Strangely enough, I was raided last night in my hospital room by Philippine National Police Director General Arturo C. Lomibao. He laughed when I asked him if he had come to arrest me as one of the persons in the list. Instead he had come to deliver my personal copy of his new book whose book launching had already been delayed twice by unexpected events which you already know. The volume a very fine picture book entitled IN THE NAME OF SERVICE: The Philippine National Police 15 Years And A Century is actually about the officers and men of the defunct Philippine Constabulary and the present day PNP who served with distinction several of them winning the Medal of Valor. I asked the general whether he was still the editor and chief of the Daily Tribune as he has been assailed for the past week since several policemen camped themselves in the newsrooms and offices of the Tribune, and he grinned once again. "We never touched anything in the Tribune with regards to its editorial content, and of course our policemen were withdrawn when the President lifted Proclamation 1017 last Friday." I asked Art whether this was the beginning on a crackdown on the media as the debate has been raging the past few days and he replied that there is no press censorship being contemplated to his own personal knowledge and that his cops were only doing their job under Article 12 Section 17 of the Philippine Constitution.
There is, however, a real conspiracy being investigated in many sectors but at this time mostly in the Armed Forces. As for the media being harassed he said you yourself should know better than myself "since you were one of the first arrested in September 1972 when Marcos really crashed the media when he imposed real martial law." I chided him for having made the Daily Tribune more popular than the Philippine Star, when not too many people, to my own knowledge knew that it even existed. I kidded him that I said this in all sincerity because I was envious of the publicity given that other daily.
As for Proclamation 1017, which I still believe as I said in my last column more than a week ago was both unwise and unnecessary, I’m glad La Presidenta has already lifted it. As I have already written she should never have imposed it since it made us look like we are in a state of war when, in truth, we are only in a state of hysteria. Oh well. What’s done is done — and what’s left at this moment are all that shouting, and recrimination.
Being laid up in a hospital bed for a week gives one time to watch television endlessly, and I must say that we are a nation that does a lot of talking. I have never heard such analyzing and opinion giving, much of it opinionated, in my entire life. As the Bible says, alas, "so much sound and fury signifying nothing". To begin with all that furor resulted in, I’m sure many cancellations of planned arrivals, and, if I were a foreigner who just arrived in the past few days I’d make a u-turn and head back to the airport believing this country is in the verge of collapse.
Anyway, Art, assured me that everything was all calm at this time and that the 5,000 policemen in the metropolitan area are maintaining a quiet presence and are not in a state of red alert.
How could I forget the anniversary of his ordination! It was the very day that Edsa People Power began in February 1986. We had all gone to the chapel of the Loyola House of Studies in the Ateneo University to witness Louie being ordained by his late Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin. The mass had started at 3 pm and after that Cardinal Sin had elevated Louie to the priesthood, a lifelong dream of both his mama and my late mother.
In fact it was that gathering that witnessed the beginning of the collapse of the Marcos dictatorship.
Cardinal Sin and a group of us were having coffee afterwards at the Refectory of the Loyola House as I have already related often enough, when the telephone rang. It was a call for the Cardinal, who came to me afterwards and asserted "Max this may be the start of the end of the Marcos Regime." He said that Minister of Defense Johnny Ponce Enrile (now Senator) had holed up in his headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo with about 200 of his bodyguards and soldiers asserting he was defying Marcos. According to his informant, Enrile had stated he was going to be arrested by Marcos and he had decided that he would not give himself up without a fight. I exclaimed "how can 200 men fight the entire Philippine army?" But in my heart I already knew the answer which was supplied by Sin himself the next moment. He observed that it could be the rallying point for others who might be inclined to join in the revolt. True enough we already had been planning such a move but weeks later not that very day and there had been freedom marches and a rising crescendo of resentment all over the nation against too many years of totalitarian rule punctuated by murder, torture and pillage. What made the moment significant was that two of the cardinal’s trusted Jesuit friends and advisers, Father Joaquin Bernas, SJ and Father Ben Nebres, SJ were also on hand.
I told the Cardinal that I had met with General Fidel V. Ramos that noon and we had agreed to study a timetable for moving against the dictator, who was FVR’s own cousin. Ramos had not wanted his own security men to know whom he was meeting that day so we had met in the private residence of his comadre the late Betty Go Belmonte and her husband now Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte. His bodyguards had been kept waiting outside the gate while FVR and I conferred inside.
"Don’t you think I ought to warn Ramos too?" I asked the Cardinal, "because he too might be scheduled for arrest." Cardinal Sin said he thought it was a good idea to do so immediately. So I went to the telephone to try to ring FVR up at his residence. I could not get through, so I decided to call Betty Go Belmonte and asked her to do it. At that time she was co-Chairman of the Philippine Daily Inquirer of which I was Publisher. The operator cum security guard who answered the phone said that nobody was in the office. "Don’t be stupid," I barked at him. "Don’t you recognize my voice, this is your boss, your Publisher!" He stammered and replied, "Sorry Sir I did not recognize you but those were my instructions because we just received a warning that General Fabian Ver was sending a raiding team to our editorial office!"
Betty was soon on the phone and I instructed her, "Betty please warn Eddie Ramos that Ponce Enrile has barricaded himself in Camp Aguinaldo claiming that he was going to be arrested by Marcos. Tell Eddie that he also might be arrested."
Betty indeed was able to contact the Ramos household but it was his wife Ming who answered. "I’m afraid that Eddie won’t be able to come to the phone at this time because he is outside at the gate dialoguing with a group of Cory Crusaders who have been picketing the house." Betty explained to Ming what JPE was doing and declared "Quick, tell Eddie to watch out because Max says that HE WILL ALSO BE ARRESTED! " How might suddenly became will instead I cannot explain but my message was lost in translation. However, it served our purpose. Inspired by the news Ramos jumped into his car and later joined JPE and his mutineers in Camp Aguinaldo. The rest is history.
Father David himself will never forget that day. At about 7 pm, if you will recall, Cardinal Sin broadcast on Radio Veritas an appeal for everyone to rally and rush to Edsa to form a human barricade to protect JPE, FVR and the mutineers. Louie remembers expressing his disbelief : imagine civilians being told to go there to protect the military from the military by putting themselves in between! In the old days, Popes use to call for swords around the cross. Now here was a Cardinal calling for a cross between two swords. But spontaneously in response to that rallying cry people from all over started to mobilize. The Jesuits organized a battalion of priests, seminarians and students and started marching from Loyola Heights towards Cubao.
As one of the youngest Jesuits, Father David found himself being put at the head of the march: "Oh my God! He remembered saying to himself even as he prayed, I’ll be the first to be shot!" Fortunately by the time they reached Cubao a group of nuns joined the march towards Edsa and he sighed in relief. "Good, we’ll put the madres in front of us so perhaps they won’t shoot."
By the time they reached Edsa and Camps Aguinaldo and Crame, the marchers had swelled into many thousands! This was People Power — truly and sincerely gathered. Not the fake imitations of People Power which were subsequently attempted by those who wanted to grab at power and glory.
It was the finest hour for many of our people who went there with no hope for gain, not even a guarantee of success — unarmed, impelled by what was in their hearts, stirred by an impulse probably only half understood by themselves, a people rising to shake off its chains. When I arrived at the spot not only buses and trucks had been brought in to buttress the barricades, but some had even brought in their own Mercedes Benzes to form the first line of defense against the expected vengeful Marcos legions sweeping down on them "like the wolf on the fold." I recall facetiously remarking to myself that anyone who is willing to give up his Mercedes Benz for his country deserves to be free.
Those who attempt to glorify themselves today by associating themselves with the first Edsa People Power will never understand in a million years what makes the difference between 1986 and today. But Father Louie himself yesterday, put it best. We all went there without fury or anger or noise. We were determined to fight for our freedom and resist the tyrant. But we were armed only by the weapons of unity and faith. These days, everything is anger, rancor, debate and hatred. What we saw in Edsa in those four days and nights was the irresistible power of love.