The people first made their presence known, loud and clear, five years into martial rule, on the 6th of April 1978. It was the eve of elections for Members of Parliament who would sit in the Interim Batasang Pambansa or National Assembly. Under pressure from the U.S. government, Marcos had allowed Ninoy to head a new party, Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN) and from his prison cell to run for a seat in opposition to KBL’s frontrunner Imelda. A month before elections, Defense Minister Enrile went on TV and charged Ninoy of being both a communist and a CIA agent.
Ninoy demanded equal TV time and got it. It was his first ever appearance on public television in almost six years and the nation was enthralled (the streets were empty, everyone was indoors watching TV) and shocked at how much weight the once chubby senator had lost. For people who voted him into the Senate in ’71 there was a poignant sense, long overdue, of how terribly he must have suffered, and continued to suffer, under Marcos rule. And yet the man had lost neither his ardor nor his bite and the people took little convincing that Enrile lied, Ninoy was neither a communist nor a CIA agent.
Except for that one TV appearance, Ninoy’s campaign was left to his wife Cory and seven-year old Kris, whose rallying cry was, “Help my Daddy come home!” On April 6, the eve of elections, Ninoy’s secret admirers from left, right, and center responded under cover of darkness with the historic noise barrage. At 7:00 P.M. on the dot, we took to Manila’s streets yelling, “Laban!” and making the L sign with thumb and index finger, accompanied by car horns shrieking, pots and pans banging, whistles blowing, sirens wailing, church bells pealing, alarm bells ringing, never mind if the dreaded military picked us all up. We had no idea then that it was organized by Communist Party leader Filemon Lagman a.k.a. Popoy, and if we had known, we would have joined anyway just to spite the dictator.
The noise barrage did not win Ninoy the election that was marked by massive cheating, but it told him in no uncertain terms that there were Filipinos out there like him, anonymous but increasing in numbers, who were yearning for freedom. These people were not to surface for another five years. [EDSA UNO (2013) “Marcos Times” pp 24-25]
March for Our Lives, ‘78 Laban Noise Barrage, and the fight vs. Duterte
a friend messaged to say na, acc to his friends in the left, hindi si popoy lagman / manila-rizal / natdem, KUNDI SOCDEM ang may pakana na dambuhalang noise barrage ’78. siyempre binalikan ko ang EDSA Uno book to see kung ano/sino ang source ko for the lagman item — for sure, it wasn’t from just one report. hindi iisa ang nagsabing si popoy/natdem.
here’s the source cited in EDSA Uno the book: “Ka Popoy Lagman: People Power visionary” by rigoberto tiglao 2001 http://popoylagman.blogspot.com/2009/01/ka-popoy-lagman-people-power-visionary.html
and another by dan mariano “Popoy Lagman: A revolutionary life” (2001)
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54a/183.html
but wait the google search also unearthed this: “Ninoy Aquino, 1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa Elections, CINACORPE, and April 6, 1978 Noise Barrage” by beto reyes (2014). socdem nga raw.
“On the night of April 6, 1978, the historic “Noise Barrage” occurred in in Metro-Manila. This was the first non-CPP initiated mass protest under martial law. It was the brainchild of the Partido Demokratiko-Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP) aka the Social-Democrats, aka the “Soc-Dems.” At that time PDSP was led by Fr. Romeo “Archie” Intengan SJ.”
https://beto-reyes.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-1978-interim-batasang-pambansa.html
interesting. i pray for similar testaments from the socdems, and i welcome too reactions from the natdems. let’s try to set the record straight. teka. imposible bang nagkaisa sina lagman at intengan, somewhere behind the scenes?
The start of edsa 1. Noise barrage I witnessed that. If meron gagawa ng pelikula ng april 6, 1978 noise barrage I can help them reminisce that event. Vivid pa sa memory and night na yon.
yes, it was a martial law night like no other.
[…] up in my hospital room and into the hands of my father who proceeded to explain to me what a “noise barrage” […]