Baguio Insider

The Baguio Flower Festival (Panagbenga) is now on its 3rd week and we just finished our very popular, ultra colorful, well-attended Parade Weekend: Street Dancing Competition on 24 February and Parade of Floats & Marching Bands on 25 February. The weather cooperated quite nicely and the crowd, though large, was pretty disciplined and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. Since this is the first time since 1987 that a special holiday was not declared to commemorate the EDSA Revolution that toppled Marcos, many potential visitors had to either cut their trip short or cancel altogether. Still the attendance was pretty large, the traffic a little less than past years, and the mood just as festive.

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Part Four.

On February 25, Cory Aquino was inaugurated as President of the Philippines, with her running mate Doy Laurel as Vice-President. In a simple ceremony at Club Filipino in Greenhills, about a kilometer away from Camp Crame, they were sworn in by Justices of the Supreme Court Claudio Teehankee and Vicente Abad Santos. In attendance were Ramos, Enrile and many opposition politicians, and the Bible on which Cory swore her oath was held by Aurora Aquino, Ninoy’s mother.

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Part Three.

Early in the morning of Monday, February 24, we, the members of the PM Team of the UP Law Liberation Forces, together with a few hundred more demonstrators, found ourselves face to face with Marines who had earlier marched from Libis and dispersed the crowd there with tear gas. We were guarding the side entrance to Camp Aguinaldo and knew that we had to stop them from taking it.

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Part Two.

February 23rd 1986 was a Sunday. That morning, Malou Carreon invited me to Camp Crame where she lived, ostensibly to play some racquet sport, probably tennis. She was a “military brat” who lived “on base,” her father a colonel in the Philippine Constabulary which was headquartered at Camp Crame, right across Camp Aguinaldo. Of course I gladly accepted the invitation. My mom agreed, knowing that Malou was a friend since high school, and thinking that the situation was not too serious based on what she saw the night before. She hardly saw me for the next three days after that.

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