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!
How about how the pretty big oversight there:
(Ferdinand Marcos: FINE! I’ll hold a snap election to prove to you guys that the Filipino people <3 martial law.)
When martial law had already been lifted back in 1981?
hey noel ;) ah but the lifting of martial law in ’81 was kinda kunwari lang, because pope john paul II was coming to visit. he retained all the extra-legal powers he had fashioned for himself. nothing really changed.
I liked the way characterized Ramos and Enrile in the overthrow of Marcos vis a vis the real opposition.
“They were with us for four days in Edsa, we were fighting them for fourteen years.”
yung mga oppressive countries ngayon tulad ng China, Iran, and (formerly) Egypt kontrolado nila ang media pati Internet but they somehow the people circumvented the government control over the Net through proxies and other things. so there could be a way na si Cory and Marcos’ enemies use Facebook. Facebook din ang isa sa mga armas ng mga protesters sa kagaganap lamang na People Power sa Egypt ngayon.
iniimagine ko din what if may internet na sa PH at facebook noong nagka-people power.
Hi Angela. Let us hope, in vain (?), that Enrile will reveal more. It’s a conscience thing.
Thanks for the corrections. Unfortunately, the mistakes of GMA Network will probably acquire lives of their own.
hey orlando ;) thanks too! it just tells me how some researchers don’t really read and comprehend. or they may comprehend, but prefer to simplify the complicated, never mind sacrificing the facts — para di ma-bore ang readers? — and end up making mistakes that they cant be bothered to correct.
as for enrile, yeah, hope springs eternal
[…] dati, sa kung paano siya napaunlad nito at kung paano siya nangungulila rito ngayon. Iwinawasto ni Angela Stuart-Santiago ang nakakaaliw na kwentong Facebook ng Edsa People Power […]