My EDSA Experience

At first when the announcement of former President Cory Aquino’s death came thru text message, I was expressionless, as if it were just a routine spam message received. A few minutes later, it sunk to my senses that we just lost the Philippine icon of democracy. Cory Aquino’s death is a great loss to our nation. It was the success of 1986 EDSA bloodless revolution that placed Cory Aquino in the seat of presidency. After Ninoy’s death, she ran against Marcos in the SNAP election and was allegedly cheated. The people became uncontrollably outraged.

I can still remember in February 1986 when my board mate woke me up early in the morning telling me that Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile and Constabulary chief General Fidel Ramos were inside a military camp in EDSA (Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue), rebelling against President Ferdinand Marcos. In short, they took over the camp and gained the sympathy of all the dwellers there. It wasn’t so easy but this was the beginning of the fall of the Marcos regime. I, and some other guys in the boarding house in Leon Guinto St. (Malate) decided to head up to EDSA to find out the real situation. We heard on the radio that public transport along the entire EDSA was not available because it was full of people. We walked from our place, making a short cut along Buendia and Ayala avenue then EDSA. I was struck with awe when I saw the number of people in EDSA. I was hoping that negotiation will occur and this will probably be over by tomorrow. It did not happen.

Although Enrile, Ramos and the “rebels” took over the camp, their numbers are no match to the Armed Forces of Marcos positioning themselves outside the camp waiting for orders to attack and arrest them. All the gates in the camp were locked down by the people to prevent the Armed Forces from doing so. An ultimatum was given to Enrile and Ramos to surrender otherwise, the Armed Forces will breach the gates, attack them that might result in killing them. At that point the gates were cordoned more heavily by people sacrificing themselves as human shields to prevent it from happening. I experienced a stand-off between the people and the military. We were standing with the cordon of priests, nuns, businessmen, movie personalities, the media and people from all walks of life. Opposite us, a few feet away were the battery of heavily armed, full battle geared Armed Forces of Marcos.

There were some twist of events, at one time we had to facilitate a passage for a platoon of heavily armed Marines who changed sides. At first we mistook them as intruders, but they pleaded to give them a safe passage to the camp in which we did. Several other breakaway groups at different entry points followed the procedure until the camp gained more military support. They grew in numbers by the end of day There were numerous attempts to breach the cordon at different entry points but they were unsuccessful. At one point the military fired several canisters of tear gas at the crowd and started advancing to disperse the cordon. But the direction of the wind shifted to the military’s direction, without gas masks themselves, the soldiers fell back and gasped for air. The nuns who were praying at that time stated that it was a divine intervention.

This is only a chip of the experience I am relating in my EDSA experience. I am proud to be a part of the EDSA Revolution, I am proud of Corazon Aquino who led the people with pureness of heart and love.