Page 4 - Hello Philippines March 2016 'A' issue

4 www.hello-philippines.com
Rtheamt eCmhbaenrgiendg athNe a‘Ptieoonp’sleDPeoswtienry’
Continuation from page 2
practice in her hometown, after
completing her studies at the College
of Medicine of the University of the
Philippines in 1976.
Parong was taking care of her ailing
mother and was working as a physician
at the state-run Nueva Vizcaya School
of Agriculture and Technology when
she was arrested. She was charged
with inciting to rebellion.
Victory in sight? Air wing joins rebels. on two-way radio to return to “home
Meanwhile, the “rebels” who were
holed up in the two premier camps
were gaining strength not only because
more restive officers and enlisted men
were defecting to their side. At that
moment, thousands of people who
trooped to EDSA were no longer afraid
that any moment, Mr. Marcos and his
generals would attack their ranks to
flush out the breakaway group.
At dawn of the third day (Monday,
Feb. 24), the protesters witnessed with
alarm several helicopters hovering
above the camp. The rebel troops were
trying to ascertain if these were their
allies or were deployed by the regime
to put the final blow to the civilian-
backed rebellion. Taking a defensive
stance, the rebel troops braced for a
possible attack.
Newsman Vitug then felt that
the rebellion had already become
unstoppable after at least eight
helicopters landed: with no less than
Col. Antonio Sotelo, the head of the Air
Force’s 5th Strike Force, at the helm.
Sotelo, who was reportedly instructed
to pulverize Camp Crame to end the
revolt once and for all, had turned and
was now on the rebel side.
“Halos mapuno ang field ng
Crame. May nagsasabi na si Sotelo
daw right from the start RAM ng
sympathy niya. Mayroon din namang
nagsasabing officers na sinabihan siya
na ‘Kumampi tayo sa RAM, kundi ikaw
ang pababagsakin namin [Crame’s
field was nearly filled with the Sotelo
group’s choppers. Some people were
saying Sotelo was sympathizing with
RAM right from the start and had
simply kept quiet. Others said he was
told by the rebel-soldier sympathizers
to help RAM, or we will take you
down].’”
The valuable air assets controlled
by Sotelo’s group provided a decisive
factor that could seal the fate of the
embattled administration.
Soon after, June Keithley broadcast
on Radyo Bandido [which took over
after loyalist troops bombed the Radio
Veritas transmitter] the information
that the Marcoses had fled country.
The news was met with jubilation by
the crowd who had joined the rebels
inside Crame.
Enrile and Ramos emerged from
the main headquarters building, and
joined the revelers at an elevated
platform near the flagpole. It was also
there that General Ramos made made
his famous victory jump.
The “Marcos has fled” story turned
out to be a dud, but then Malaya
reporter Desiree Carlos said the crowd
continued with their celebration.
“They refused to stop. They continued
dancing in the street, as if it was
already liberation day,” she said.
Carlos joined in the revelry until
Malaya publisher Joe Burgos told her
base.” This time she learned that
“home base” was not the offices at West
Avenue, but a safehouse near Visayas
Avenue, where Burgos earlier set up a
temporary editorial office so they can
continue coming out with the paper.
Peaceful transition, no to ‘power-
sharing’. Saguisag recalled that on
February 22, he had lunch with Philip
Kaplan at the ambassador’s official
residence in Forbes with Philip Habib,
President Ronald Reagan’s special
envoy who was already scheduled
to return to Washington that same
afternoon.
During his brief stay in the country,
the US emissary had proposed a
power-sharing scheme for Mr. Marcos
and Mrs. Aquino.
In an interview with InterAksyon,
Saguisag recalled that Mrs. Aquino’s
position was that “No, I won and I’ll
take power.”
According to Saguisag, when Mrs.
Aquino was informed that Enrile
and Ramos had broken away from
the regime, she was with the group
of Jejomar Binay, Saguisag’s fellow
MABINI lawyer, in Cebu. They
immediately kept her in a Catholic
convent in the outskirts of the city. Early
next morning (Feb. 23), she decided to
immediately fly back to Manila.
Saguisag said they conferred with
Cory at the residence of Josephine
Reyes, Mrs. Aquino’s elder sister, in
WackWack, a posh subdivision where
Enrile once claimed he was ambushed,
on the eve of the declaration of martial
law. The Reyes residence was only
about a kilometer away from the two
camps.
Despite objections from her security
aides, Mrs. Aquino decided to go to
the Philippine Overseas Employment
Administration (POEA), building
where she spoke to a group of protesters
and get a glimpse of the situation on
Feb. 23.
Later in the afternoon, she was
accompanied by the late former Sen.
Joker Arroyo for a meeting with the
political opposition.
It was then that the rebels’ emissary,
Gen. Eduardo Ermita briefed her on the
current plight of his fellow dissidents.
His advise to Mrs. Aquino: “There is a
political vacuum, you have to move in.”
Even with Mr. Marcos still around,
former Sen. Saguisag said there was a
NEWS
People from all walks of life gather at EDSA to protect the two camps from People talk to the marines on stand by sent by the government in case of an
government soldiers loyal to President Marcos. Photos by Sonny Camarillo.
public clamor for Mrs. Aquino to take
her oath as president.
“He (Marcos) suddenly came out on
TV. But only a few generals were with
him,” the lawyer said.
On the third day of the revolt,
Saguisag was advised to go to Camp
Crame to inform the protesters that
Mrs. Aquino cannot take her oath that
night (Feb. 24). As he spoke, the crowd, fled to Hawaii with the intercession
showed their disappointment.
But all of the forces supporting Cory celebrated story all over the world.
Aquino agreed that the inauguration
would take place the next morning at
Club Filipino.
Inaugural of 2 presidents. The
historic events venue was nearly
deserted as its staff had joined the
EDSA crowd celebration.
All the Metro Manila officials then
were known to have hobnobbed with
the strongman. His wife Imelda Marcos
was then the influential governor of
the metropolitan government, besides
being the powerful minister of human
settlements.
But all that power seemed to have
receded on February 25, 1986, when
her dictator-husband had his inaugural
in a tightly-secured ceremony at
Malacañang—where a few thousands
of so-called “hakot” crowd was
brought in—just as “President Corazon
Cojuangco Aquino” also took her oath
before the late Associate Supreme
Court Justice Claudio Teehankee
before a jam-packed crowd at the Club
Filipino.
A frail-looking Mr. Marcos was
sworn in without any fanfare at the
Kalayaan Hall of the Malacanang
Palace grounds. Traditionally, elected
state leaders took their oath at the
Rizal Park Grandstand, but this was an
exception.
In less than a day, the once-most-
powerful man in the country was
bundled off in a helicopter, eventually
spending three years of exile in the
United States.
EDSA was described as a “peaceful”
revolution, but now-Reuters reporter
Manny Mogato said that on the
morning of February 25, he had to rush
to the Makati Police Station since there
was a bloody encounter between the
order to attack the rebel soldiers.
police loyal to the government, and a
group of maverick lawmen.
At least 12 people were killed in the a rainbow coalition,” Mogato said.
shootout, and his story was chosen to
be the banner headline of his paper the
next day.
But later that night, Mogato’s story
was moved to the paper’s back page. At
dusk, the Marcoses left the Palace and
of US embassy officials. It was the
top story in his paper, and became a
Meanwhile, while jubilation
continued at EDSA, there was
massive looting in Malacanang as the
Presidential guards abandoned their
posts.
Mogato eventually lost his job at
the Manila Times after the workers
went on strike a year after the EDSA
uprising.
Like most newsmen who had
worked under martial law, he found
himself leaping from one reportorial
job to the other but continued to cover
turbulent events that happened during
the Cory Aquino administrating,
including the failed coup attempts
during her six years in power.
He eventually got the opportunity
to cover Fidel Ramos, who had served
as Armed Forces chief and then
defense secretary before eventually
succeeding Mrs. Aquino in 1992, in
the first democratic elections after the to ensuring “closure for the people I’ve
1986 snap elections.
According to Mogato, the leadership
displayed by Mr. Ramos was one of
“inclusiveness.” Mr. Ramos conducted
peace talks with the left, and with the
rightist rebels that tried to topple his abuses under martial law; and scoffing
predecessor, eventually presiding at
the historic peace agreement in 1996
with the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF).
Then President Ramos even formed
a National Unification Commission
chaired by the late Haydee Yorac, a
respected human rights lawyer and
constitutionalist.
Mogato rued that the Cory years
were “very divisive,” so Ramos “wanted
to reconcile with everyone.”
“He had a good start but in the end
his moves were destroyed by politics.
March 2016 – No. 05 • UK & Europe Edition
He wanted (his political party) Lakas to
win so he made many alliances. Being a
minority president, he wanted to build
Seeking closure. Dr. Parong now
sits on the Board of the Human Rights
Victims Claims Board, which was
created by Republic Act 10368 with the
mandate to work out the recognition
for victims of martial law and the
corresponding grant of reparations.
President Benigno Aquino signed
the law on February 25, 2013, and
the Board had two years to decide on
everything.
The board members were, however,
only appointed on February 14, 2014;
worse, they ended up with 75,730
cases to review, even though when
the law was first drafted by Congress,
the lawmakers expected only 20,000
victims.
“It’s a long delayed justice, but still
I want to give my all,” said Parong,
who had also joined the Amnesty
International as head of its Philippine
desk.
She said they are giving one to
10 points per case. The more serious
ones like enforced disappearances are
assigned 10 points; torture gets 6 to 9
points; and for arbitrary detention, 3
to 5 points. The higher the points, the
higher the monetary reparations.
Parong likens the work of the Board
met and had helped before. They were
part of a struggle against dictatorship.”
Indeed, closure of this sort can
never be fully achieved, more so when
revisionists insist on playing down the
at the national upheaval that led to
EDSA.
The point is: whatever debris
of human failures may now litter
EDSA since 1986, history can never
be denied, i.e., that in four days that
February of 30 years ago, Filipinos
moved like one to change a regime that
had grossly overstayed its welcome.
And the world, stunned, watched and
applauded. And it has since sought to
find its own unique formula for seeking
redress. n Joel C. Paredes / InterAksyon.com / February
23, 2016 / 6:49 pm