Edsa: My personal account

So much has transpired since those heady days when the Filipino people seemingly awoke from a deep sleep perforated with nightmares of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Exactly 30 years ago today, Filipinos finally took a stand at Camp Crame and at Camp Aguinaldo along Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue (Edsa), and in four days the martial law nightmare was finally, and unequivocally ended.

This is my personal account of how I came to Edsa during those thrilling days.

It was late February 1986. I was addressing a convention of medical doctors, all alumni of the Far Eastern University (FEU) Medical School, at the Hotel Intercontinental in Makati. In those days, Filipinos were shaking off the fear and apprehension that was part and parcel of Marcos’ strongman rule. I was one of the most vociferous and fiercest critics of Marcos and his regime, and I was always being invited to speak at conventions and other events. People were no longer afraid of having opposition leaders such as myself to keep speaking out against the martial law regime, and I did just that.

That was late in the afternoon. I never got to finish the FEU convention. My trusted aide, Engineer Robert Evangelista, urgently wanted to have word with me. I could sense the urgency in Robert’s body language. He finally told me, “Sir, something is happening in Camp Crame and Camp Aguinaldo. Soldiers are already preparing to enter the Intercon. We have to go,” he said.

 Escape-and-evade

Luckily I was very familiar with the layout of the Intercon. We retreated through the kitchen near the back of the hotel. My car was already there waiting for us. We indeed saw soldiers already entering the hotel through the main entrances. I was so used to playing this game of escape-and-evade as an opposition leader. They never caught us.

We proceeded straight to Camp Crame. The massive crowds that are so familiar in pictures, images and footage was not yet there. Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, and Butz Aquino, brother of slain opposition leader Ninoy Aquino, had just sounded the call to go to Edsa to protect Gen. Fidel Ramos and Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile. Both men had decided to make their final stand at Camp Crame after their plot to oust Marcos was discovered. Edsa was itself a spontaneous movement, gathering momentum as the days passed, with more and more people responding to the call of Cardinal Sin and Butz Aquino.

When I entered the main headquarters building inside Camp Crame, I saw Gen. Ramos there, smoking his signature cigar, and already making plans. He and his men were all busy trying to figure out how to organize a resistance once the fighting started. He was also busy calling on the officials of the police force, from the Northern Police District under Fred Lim, to the Southern Police District under Gen. Ruben Escarcha, and other police districts. He was urging them to go to Camp Crame and defect to their side.

The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. We were constantly monitoring developments as they happened. We were expecting the worst, waiting for Marcos to give the signal for his troops to attack us and retake Camp Crame. I personally witness Ramos, a West Point product, trying his best to keep the morale of his men high, reminding them why they were fighting the dictator. In fairness to Marcos though, he never gave the order to attack.

I noticed Ramos and Enrile wearing bullet proof vests. They and their men, including Greg Honasan, Red Katipunan, and the rest of the RAM Boys, were all heavily armed. I did not have a bullet proof vest. I was also unarmed. I simply went there to lend whatever support I could to them in their hour of greatest peril.

By the Grace of Almighty God, Marcos fled a few days later. By that time, I was among the first to enter Malacañang Palace after the Marcoses left. But that is a story for another time.