FOUR DAYS of EDSA ( Day 2)

Discordant Notes

February 23, 2012

FOUR DAYS of EDSA ( Day 2)

Arturo P. Garcia

Away from where the action is, we were like boxing or basketball aficionados listening to the radio and getting a blow by blow account on what is happening in EDSA in Metro Manila on the second day of the Mexican stand-off. And that was February 23, 1986.

To facilitate the news, we assigned people to listen every hour on different stations. We assigned them to listen to specific radio stations like the DZRH, Radio Veritas, the government radio and the foreign broadcast namely the BBC, the VOA and the Far East Broadcasting Corporation (FEBC) based in Manila but was broadcasting via shortwave.

We discussed and analyzed the news as it comes.

We also assigned people to listen on their rounds, so while the others sleep, others can still listen to the news  as they do their daily chores. Everybody were glued to their radio sets. And then we made it a point to hoard batteries because we feel that the crisis will go on for days.

All the radio stations gave a blow by blow account especially when the breakaway group of Enrile and Ramos transferred from indefensible Camp Aguinaldo or the DND building to a more defensible Camp Crame, the headquarters of the PNP that is very loyal and controlled by FVR.

The evening earlier, Cardinal Sin made a call to the public to mass at EDSA to protect the breakaway duo who from the broadcast made a public confessions of their sins against the people and asked the people to protect them

It was a revealing moment when Enrile admitted the fake ambush in 1972 and the cheating in Cagayan Valley. We were right after-all and we were elated that the truth about election rigging in the northern provinces were validated by the guy who made it possible. The old warlord who was so arrogant is now trembling at his unknown fate and is laying on the table the truth at last.

And we were surprised that Enrile and Ramos admitted that Cory Aquino won the elections and they were offering to recognize her as  the elected president of the Philippines. I smiled and thought, how desperate men clutch at straw at their desperate hours.

And then we confirmed the fact that days before, the rag-tag PC Major Rodolfo Aguinaldo’s private army composed of former NPA rebels, Negrito fighters and CHDF from several towns of Cagayan were transported by bus to Manila.

Yes, we missed how these arrogant bands who usually marched in the town centers, manned the checkpoint and brutalized the people everyday, harass religious and human rights workers and even ordinary people—everyday.  And all of a sudden they were gone.

We also confirmed that companies of PC soldiers under Provincial Commander Tirso Gador, fresh from his advance schooling in Fort Benning , Georgia the personal bodyguard of Defense Minister Enrile who was also from Cagayan also went to Manila riding public busses in civilian clothes to converge in Manila to take part in the failed coup.

Later we learned that they manned the defense building in Camp Aguinaldo where Enrile and Ramos made their press conference. We saw their faces on the morning Manila newspapers that filtered the provincial capitols.

Later we  learned from the radio that they were being armed from the helicopters coming from the provinces that dropped arms cache on top of the MND building in Camp Aguinaldo.

That morning, the still confident dictator paraded before the media, his generals and captured coup plotters and proudly announced that they discovered and quelled the palace coup that was hatched by the RAM led by Col. Gregorio Honasan. He asked the Defense minister and the PC Chief and also the Vice-Chief of staff to surrender peacefully.

He even commented; “This is the most documented mutiny I have ever seen in my life. So, Minister  Enrile and General Ramos, IO again ask you---surrender now because all your actions are duly recorded.”

It was very quiet in the provinces because nearly all the army and the PC camps were empty. It seems everybody were in Manila. But it was very silent and we were not used to that silence. The only time that obscure silence occurred was the day when Senator Aquino was killed in the airport. And that was August 21, 1983.

We made a joked. That this is the time that the NPA must declare that the provinces in the north are “liberated areas”. But they did not do it. Maybe they did not like the joke. Or maybe they do not have the capacity to do that. Or both.

One by one, politicians have switched sides. I heard a former navy officer resign and placed his bet on the side of the people. The DZRH as well as Radio Veritas has reported there were millions of  people in EDSA.

We all concluded that that will be a long night.

The second long night at EDSA.

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