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.

marcos / qaddafi

Qaddafi:  pledged to “fight to the last drop of blood.” … “I cannot leave the honorable remains of my grandfather in Murgub.” … “I will die as a martyr in the end.”

Marcos : … vowed he would defend the Palace “to the last breath of my life, the last drop of my blood.” He said he had “no intentionof going abroad” or of resigning.

sophomoric

In a press briefing, Binay said China’s unprecedented decision to postpone the execution of the 3 Filipinos could be a recognition of the upcoming EDSA People Power Revolution that restored democracy in the Philippines.

heard vp binay on tv news last night saying he was so happy about the stay of execution granted without anything asked in exchange, he forgot to ask how long the stay would be in effect.   well, kung talagang walang hininging kapalit, it would be logical to assume that the executions will proceed in march?   when we’re done celebrating EDSA?

but if the stay proves to be longer than that, then expect intense negotiations behind the scenes, whether or not the aquino admin admits it, because china would definitely be wanting something in return, like senator miriam says:

“You cannot expect China will simply suspend the execution just because we said so. Hihingi yan ng kapalit sigurado.”   She said China may ask a number of things, which include an agreement on their stand on theSpratly Islands, the termination of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement, or a joint program between the Chinese and the Philippine armed forces.

and like alex magno says:

By offering to postpone the executions, China very politely rejected Manila’s demand for a commutation of the sentences. Even as China did not concede anything in the last analysis, they allowed Manila to save some face. The Binay delegation was briefly received, not by the highest authorities we should point out. Not even by this political counterpart, the Vice-Premier. The Binay delegation was, very politely, downgraded.

The Aquino administration, which has so far demonstrated great shortage of diplomatic sophistication, might have not noticed the downgrade. If it did, it tried very hard to play it down. What was important was to have Binay received in Beijing and extract even the most token of concessions from the Chinese.

…This might seem trivial. But for a nation with 4,000 years of statecraft, the semblances matter immensely. Now that we have allowed ourselves to be treated like a vassal state, we would have difficulty exacting full diplomatic parity in the future.

For the privilege of treating us like a vassal state, all Beijing had to do was to postpone three executions. For that ultimately meaningless concession, we were so ready to sacrifice our place of parity among nation-states. The Chinese paid very little for us to lose so much.

Our government spokesmen were quick to put a positive spin on what happened. The postponement of executions was “unprecedented” and “unusual” we are told. The Chinese ambassador, only too happy to oblige the sophomores, reinforced the spin by so patronizingly saying this was a rare “consideration for a friend.”

That all sounds fine: until we put text in proper context.

These guys have such keen insight on how our culture works. Having been given such a rare “consideration”, we now owe our friends a debt of gratitude. Beijing will collect on that later. Trust them to do that: these guys have a 4,000-year tradition of statecraft.

The costs for President Aquino’s blundering blubber just continues to mount. Had he not linked the lives of Filipino drug mules in China to our unprincipled boycott of the Oslo ceremonies, we did not have to bend this low.

This humiliating episode is by no means over. Unless President Aquino articulates a clear and principled foreign policy, we will be dragged by the contingencies of individual events and the winds of populism every which way. There is little in what he has done so far that indicates he is capable of doing that.

Our people might help this administration behave more maturely in the global arena by not burdening the national leadership with capricious expectations — such as saving the lives of Filipinos who committed crimes abroad. Sure, narratives about the sanctity of human life and descriptions of erring Filipinos abroad as victims of poverty may be compelling ones. But we should be old enough to recognize that other countries have laws and we ought to respect them.

taiwan is a different story.   according to private emissary mar roxas, the chinese there are very angry, understandably, and unrelenting in their demand for an official apology.   maybe we should send vp binay instead?   and maybe we should apologize?   lalo na if mainland china ends up executing the drug mules anyway?

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!