What an irony. As one of the scores of thousands of men, women, priests and nuns, who stood at the EDSA barricades for four days and four nights those fateful days in February 1986, I can testify that the Leftists and radicals were not there.
The Communist New People’s Army (NPA) and their front organizations, in fact, had scoffed at the People Power demonstrators as lousy burgis and JPE and his military bodyguards, led by then Col. Greg "Gringo" Honasan and the RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement), as crooked rightwing putschists. They had sneered at the yellow streamer, yellow-clad pro-Cory – and, in fact, pro-Ninoy Aquino militants as pawns of the rich, the landlords, the imperialists and the Americans, having condemned Ninoy while he lived "as a CIA agent." (Only after they found the Filipino people loved Ninoy did they try piggy-backing on his corpse).
What a laugh it is, truly, that yesterday those same Leftists and Party List militants tried to hi-jack the EDSA 20th anniversary commemoration!
Sure, there were a number of the small-fry "origs" who had been suckered into joining the ranks of their erstwhile enemies – but what the heck. Yesterday’s speckled rally which blocked traffic at the EDSA monument wasn’t actually to honor the 1986 "revolution" but to shout Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo out of office. In white letters on a red background hung a banner from one of the figures of the People Power monument which said it all: "OUST GLORIA!"
How many "thousands" managed to get to the rally? The Police say 3,000 only, the organizers claim 20,000. Either figure, when you come down to it, is pathetic. There were many more people at the original 1986 barricades, defying the tanks, armored cars, Marines with fixed bayonets, artillery and tear gas of the Marcos hegemony. Again, we were there. By the way, we didn’t see Cory. We hear she arrived on the last day from Cebu City.
I did see one vivid scene on television. It was that of Linggoy Alcuaz threatening the policemen who tried to curb the advance of some of the demonstrators. He furiously stubbed a finger at one police officer, growling: "The people here are my guests!" If the cops harmed any one of them, or impeded any of them, Linggoy snarled, he would put them in jail, and "prevent" them from "getting promoted!" Susmariosep. I didn’t realize our friend Linggoy Alcuaz was already Chief of Police, or the guy in charge of police promotions. You learn a lot when you watch television.
Wow. And there was Dinky Soliman directing traffic, too, so the rallyists could get to their rendezvous.
Ex-President Cory C. Aquino didn’t go to EDSA either. She went to lunch in the Conservatory of The Peninsula hotel in Makati with Dick Romulo (brother of Triple R) and his stalwarts of the Makati Business Club, in sum, the "GMA Resign" faction. Present, of course, was MBC’s Billy Luz.
And, hello, some of the "Hyatt 10" Cabinet defectors, were there as well, notably former Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and ex-Trade and Industry Secretary Johnny Santos – plus Ramon "Boy Blue" del Rosario of the De La Salle community – and others from the Council of Trent. If they took a straw ballot at that gathering, I’ll wager, it would come out unanimously, "GMA Get Out!"
The object of yesterday’s . . . well, "affections" didn’t wait to be roasted rather than toasted. She took off for other parts. (Didn’t even wait for the YOUNG, that boastful Young Officers’ Union "New Generation" to set off the "bombs" they claimed they had planted all over Malacañang – like the basura "bomb" which damaged a coconut tree on the lawn fronting Mabini Hall the other day. By golly. Whatta country).
First, La Gloria went to the Libingan ng mga Bayani to give a speech lauding the role of the military, then she flew off to the Mudslide Tragedy site in St. Bernard, Southern Leyte, to be briefed by Governor Rosette Lerias and commiserate with the survivors and the victims’ families in Cebuano.
After half an hour of photo-opportunity, she was about to take off in her chopper, when former First Lady Imeldific Romualdez Marcos arrived, as elegantly dressed as if she had just stepped out of her favorite couturier’s studio. GMA hopped back off her helicopter to greet Imelda, who after all comes from Leyte, but didn’t go as far as chika-chika perhaps because it might have only been cheek-to-chest. What a day! La Presidenta bumping into former Superma’am Imelda, the co-hate-object with her hubby Ferdinand of EDSA People Power 1986!
Then, GMA flew on to Cebu City to spend the night there. Last night she was the guest of honor at the 69th Cebu City Charter Day at the Cebu Sports Center in the Abellana National Grounds.
GMA received "adopted daughter" status in those ceremonies, former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., a native Cebuano, received the "Rajah Humabon" award along with His Eminence, Ricardo Cardinal Vidal who’s just retired. Our boxing idol Manny Pacquiao got the Mayor’s Special Award – from Mayor Tommy Osmeña, of course. Gee whiz. What a big show that was conveniently held so GMA could "escape" from hostile Metro Manila into the arms of her Cebuano supporters.
Maybe they’ll make a movie about it yet, if they can borrow the copyright of that old flick, The Great Escape.
In any event, we had a commemoration of sorts yesterday which had Manila Mayor Lito Atienza and yours truly unveiling a memorial marker honoring "Manila’s Martyrs" in the Struggle Against Martial Law. We cut the ribbon revealing the huge marker entitled "DAMBANA NG KABAYANIHAN."
Afterwards, they got me to deliver a speech as guest of honor – I guess this was Mayor Atienza’s way of humoring me. We were on an improvised grandstand at the main gate of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) – and the affair was well-attended by not only Manila Counselors and officials, Barangay leaders, teachers, students, and policemen, but the people living in the neighborhood who packed the surrounding streets to listen. As the Mayor was speaking before he introduced me, a train came chugging along just a few hundred meters away to interrupt his remarks, but Lito took the interruption in stride without even a pause in his eloquent remarks.
I’m happy two of the heroes of the freedom struggle were with us on the entablado, namely former Senator Heherson "Sonny" Alvarez, and radio Preacher, Roger "Bomba" Arienda. Our mutual badge of honor was that we were imprisoned by Marcos during martial law. But if I was incarcerated in Fort Bonifacio maximum security compound, proudly the cellmate of Ninoy Aquino, I’d say Roger Arienda was behind bars under more miserable conditions. He had been slapped into the bartolina, the dingiest hole in Muntinlupa national penitentiary. A former leftwing incendiary using hardbitten language in his popular radio program, Roger, while in the depths of misery, found "conversion" and the light. He became in prison a deeply-religious Christian, and when he emerged he dedicated his life to preaching the gospel and the Word of God. He asserted of that period, "I didn’t find God – God found me!"
I won’t bore you with my own speech, but the gist of it was that we ought to honor not just the EDSA People Power barricaders, but the people all over our land who fought to burst the shackles of the Marcos tyranny – what we must commemorate is "The Spirit of 1986." Thus, it was significant that our celebration yesterday was held, among the people, in Manila itself.
Better to quote the opening paragraph of the Dambana which we unveiled:
"Ang pagtutol sa rehimeng militar ng diktadura ni Pangulong Marcos ay pinagtulung-tulungan ng maraming sector ng ating lipunan. Libo-libo ang kumilos at higit 9,539 buhay ang nabuwis ng ating mamamayan, lalong-lalo na sa hanay ng kabataang Pilipino. Sila ang naging isa sa mga nagsilbing ilaw sa madilim na yugtong ito ng ating kasaysayan hanggang sa maganap ang Edsa People Power Revolt noong Pebrero 22, 1986."
In effect, it declared that the rejection and overthrow of the military regime of the Dictator Marcos was the work of many sectors of our society. Thousands resisted, and more than 9,539 lives were lost, the majority of them from the ranks of our young people. They provided the light in the darkness which led us to the triumph of the EDSA People Power Revolt of February 22, 1986.
Our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, on the eve of his execution by the Spaniards put it most poignantly of all, I believe. He said: "I die just as the dawn breaks over our native land. You who will see that dawn, salute it – but forget not those who have perished in the night."
We will never forget.