nagsalita na pala kahapon si enrile at that wreath-laying ceremony led by gma that he attended with honasan and the reformist gang to kick off the 4-day long edsa commemoration. Enrile explains hurt over EDSA I rites, reports inquirer’s fe zamora.
Sounding humble and mellowed when he spoke at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery) on Sunday, Enrile said that Feb. 25 “deserves the nation’s remembrance.”
He also noted that the previous Feb. 25 festivities had seemingly “glossed over” the role of the soldiers at EDSA I.
“I have long nursed a certain discomfiture at being paraded as an EDSA hero, while those who bravely dared to fight the hard battle with us seemed to have been forgotten, their idealism ignored, and even their heroic contribution belittled,” Enrile said.
in fairness, enrile is not just imagining it. back in 2000, the EDSA people power commission that president estrada created “to propagate and perpetuate the spirit of EDSA” played politics with freedom awards and honored ninoy aquino, the filipino people, namfrel, foreign correspondents, and the mosquito press of marcos times but pointedly ignored the reformist rebel military led by enrile, ramos, and honasan whose defection and last stand in camp aguinaldo brought coryistas to edsa in the first place. so talaga may karapatang magtampo sina enrile.
on the other hand, it is disappointing that enrile in turn is still glossing over WHY there were orders out for his arrest that saturday, february 22, 1986.
Early that morning, Enrile said he went to the Atrium building in Makati City with his daughter Katrina, primarily to rebut a newspaper headline that he had left the country with his family.
At the Atrium, Enrile received a call from then Finance Minister Bobby Ongpin whose security men-all members of the RAM-were being arrested.
Enrile said his military aide, then Capt. Noe Wong, also arrived with the chilling information that the RAM plot to oust Marcos had been discovered.
Wong also told him that RAM members Allen Querubin, Lt. Col. Marcelino “Jake” Malajacan, Maj. Saulito “Lito” Aromin, Capt. Ricardo”Dick” Morales and two others had been arrested and detained at the Presidential Security Command in Malacañang.
“I fully grasped the significance of the unfolding event. And so I went home hurriedly with my daughter to take my lunch,” Enrile recalled.
and so on and so forth about deciding to make a last stand rather than run and hide, etc. etc., old stories all. but nothing more about the reformist coup plot set for february 23 which sought to topple marcos and install him, enrile, in malacanang. the coup plot that he and honasan denied all through the four days in ’86 and continued to deny for 14 years, until 2000 when, irked by the edsa commission’s snub, enrile finally admitted in a radio interview that indeed he and his men had plotted a violent takeover of the marcos regime that was pre-empted by people power [philippine star 28 feb 2000 page 2].
meanwhile honasan is still talking about writing their own book about EDSA. why not, indeed. let’s hear more about that coup plot, who else was in on it, what was enrile’s agenda, how different would he have been from marcos. and while they’re at it, make kuwento na rin sana about midnight of sunday feb 23 when cory summoned enrile and ramos to greenhills (feeling president na siya) and the two rebels came, but separately — what deals were made that night? tell us, tell us, please.
[…] books, foreign titles, published from 1987 to 1991. the storyline is pretty set, and even lately confirmed by senate president enrile, if in trickles, from one EDSA anniversary to […]
[…] the coup plot 14 years later, in 2000: enrile finally admitted in a radio interview that indeed he and his men had plotted a violent takeover of the marcos regime that was pre-empted by people power [philippine star 28 feb 2000 page […]