We served Cory Aquino

Today is the 93rd birth anniversary of President Cory Aquino. I was very lucky to have had the opportunity to serve her administration. That was around 40 years ago, right after the EDSA People Power Revolution. I still have vivid memories of how it all started.

It was the fourth day of the People Power Revolution. Cory took her oath as president in Club Filipino that day. I had taken time to go and try to witness her oathtaking but it was so crowded in Club that I decided to wait outside in the street.

After a while, Nene Pimentel came out, saw me and told me to join him and our PDP-Laban group to assess the situation. We knew that it was just a matter of time before president Marcos would be forced to leave. We decided to go to an office in Makati. There were Nene Pimentel, Lito Lorenzana, Zaf Respicio, Jaime Ferrer and I in that small meeting. We were discussing the different possible scenarios upon the departure of Marcos and the assumption of the presidency by Cory Aquino.

Nene Pimentel was then head of our party, PDP-Laban, the principal political party opposing the Marcos regime. Jaime Ferrer was the head in Metro Manila, and Zaf Respicio in Mindanao. I was the deputy secretary-general.

During the meeting, Nene got a telephone call for our group to go to a certain address in Wack-Wack subdivision. We were escorted to the veranda where around 30-40 of us were all gathered and told to wait there with Cory, who had convened the meeting.

The memorable event that occurred sometime in the evening was when Cory said that we will all gather in a big room next to the veranda and mass would be offered. As we heard mass, it became very difficult to concentrate on the mass because we all could see some couriers waiting outside, unable to come in to bring us the latest news.

After the mass, we gathered again in the veranda and someone announced that Marcos had left Malacañang and Cory Aquino was now the de facto president of the Philippines.

That morning, she had announced that Juan Ponce Enrile would be minister of defense. I remember vividly that she stood up and asked businessman Jimmy Ongpin to go with her inside the house for a private conversation. As she was about to enter the house, she turned around and announced that Joker Arroyo would be her executive secretary.

From a personal note, I was extremely happy about Joker’s appointment. Ever since the campaign started, I had resigned from my job to work full time for the campaign. My wife Neni became the sole breadwinner. I thought that I would have the chance to go back and earn a livelihood again.

However, that same night, I saw Jaime Ferrer talking to Joker Arroyo. Then they called me and Joker told me to report to him the following day in Cojuangco building in Makati, which would be the Office of the President at the start of the Cory Aquino presidency.

I was very familiar with the Cojuangco building because that was where PDP-Laban had its headquarters and most meetings took place there. I found a room next to the cafeteria and that is where Joker and I started working.

That is right – the Cory Aquino Office of the President started in a room next to the canteen where we began drafting appointment papers and executive orders. After a while, we were joined by Rene Saguisag, who became the presidential spokesman.

Cory held office with her personal staff on the floor above us. Eventually, we went to Malacañang and the whole staff, including President Cory, started working in the Guesthouse and not in the main Palace building.

We were working with limited resources until a few months later, a group of people from the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) came to us and told us nobody had taken over their office. Joker told me to go with them and decide whether we would take over the office or disband the group.

After I went to PMS, I told Joker we should take over because the office had the resources we needed. He then appointed me to head the group with the consent of the President. That is how I became the head of the Presidential Management Staff and had the opportunity to serve directly under Cory.

We had a weekly staff meeting that included the President, Joker Arroyo, Deputy Executive Secretary Jun Factoran and Presidential Legal Counsel Adolf Azcuna.

I had the opportunity to work with other legendary figures in the Office of the President. In the first year alone, our boss was President Cory Aquino and Joker Arroyo, primus inter pares. Then there was Deputy Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraig Jr., who later took the place of Joker. There were other inspiring figures like Rene Saguisag; TeddyBoy Locsin, speechwriter and counselor; Teddy Benigno, press secretary; Jun Factoran; Adolf Azcuna; Maria Vargas Montelibano, Ching Escaler, appointments secretary, and others like Miguel Perez-Rubio, Magdangal Elma, Mario Padilla, Bobby Lucila, Rene Sarmiento, Mar Salazar and Margie Penson Juico.

We worked on the average 18 hours a day and during coup attempts, we literally lived in our offices. President Cory demanded the highest level of integrity and excellence in our work.

TeddyBoy Locsin once wrote: “We got lucky. We served Cory Aquino. That was better than getting rich. It was an assurance of a place in history.”

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