Baguio Insider

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.

My buddy then was Salma Rasul (her mom Santanina would later become a Senator under Cory’s Lakas Party) as we had to realign ourselves. Our group was layered this way: 1st Line - Nuns with a Statue of the Virgin Mary, 2nd Line - Grandmothers and Mothers, 3rd Line - Sisters and Daughters, 4th Line - Older Men, 5th Line - Young Men. This was the psychological pattern all over EDSA for obvious reasons: of course the soldiers would find it hard to open fire on unarmed, helpless women. Leman, my regular buddy, had to stay back in the 5th Line.

Althroughout the night, the UP Law Liberation Forces were deployed to different areas and taught civilians on what to do in case shots were fired, or in case tear gas was used, how to roll over to the side, how to keep track of buddies, and all other measures to be taken in case of arrest. These were things we were used to as paralegals and demonstrators. After all, if there were any veteran student demonstrators there, it would be those from UP. And of course, UP Law students were older, more experienced in these things.

So Salma and I kept muttering under the wet handkerchiefs covering our noses, “Gulong kung gugulong, sa kanan (we drop down and roll to the side if we have to, to the right).” There we were face to face with a battalion of soldiers and tanks that kept warning us to disperse. And right when we thought all was lost, we hear June Kiethley announce via Readio Veritas that Marcos had fled Malacanang!

First came shock, then we started cheering! Then the encounter cooled down immediately and everyone was at a loss as to what to do next. I think the military lost their momentum right there and everyone just left the area. We rushed to EDSA and saw Ramos and Enrile appear before the crowds. Everyone was cheering and laughing and crying. But that was short-lived. By the time we got back to our headquarters, we saw Marcos on TV with his lapdog Fabian Ver asking for the order to fire at the crowds. Marcos kept insisting that they should disperse the crowds without shooting.

During that broadcast over government owned and controlled Channel 4, suddenly Marcos went off the air! It turns out that reformist soldiers had captured the station!

Throughout the day, we heard over the radio that there we exciting things going on elsewhere:

>> Helicopters were ordered to head to Camp Crame to neutralize it. Secretly they had already defected and instead of attacking Camp Crame, landed in it, with the crowds cheering and hugging the soldiers who came out. Malou Carreon’s father was one of them and he was later promoted to the rank of general.

>> Rebel helicopters attacked Villamor Air Base, destroying presidential vehicles. Another helicopter went to Malacañang, fired a rocket and caused some damage.

>> Most of the officers who had graduated from the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) defected; the majority of the Armed Forces had already changed sides.

On February 24 though, the EDSA crowd realized that it could not accept any other resolution to the situation other than Marcos stepping down. For that one short moment, we felt what it was like to be free of him, even if it was short-lived and there was just no going back.

But Marcos was still around. So we knew that we would have to spend another cold night sleeping in the streets.

—–

Next on EDSA 1986 Revisited: Marcos Going, Going, Gone!