about guam and hawaii.

oh, and i would have ended with bongbong and imelda screaming KIDNAP!

mubarak / marcos / endgame

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he will not run for a new term in office in September elections, but rejected demands that he step down immediately and leave the country, vowing to die on Egypt’s soil, in a television address Tuesday after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million protesters called on him to go.

Mubarak said he would serve out the rest of his term working to ensure a “peaceful transfer of power” and carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.

in feb 86 marcos too was loathe to go.   until the very last minute marcos was trying to convince enrile to return to the fold.   the last phone call was feb 25 past 8 a.m.   enrile was getting ready to leave camp crame for cory’s inauguration in club filipino.   marcos suggested a provisional government that enrile would lead, but he marcos would stay on as honorary president.   huling hirit kumbaga.

President Obama, clearly frustrated by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s intention to retain his hold on power until elections later this year, said Tuesday evening that he has told Mubarak that a transition to representative government “must begin now.”

In brief remarks at the White House, Obama made no mention of Mubarak’s announcement that he had decided not to stand for reelection. Instead, Obama said he had told the Egyptian president in a telephone call that this was a “moment of transformation” in Egypt and that “the status quo is not sustainable.”

president reagan too was loathe to publicly and directly ask marcos to resign.   early in the morning of feb 24 he sent a private message that the marcoses would be welcome in the u.s.   also he gave instructions that marcos be “approached carefully” and “asked rather than told” to depart.   it was not until 7:30 in the evening that the white house finally “endorsed the provisional government of Mrs. Corazon Aquino, abandoning a 20-year ally in Mr. Marcos for the sake of a ‘peaceful transition’ in the Philippines.” . . . “Attempts to prolong the life of the present regime by violence are futile. A solution to this crisis can only be achieved through a peaceful transition to a new government.”

Angry demonstrators, fed up with Mubarak’s three-decade rule, jeered at the president’s remarks while watching his speech on TV in Tahrir Square on Tuesday night and chanted that he should go immediately.

Senior Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei, who has expressed readiness to lead the country’s popular uprising, has said that the people’s message is clear and they want Mubarak out now and not in September.

After Mubarak’s address, the protesters said that this Friday would be the “Friday of departure” for the president and announced that they would be gathering at his palace on Friday afternoon.

in feb 86 while the coryistas were still focused on shielding the edsa camps from marcos forces, leftist groups, acting on the false alarm that the marcoses were gone, had moved on to mendiola, only to find that the rumors were false.   but it was these militants who baited soldiers to fire warning shots, which freaked out the marcoses who thought that the edsa crowds were coming to attack the palace.  (the coryistas came too but only after cory’s inauguration.) and so they started making plans to move out and asked the americans for transpo to get to paoay.   but paoay’s airport had no lights so they had to make a stopover in clark that night.   which gave the new government time to consider the implications of allowing marcos to get to paoay.   in the end cory ordered that the marcoses be flown out of the philippines to prevent further civil unrest.

yes, a nonviolent seige on the pharaoh’s palace, it’s time.

egypt / edsa

in the beginning it seemed like egypt was doing an edsa.   and then it became clear that, where we had cory-in-waiting to replace marcos, the anti-mubarak forces have no leader to replace the dictator with, and are/were depending on, expecting, the united states, perceived to be the power behind mubarak, to take care of removing him and installing a transition government until elections can be held.   which brings home the effect of 30 long years of martial law.   suwerte pa rin tayo, 14 years lang, not long enough for censorship and suppression to dumb down the pre-martial law generation.

but there are some similarities.   like reagan in 1986, obama seems to need convincing that it’s time for america’s friend to cut, and cut cleanly.   the fear here in 1986 was that the communists might take over a weak new leader, and there go the U.S. bases.   the fear now in egypt is that the the muslim brotherhood might take over a weak new leader, and there goes israel beloved.

also, an imminent economic collapse, though not because of a deliberate boycott of government and crony businesses but just because everything has shut down and millions, maybe billions, are being lost everyday, must find mubarak, having lost all credibility with what seems a majority of egyptian people, under extreme pressure to ship out.   it would seem too that the hope of european leaders is for america to fly him out a la marcos, let him fall with some dignity rather than be put to trial a la saddam hussein, as some egyptian protestors wish.

so far i haven’t heard any news of a split military, which greatly helped our people power in ’86.   but who knows what’s going on behind the scenes.

too bad that nobel laureate elbaradai is an expat pala and therefore not really wellknown or well-loved in egypt.   he’s the perfect leader for the transition, i would think, and the people of egypt could do worse than to rally behind him.   a united opposition can bring down mubarak quite quickly, and give obama no choice but to support a transition government and start over re israel and the middle east.

~~~

Revolution
Is Mubarak’s time up?
Obama’s Mideast Moment of Truth
Will Egypt mobilize or radicalize Arab youth?
Democracy’s Drawback
Egypt without Mubaraks: Sampson Option or New Political Order?