I am putting to print my thoughts on a subject matter of historic dimensions and brace for the critical, perhaps violent, reactions it may spawn. If there is a usual waiver before any radio commentary program is aired freeing the management of any consequences such a program may bring about, I will reprise it here. While I have, in some academic circles explored the topic at hand, this stands as my first write up that puts the off tangent nature of this column in uncharted boundaries. This paper, its editor and staff have nothing to do with this exposition. Every bit of opinion written here comes solely from my fragmented recollection of the event which we now refer to as the EDSA Revolution.
Initially, I dare to answer in the negative should the question be asked if there really was such a revolution. In the context of the word revolution, to mean an uprising, I could not ascribe that incident 27 years ago as a revolution. Here is what my memory brings me back of those days.
In the mid afternoon of February 22, 1986, I heard of a buzz about a frightening event that started to unravel in Manila. Some men assembled themselves in a military camp for yet undetermined reasons. Well, it was a rumor that anybody who would spread it asked the next person to withhold relaying the story. “Hush, this is strictly confidential. Don't tell anyone about it.†Ironically, that was how it quickly spread. As it went around, one bit of information was added to the previous. True enough, it was a tale of men supposedly armed to the teeth and ready to do battle against a still unknown enemy.
Before sundown, the news reported the involvement of such high-strung personalities as Hon. Juan Ponce Enrile, the perceived Martial Implementor and Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, a chief of staff. Together with their own loyal supporters, they reportedly entrenched themselves in the camp. The duo apparently got wind of an impending arrest supposedly issued by then Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos. To resist incarceration, Enrile and Ramos were left with no option but to lock horns with the president.
Later that afternoon, a Mr. Butz Aquino, erstwhile leader of a group called August Twenty One Movement (ATOM), went on air to call on his members and circle of friends to proceed to the military camp. His announced purpose was to help prevent bloodshed. If, in his rationale, unarmed civilians would encircle the camp, the force that was out to get Enrile and Ramos would not just break their way thru the human cordon. Aquino also thought that such a Marcos contingent would not possess a kind of ferocity as to spray their guns on defenseless civilians. That call was heeded not just by ATOM members but other citizens too.
It was early in the evening of that day that Radio Veritas carried the solemn voice of Cardinal Sin. He encouraged even more the patriotic act of trying to prevent a military encounter between two groups of armed combatants. By serving as a buffer, the civilians could really stop either side from firing guns. The prelate's call worked like magic. The initial trickle of peace-loving civilians became monstrous hordes of concerned citizens pouring unto EDSA.
As the stand-off breached the dawn, it spilled to the military corps. One after the other, elements if not entire units of the armed forces started to announce breaking from the chain of command and throwing their fealty to the side of Enrile and Ramos. Thunderous applauses greeted each of such actions to indicate, quite clearly, where the citizenry cast their lot. Images of ordinary men and women, of nuns and priests, of young and adult, of protestants and born-again Christians, well, almost everybody pitting warm bodies against armored columns to stop the latter from proceeding to where Enrile and Ramos were.
Today, in our efforts to keep alive those acts constituting “People Powerâ€, we have given it a name - EDSA Revolution. We forget that many of those who went to EDSA did not clinch their fists to proclaim a revolution or fire guns aimed at Malacanang to rid the country of a troubled president. In my recollection, I heard of no one at EDSA who knew that it was a revolution . . . until much later in time.
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