Cebu’s EDSA revolt that only Cebuanos knew

It’s officially the 28th anniversary of the EDSA Revolution and as what I’ve been writing so many times before… EDSA was triggered by the walkout of the Comelec’s computer programmers at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC). Those were historic events that Filipinos should never forget for it is not part of our political history.

In Cebu, especially for those who are now in their 30s and 40s, you could never remember that Cebu City also had our own EDSA uprising when the Presidential candidates of the United Nationalist Democratic Organization (UNIDO) led by Tita Cory Aquino and Sen. Salvador “Doy” Laurel were in Cebu where they held a huge rally at the Fuente Osmeña, headquarters of the Philippine Constabulary and symbol of the Marcos Dictatorship in Cebu. Cebu City Mayor Florentino Solon was a Marcos appointee.

I was one of the top officials of the UNIDO Party (with Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal Jr. and Dr. July Divinagracia), which is why we already knew the time when Tita Cory would arrive in Cebu with Sen. Doy Laurel. But I decided that it was a waste of time to go to Mactan Airport to meet them, as we had to help secure the stage for the rally at the Fuente Osmeña.

Note that this was in the days when the cellphone was still science fiction and our only way of communications was via CB Radio and we had a group called Search that used CB on our cars and we used code names which was quite perfect in our expected battle against the Marcos Dictatorship. Those were dangerous days, as no one could predict how Marcos would react to the people power revolt. I expected that he would react with violence.

Tita Cory arrived at the stage simultaneously with Doy Laurel and the Fuente Osmeña was jam packed with a throng of people cheering the two opposition stalwarts because the Batasan Pambansa just declared Pres. Ferdinand Marcos the winner of the February 1986 Snap elections. But the Filipino people were no longer buying this yarn and accepted Tita Cory and Doy Laurel as our duly elected President and Vice-President.

If at all, we were surprised that Tita Cory did come up with a lengthy speech. She was just contended in denouncing the cheating machinery of the Marcos Dictatorship. Doy Laurel had a longer speech. After they had spoken, they split up and Laurel returned to Manila, while Tita Cory stayed on with Sen. John “Sonny” Osmeña and took refuge at the Carmelite Monastery in Mabolo. The next day, she flew back to Manila on a private plane.

We later learned over Radyo Bandido that it was the time when the Comelec computer programmers walked out of the PICC and Butz Aquino echoed the call of Jaime Cardinal Sin to march to EDSA to protect then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos who were holed out in Camp Crame. Suddenly throngs of people started marching towards EDSA… and likewise, the people of Cebu (Cebu was considered an opposition country then) also began filling up the streets of Osmeña Blvd.

While the crowd along Osmeña Blvd. grew larger and swelled, later that evening I asked my protégé Regal Baby Manilyn Reynes to climb up the Security Gate of Camp Sergio Osmeña of the PC to belt out mix of songs before the huge crowd using only a portable sound box attached to a microphone. Later that evening, we heard over the radio that Pres. Marcos had declared a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. We thought, now the Marcos Dictatorship will crack the whip against the protesters both in EDSA and in Osmeña Blvd. But strangely the PC officers in Camp Osmeña never seemed to be a threat to the civilians outside their gate.

Then I got a call from our good friend, then Radio commentator Cerge Remonde of DyLA if we were going to obey the curfew. I was with Dr. Ike Wong of the Public Utility Vehicle Owners Cooperative (PUVOC) and we went to DyLA to be interviewed by Cerge Remonde. I wasn’t in media at that time, but I was the president of the Metro Cebu Theater Owners Assoc. (MCTOA) and I declared over the air that all the theaters and moviehouses in Cebu would continue with our normal showing schedule with the last full show at 9 p.m. Dr. Wong then took the microphone and declared that all those who wanted to see the last full show could still avail of public transportation, as we no longer believed that Marcos could enforce his curfew order.

After the interview was over, Cerge Remonde then told me, “Pre... we just earned ourselves an invitation to be arrested by the Marcos military. Better prepare yourselves for the worst because Marcos will cling to power.” My reply to Cerge was simple, “At this point, I would like to believe that Marcos has already lost his grip on power. But if worse comes to worse, I’ll join you in the hills and become a guerilla just like in the days of the Japanese occupation.” That evening, Pres. Marcos and his entourage took off in an American helicopter to Clark Air Force Base and off to Hawaii and the rest is history.

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