When it opens this week, Col. Noel Detoyato wants to bring his children to the People Power Experiential Museum so they may see for themselves what he experienced 30 years ago.
“I want them to see what I went through,” the public affairs office chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said. “I can proudly say I was there at Edsa, in front of the gates of Camps Crame and Aguinaldo.”
Detoyato’s wish for his children should come true when the museum opens on Thursday.
Detoyato was 21 and in his second year at the Philippine Military Academy when the revolution broke out on Feb. 22, 1986.
Detoyato was in Metro Manila when he learned of the call to go to Edsa from soldiers who were his neighbors.
“When we went to Edsa, there were a few people on the first day … Then the people just massed up,” he said.
The demonstrations lasted until Feb. 25 when Ferdinand Marcos was booted out of power.
Detoyato said he went to the rallies for four days with his friends, walking through the length of Edsa and White Plains Avenue.
Loudspeakers played “Mambo Magsaysay,” a campaign ditty of former President Ramon Magsaysay in the 1950s.
“All I can hear was ‘Mambo Magsaysay’ all over Edsa. Some people were even climbing the lampposts in the middle of Edsa,” he said.
“I was just there initially because I was curious about what was happening. When we got there, it was as if there was this contagious electric shock going through people. People kept on coming and walking the whole stretch,” he said.
It was as if everyone knew each other, strangers sharing their food with everyone.
Detoyato recalled getting a free meal at White Plains and helping give out free pan de sal.
“There was this euphoria … as if everybody knew everybody,” he said.
On the last day, the crowd had swollen to the millions. He heard of Marcos’ ouster on radio and television when he got home.
Now, Detoyato wants his children to have a glimpse of what his generation went through.
“We want our soldiers to expose their children to this so they can appreciate the work of their parents,” he said. “We want our youth today to see what happened 30 years ago so they will appreciate its historical value.”