Baguio Insider

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.

When I got there, Malou immediately offered to take me up to the “War Room.” Posing as photographers (she carried her bulky camera while I wore her vest), we were able to enter an area that had a lot of activity and very lax security. There we saw General Fidel Ramos and the other officers conducting a count of supporters via radio communications, some prominent members of the opposition were there, too. We could hear reports of, “Sir, Region __ is ours.” We quickly got out of the area, not quite understanding what was happening and decided it was more exciting to check out the crowds outside the camps.

There we saw Gao Pronove, then President of the UP Law Student Government, and the gang from Butch Sebastian’s party the night before, as well as some other schoolmates. Malou and I recounted what we saw and Gao asked if he could see the War Room, too. But when we got there, security was a little tighter.

Apparently, Juan Ponce Enrile had convinced Ramos to join him in the rebellion the night before. They each stayed in their respective camps on opposite sides of EDSA protected by the crowds outside. After lunch that day, Ramos crossed over to Camp Aguinaldo to consolidate his forces with Enrile’s and the crowds cheered.

Of course, in true Filipino style, the mood was festive and street hawkers miraculously appeared with hot foods and cold drinks all around the place. The weather was great and I remember that December 1985 was the coldest Manila ever experienced in years. The skies were clear and it was not very warm that February. No one knew exactly what was happening or really grasped the gravity of the situation. Whole families were there, even little kids!

Enrile and Ramos were very not popular before the rebellion: they were Marcos’s martial law henchmen. But anything anti-Marcos was perceived by the crowd as pro-Cory. Plus, didn’t staunch Cory adviser, Cardinal Sin, put his stamp of approval on the rebellion? Plus Marcos’s power stemmed from the military and here were his Minister of National Defense and his Chief of Staff turning against him.

Beautiful Filipinas bearing flowers were befriending the military men who, just 24 hours earlier, were our hated enemies. People believed they could stop oncoming tanks with rosaries, statues of the Virgin Mary. General Artemio Tadiar and his troops were stopped along Ortigas Avenue by tens of thousands of people. Nuns holding rosaries knelt in front of the tanks and men and women linked arms together (”kapit bisig”) to block the troops. Tadiar threatened the crowds but no one budged. In the end, the troops retreated. No shot was fired.

Marcos finally appeared on TV stating that there was a coup d’etat and imposed martial law and curfew but no one really believed anything he said anymore because he was such a liar. Initially, we called ourselves the “Curfew Violators” but Gao decided that the “UP Law Liberation Forces” was more appropriate.

Gao said that he had found headquarters for us on 7th Avenue near the corner of Santolan. It was the house of Princess Bustos, a recent graduate of UP Law who was waiting for the bar results. I remember asking him if her parents wouldn’t mind and Gao said she lived alone. So we all went there and virtually abused that house for the next few days until Marcos left. Malou went back home to be in the thick of things at Camp Crame.

We received reports that the hotspots were Mariposa and Libis, so Gao sent teams there to show our support. At Libis, the Ateneo delegation claimed they were a few hundred strong, the La Sallites claiming larger numbers, and when asked how many we were, our delegate immediately suggested, “Why don’t we just coordinate all your groups?” On that second night, our group numbered only around 40. We wrote three-digit numbers on bond paper and pinned those to our shirts so that everyone would think our group was larger than it really was.

February 23rd was spent this way: Alma Fernandez was in charge of the kitchen and would cook her fantastic Sinigang for all of us, UP Law students would start pouring into the headquarters bearing food and helping Alma out. The group kept getting larger and larger with both undergraduates and alumni joining the UP Law Liberation Forces. We would divide ourselves into AM and PM teams. We moved around in pairs and my buddy was Leman Lagmay. Because of our location, we felt we would be most effective protecting the Logistics Command entrance of Camp Aguinaldo. At night we would sleep on newspapers on the street and the nice neighborhood bakeries would distribute hot “pan de sal” for free at 4am. You see, EDSA 1986 was all about food.

At EDSA no one bore arms. Our weapons were rosaries, prayers and flowers, and for protection we covered our faces with handkerchiefs in case we were tear gassed. We spent all of our time erecting barriers using rocks and sandbags thinking that those little things would stop the tanks. Ahh, to be 21 again!

You could say that the political maturity of the whole country then was that of a 21-year old. Marcos came to power in 1965, obliterated the opposition, ruled the country through fear and intimidation, controlled all media, removed the freedom of speech, and imposed his will upon the people. We were as mature as recent college graduates, still jobless and living under the rules of our parents’ house, thinking that everything was fun, and not really being able to recognize danger.

So everyone spent February 23 consolidating their “forces:” Enrile and Ramos were counting how many would “defect” to their side, Marcos counting his “loyal” troops, schools were deploying whole delegations, other groups unfurled their banners in a show of support. But what was so fantastic was that EDSA was filled with a great mass of unorganized people who went there voluntarily, spontaneously, to try to topple Marcos through peaceful means.

Next on EDSA 1986 Revisited: Real Danger, False Alarms, Firm Resolve

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* Author’s Notes:

1. Shallow Sally is my collection of Stories of Survival. Some stories were published in another blog and I plan to move them here soon, until they can find their own home on the web.

2. I am Shallow Sally (read: mababaw na lisa).

3. Edsa 1986 Revisited is published here because I have not set up the SSSoS site yet and I just had to do an EDSA piece this year to make up for Gloria’s failure to declare this a long weekend and ruining many people’s plans to come up for the Panagbenga. (I just had to find a Baguio connection here!)