Category: edsa

mean and nasty

i wondered who was responsible for the friday rumor that had cory passing away and people bursting into tears.   mabuti at napasinungalingan agad, though not quick enough to spare us a taste of the great grief coming, sooner or later.

i wondered who could be so mean and nasty.   who could be so unkind as to play with our emotions like that.   malacanang, maybe?

STATE OF WAR
Conrado de Quiros

The rumor I’ve heard is that Malacañang started the rumor. That rumor was that Cory died last Friday, a rumor that spread faster than Hayden Kho’s videos that day.

Even the British Embassy was duped into believing it and issuing a statement condoling with the family and the Filipino nation. Which sparked some idiotic reactions, not least from Dante Jimenez, the fellow who once proclaimed himself anti-crime only to end up being party to it, who demanded that whoever was responsible for the statement be made persona non grata.

For what? For being victimized in the same way as Cory’s former chief legal adviser, Adolph Azcuna? For spontaneously combusting into lamentation and commiserating with the host nation for its immeasurable loss? That is to unduly hasten people to their graves? If so, then we should condole every day with Arroyo’s family. Maybe that will do the trick. Some people ought to recover from their sicknesses, others ought to be shot.

But to go back: The rumor I heard is that Malacañang sparked the rumor to see how the public would react to Cory’s demise. Is it believable? I don’t know, though stranger things have happened in this country. But whether true or not, I believe how the public will react to Cory’s demise is not farthest from their minds. I believe it is the one thing that terrifies them. I believe it is the one thing that drives them out of their freaking minds.

The one thing Arroyo has never allowed since she took power, and especially since she wrested it by telling Garci she wanted to win by a million votes over her nearest rival, is people massing in the streets in numbers that could turn into another Edsa. Cops and soldiers have variously: prevented groups from gathering at the Edsa Shrine, headed off leftists groups to prevent them from swelling the ranks of those gathered at the Ninoy statue (easy enough in light of those groups advertising themselves with sanguine flags and even more sanguine slogans while marching down Edsa), scuttled rallies, imposed curfews on them (7 p.m. or thereabouts), floated rumors about bombings and other acts of violence in the rallies, and intimidated by coming out in the streets in full combat gear.

The ploy has been successful enough thus far. No rally has ever reached the proportion of Edsa I and II. Not the rallies in 2005 in the wake of “Hello, Garci” (which Malacañang met with “calibrated preemptive response”), not Danny Lim’s “withdrawal of support” (which gave Malacañang the excuse to experiment with a state-of-emergency declaration), not the huge rally to protest NBN, which never snowballed, thanks to the ploys above.

But what happens if, heaven forbid, something should happen to Cory?

If the vigil is held at the Manila Cathedral, the headaches for Malacañang will be epic. In the first place that is Alfredo Lim territory. Lim, of course, is the tough-as-nails mayor of Manila, the former tough-as-nails NBI director, and the former tough-as-nails chief of the Western Police District, who was known to shed a tear at the (false) news of Cory’s passing. He is also a tough-as-nails follower of Cory, whose loyalty has never wavered, who indeed went out to fight off Enrile’s and Honasan’s legions when they tried to grab power from her in 1989. Lim got a commendation for it.

A vigil in the Manila Cathedral will be impregnable. A vigil in the Manila Cathedral will be unassailable.

Quite apart from that, there is Filipino Culture standing like the Frown of God in the way. Few things are sacred to us, Filipinos, but one of them is the gathering of kin and friends to extol the virtues of a loved one who has gone ahead of us. Cory may have only a tribe of kin, but she has the whole nation for friends-and I do not mean Facebook. If the country turns out to commiserate with the kin of someone who has done so much for it, what can you do? If all of us decide to keep physical vigil with someone who kept spiritual vigil with us in the hour of our death, what can Malacañang do?

You cannot prevent people from attending a vigil, certainly not one for what the country considers even now a living hero. Not even people who do not believe in God, or who do not know whether there is one or not. They too can always believe in the power of good and the reprehensibility of evil, and recognize the embodiments of one and the other.

You cannot trot out cops and police in battle gear to meet people who are making their way to the Manila Cathedral carrying candles to light their way in lieu of cursing the darkness. You cannot scuttle a vigil, you cannot dictate limits to how many people may wish to personally express their overpowering sense of bereavement, you cannot prevent people from lifting their voices to heaven asking God have mercy on someone who has brought heaven’s light to the world, have mercy on a nation that has not always bathed in it.

You cannot impose a curfew on a vigil.

That is not to speak of what would happen if–pray heaven it is yet a long way off–Cory is finally reunited with her husband in the resting place of heroes. I have little doubt the crowds that will see her off, tears welling in their eyes, their hearts bursting with the magma of grief, will be bigger and more volcanic than the one that did so Ninoy. I have little doubt the men in barong and the women in dresses will be joined by the men in bare feet and the women with infants sucking on bare breasts, businessman and farmer, executive and laborer, priest and soldier, equestrian and plebeian, rich and poor, nun and whore, saint and sinner, chorusing, like Job, in anger and despair, “Please lang God, tama na, sobra na tigilan na.”

I don’t know that Malacañang began the rumor. I do know Malacañang will be the end of it.

iran’s edsa moments

tulad ni reynz over at barrio siete, i’m impressed and overwhelmed by the sight of tehran’s streets teeming with protesting citizens, in the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, and talaga naman, nakaka-wonder if this is iran’s EDSA moment, sabay merong touch of inggit, kasi, wow, we havent been able to raise such a crowd since edsa 1986 (i don’t know that edsa 2001, a poor sad crass imitation, drew as huge a sea of humanity).

but as the days go by, sa kakabasa at kakarinig ng tungkol sa sitwasyon sa iran, it’s looking more like a prospective tienanmen than an EDSA.   sana hindi.   but unlike EDSA, there is no split in the military, hardline authoritarianism rules, and soldiers seem prepared to shoot and kill if when ordered.   already there’s been some bloodshed but thank god not too much, not like tienanmen, not when the world is watching, thanks to the internet and tehran’s brave bloggers and tweeters.

for the latest news, i’ve been checking out huffington daily post where nico pitney is live-blogging the uprising.    ang daming nangyayari.   the street protests continue, the ayatollah will again address the nation on friday, and opposition leader mousavi threatens national strikes.

5:03 AM ET — Khamenei to deliver another address on Friday. That news comes via a very reliable Iranian on Twitter, who cites Iran’s state television. The same Twitter user also wrote earlier today about apparent plans for a broad strike being organized by reformists:

“Soon Mousavi will announce full national strikes, probably starting with Petrochemical – prepare for this… Expect food shortage – transport stoppage – money shortage in bank… Gov will respond with electric power cuts – prepare and have gas cylinders at home or gasoline for light/cooking… People of Iran – THIS IS THE DAWN – This is the new begining – have hope and prepare.”

biglang, uy, national strikes, just like cory’s civil disobedience campaign right after marcos was declared winner of the snap elections.   i wonder, will it get to that, or will the ayatollah blink and bend some to prevent the crisis from worsening.   whichever way it goes, nakaka-tense na nakaka-thrill, watching history in the making.   again, naunahan lang ako ni reynz.

… I cannot contain my apprehensive excitement, I have been glued to the monitor on my computer scanning every available news coming from Iran. Sometimes it makes me wonder if what’s going on in Iran is a prelude to what’s going to happen come 2010 Presidential Elections in the Philippines.

what’s going on in iran is certainly worth watching and learning from, so we know what our options are, not only in 2010, in case there’s also a failure of elections, but next month as well, in case gma  bestows a kiss on PALAKA and the lower house transforms into acon-ass.    maghanda tayo.   at humanda sila!

ninoy’s killers (updated)

“I wanted to keep my silence but I was really bothered by the narrative of the soldiers. It’s just so sad that they can rewrite history.”

can’t begrudge kris and noynoy aquino the deep hurt evoked by all the talk issuing from ninoy’s (and rolando galman’s) convicted killers upon their release, to the effect that they were punished unjustly — they were at the airport not to kill ninoy but to protect him from the assassin rolando galman who was hired by boys of danding cojuangco.

to refresh my memory i googled for, and found pcij‘s file of, the sandiganbayan’s ruling on the ninoy assassination.   a quick read told me that the soldiers were convicted of the crime based on  1) the trajectory of the fatal bullet, “forward, downward and medially”  2) the testimony of eyewitness rebecca quijano aka the crying lady  3) taped recordings of footsteps going down the narrow stairway that stopped at the 11th [of 15 20] and of the gunshot that followed, and  4) voice analysis of words spoken on their way down the stairs, just before the shot: “ako na ako na op ito na ya op pusila pusila.”

Sgt. Claro M.Lat … uttered the first phrase, “Ako na ‘”,
Sgt. Arnulfo de Mesa uttered phrase, “Ako na”;
Sgt. Claro M. Lat uttered the expression “OP”
Lt. Jesus Castro uttered the phrase, “Ito na”;
CIC Mario Lazaga was the one who uttered the word, “Ya”;
Sgt. Claro M. Lat again uttered the expression again, “OP”;
Lt. Jesus Castro next uttered the word, “Pusila”; and,
CIC Mario Lazaqa uttered the second “Pusila.”

The words uttered and the persons uttering them suggest the scenario that, while Sen Aquino and, the Boarding Party were still descending the bridge stairs, the Boarding Party saw that Rolando Galman had prematurely appeared … the members of the Boarding Party consequently panicked because the sudden appearance of Rolando Galman disrupted their planned synchronized actuations. Obviously, the plan was to make Rolando Galman appear suddenly after the Senator shall have reached the van. … The point is that, at the brink of extreme urgency, the command to shoot was made.

all of which give the lie to the soldiers’ story that ninoy was killed (not on the stairs but) on the tarmac by assassin-for-hire rolando galman who allegedly appeared from nowhere and quickly shot the senator in the head before they could stop him.   besides, if what they say were true, what then was that exchange among them on the stairway, “Ako na!” “Ako na!” “Op!” “Ito na!” “Ya!” “Op!” “Pusila!” “Pusila!” all about?   and if their job was to keep ninoy alive, why then did they lay him on the tarmac instead of rushing him into the van to get medical help.   and where, how, did ninoy get that contusion on the top of his head (revealed in the autopsy) that looked like it was caused by the butt of a gun — inside the van perhaps?   one of the soldiers hit him perhaps, for good measure, to make sure he was dead?

suddenly i’m wondering if the freed soldiers are under instructions to “rewrite history,” insist that galman was the killer, who knows, perhaps to discredit danding cojuangco who just happens to be riding very high these days.   according to patricio mangubat, cojuangco is true philippine shaker:

San Miguel Corporation, led by former Marcos crony Eduardo Danding Cojuangco just entrenched themselves deeper into Lopez territory. Cojuangco is poised to take over Meralco, the Lopezes’ crown jewel. Analysts say Cojuangco may do this anytime he wants to.

… Aside from the Lopezes, the Ayalas are now being threatened by the rising influence and presence of San Miguel in other industries. San Miguel just joined the telecommunications industry with the acquisition of Liberty Telecommunications and a joint beneficial partnership with Qatar Telecomms. That move made San Miguel easily the second biggest telecommunications firm, eclipsing even Globe Telecommunications. The move was so good and so swift, it left Gerard Ablaza clueless for months

San Miguel also entered the energy sector industry, with the majority takeover of Petron. San Miguel also brought a majority interest in the power generation sector

So, you see, my friends, San Miguel is the biggest business conglomerate in this country, controlling almost all levers of economic life and enjoying the biggest and the widest economic influence not seen since the 19th century.

thing is, in a one-on-one with korina, kris said that her family will never believe that her uncle danding had anything to do with ninoy’s killing,  anong mapapala niya, hindi naman siya presidente noon.

it would seem that kris has no idea that danding had a lot to lose if ninoy’s dream of rallying the opposition to end the marcos regime had been allowed to prosper.   it would seem that kris has no sense of how powerful danding was and how close he and president marcos were, as in BFF, all the while that her dad was wasting away in jail for continuing to denounce martial law.

At the height of cronyism in the Philippines, Cojuangco controlled $1.5 billion in corporate assets, an amount estimated to equal 25% of the country’s GNP. He headed an agricultural and industrial conglomerate with interests in diverse areas as coconut, sugar, agri-business, banking, and a host of others. The *Wall Street Journal* observed that Cojuangco attempted to create “cartels in rice, sugar, flour, groceries, and soft drinks but ran out of time.” Referring to Cojuangco’s tendency to create monopolies in  the industries where he had investments, a journalist gave him the nickname Pacman, a reference to the computer game where the object is to eat up as much as you can. Cojuangco’s personal net worth was estimated at $500 million, making him among the country’s richest men. [page 217 Some Are Smarter Than Others by Ricardo Manlapat 1991]

at the time of ninoy’s homecoming, president marcos was believed to be on his deathbed after a failed kidney transplant.   imelda was all set to succeed him, with ver’s support, but not if enrile and his reformist officers could stop them, like by mounting a coup, most probably with cojuangco’s support.   ninoy came home precisely to offer the nation an alternative to ver and enrile.

my personal appreciation of danding’s great clout in the time of marcos comes from how he figured in the story of EDSA 1986.   marcos was sick and slow and ver’s orders were not being followed.   the one and only time in those four days when marcos forces scored a hit was on the early morning of day 2 sunday when the radio veritas farm in malolos bulacan was destroyed by pc troopers on orders of cojuangco.

NEW MANILA, QUEZON CITY, 10 p.m. [22 Feb.] – Summoned by General Ver, PC Col. Maximo Mejia arrived at businessman Eduardo Cojuangco’s house in Balete Drive where he also found Virgilio de Guzman, elder brother of Brig. Gen. Isidoro de Guzman, Region III Commander. Mejia was told that President Marcos had decided to neutralize the radio station transmitter in Dakila, Malolos. Cojuangco told Mejia that the attack had been cleared by Marcos to “prevent the incident created by the Enrile-Ramos defection from escalating to a bloody one. [Midday Malaya, “FM General Owns Veritas Attack Role,” 20 May ’86]

most telling of all, danding and his family flew into exile with the dictator on the 26th of february.

Ambassador Eduardo (Danding) Cojuangco and his wife, Soledad (Gretchen) were with their immediate family … They had motored [to Clark] all the way from Sison, Pangasinan, to join the president.   [page 169 Malacanang to Makiki by ARturo C, Aruiza 1991]

if flight means guilt, what was danding feeling so guilty about that he had to fly off when marcos did?   ill-gotten wealth maybe?    the ninoy assassination maybe?   the destruction of radio veritas maybe?

and then, again, maybe none of the above.    but we won’t know unless the aquinos agree to re-open the case and let the chips fall where they may, for a change.   we owe it to ninoy.   otherwise, kris should just stop with the whining on nationwide tv.

addendum:

Rebecca Quijano saw that the senator was shot by the military man who was directly behind the Senator while the Senator and he were descending the stairs. Rebecca Quijano’s testimony  in this regard is echoed by Jessie Barcelona, Ramon Balang, Olivia Antimano, and Mario Laher, whose testimonies this Court finds likewise as credible.

help! need EDSA pics!

not too long ago i received email from alfred hardy, based in australia, offering me photographs he had taken of people power in manila in 1986 that “apart from exhibitions held at scottish libraries (edinburgh, glasgow) had spent most of their time in a dark cupboard.”   of course i said yes yes please, and at once he sent 35 color photos through dhl.   great stuff, mostly street scenes, some sky shots, brought me back to them days, thank you again, alfred hardy, i was  am  so touched.

it so happens that my techie son joel — who is why i blog, i mean if he didnt insist and make me kulit and make it really easy for me, tech-wise, all the way from holland, i wouldn’t be blogging — anyway, joel and i have been wanting to post updated versions of my EDSA books, except that we don’t have enough pictures.   and building up a photo file of the four days is no easy job, getting permission from professional photographers to use their photos gracing the many coffeetable books on EDSA is a major chore, kaya naman welcome na welcome talaga ang photos ni alfred, who also rightly points out:

But how many individual “amateur” (like many of mine!) photographs of People Power are lying around the Philippines never to see the light of day. Could be hundreds, some of them “classics” taken on $30 cameras. Can I suggest advert on your website… Could be worth a try before they (photos) disappear forever.

worth a try indeed.   ANY photos relevant to EDSA 1 are welcome.   street scenes, barricade scenes not just along EDSA but around malacanang, mendiola, malate, sta. mesa, around mbs channel 4, greenhills…   camp aguinaldo and camp crame events – the last stand, the defection, the many presscons, the move from aguinaldo to crame, the landing of sotelo’s gunships, the false alarm…   people stopping tanks sa ortigas…   riot police dispersing crowds in libis, entering camp aguinaldo, poised to bomb crame…    inside and outside radio veritas, inside and outside radyo bandido…   inside and outside the palace…    cory in cebu…   cory in EDSA….   inside and outside club filipino…   gate-crashing the palace…  dancing in the streets…

if like many bloggers and readers you were just a kid or still just a gleam in your mom’s eye in 86, then maybe your parents aunts uncles older sibs cousins family friends were EDSA veterans and have photos wasting away in some dark aparador, tell them here’s a chance to get them published on the internet, be a part of my EDSA online project, with full credits to the photographer who retains copyright, and gets zapped with lotsa link-love ;))

email me for address if you wanna send hard copies by snail mail.   puwede rin pa-pick up kay katrina kung di masyadong malayo ;)   puwede rin by email if your file is digital na.   please please help me… ika nga ng beatles ;)