Baguio Insider

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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It was 11:00 p.m. on February 22, 1986, and Butch Sebastian’s birthday. We were all partying at his Capitol Homes pad when we heard over the radio that there was something weird going on at Camp Aguinaldo. Enrile and Ramos had announced that they were withdrawing their support of Ferdinand Marcos and accused the latter of cheating in the recent elections. The party broke up earlier than usual and after reaching home, and my mom, her friend and I drove to EDSA, like true “ociosos” (”busybodies” in English, “mga usisero” in Filipino), to check out what was happening.

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