The last two days of Marcos

By Herbert Vego

ATTEMPTS to “delete” in history the People Power Revolution that ended the reign of dictator President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos in 1986 will not succeed just because his son wants to revise history through films and video clips. It is embedded in history books and preserved through modern computer technology.

Admittedly, however, the young people of today have no recollection of what really happened on February 22 to25, 1986 because they were yet unborn. They tend to believe what they hear from others – whether true or false.

I was 36 in that year.

Since today (Feb. 24) commemorates the third day of that sudden change in our country’s political leadership, may I share historical nuggets from the last two days of the elder Marcos in Malacañang?

It was sometime in the morning of Feb. 24, 1986 when thousands of people swarmed Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA), specifically the vicinity of Camp Aguinaldo, where then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Philippine Constabulary Chief Fidel Ramos and rebel soldiers were holed in. It was in response to the previous night’s radio “panawagan” by Jaime Cardinal to shield them.

President Marcos, who had accused Enrile and Ramos of attempt to grab power through a military junta, authorized Gen. Fabian Ver (then chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to scare the expanding multitude away.

Before noon, Marcos appeared on state television to declare a state of emergency while tear gas canisters were exploding outside Camp Aguinaldo.  But the civilians stood their ground as there was no more space to run. An “ocean” of people had filled the long stretch of EDSA along Greenhills, San Juan, Ortigas, Libis, and Cubao.

Some of them must have gone home before sunset, but only to be replaced by “campers” who refilled the area.

In the evening, Enrile and Ramos announced an “almost complete” takeover and control of the “New Armed Forces of the People” in a press conference attended by local and foreign media.

At 10:15 a.m. of Feb. 25, Cory Aquino showed up at Club Filipino in San Juan before a multitude chanting, “Cory! Cory! Cory!” She was sworn into office as the duly elected President by Supreme Court Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee.

To cut the long day short, the entire Marcos family fled out of the country by nightfall and landed in Hawaii.

Those days in Philippine history made us shed tears of happiness, thinking that it had revived democracy and ended a dictatorship. We thought that it had ended the suppression of human rights marked by the military and the police abuses.

After Cory Aquino, five more Presidents from Fidel Ramos to Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno Aquino III and Rodrigo Duterte have come and gone.

Considering the sad fate that befell his deceased deposed father, could Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.  have even dreamed of succeeding Duterte?

One recalls that after his loss to Vice-President Leni Robredo in 2016 (14,418,817 against 14,155,344 votes), Marcos protested before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, alleging that the Commission on Elections and Smartmatic (the automated election technology contractor) had cheated him. He lost his protest.

With that in mind, I could not believe that he won against VP Leni for President on May 9, 2022 with 31 million votes against Leni’s 15 million.

You see, no less than an allegedly disgruntled Marcos’ supporter, lawyer Glenn Chong, was recently quoted by vlogger Enzo Recto as having told Smartmatic president Roger Piñate, “I know what you did last summer.”

But that’s another story we have no way of interpreting – at least not yet.

-oOo-

MORE POWER’S ‘PAMBATO’

DURING a brief phone conversation with Ms. Maricel Pe, assistant vice president for customer care of MORE Electric and Power Corp. yesterday, I learned that one of the qualified aspirants for the Miss Universe Philippines 2023 is one of their employees.

She is Shayne Glenmae Maquiran, the beautiful executive assistant in the office of MORE Power’s vice-president for corporate planning, Niel V. Parcon.

Naturally, MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro would consider her participation in the pageant an honor for the company.

A congratulatory message from MORE Power says, “Congratulations, Ms. Shayne Glenmae Maquiran of MORE Power, for making it to the Top 40 candidates in the Miss Universe – Philippines 2023! Your hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence have certainly paid off. Your beauty, grace, and intelligence are an inspiration to us all. We are proud of you and wish you all the best in this amazing journey. Go for the crown!”

Why not. Based on her pictures posted on Facebook, she has the beauty and charm to win the pageant, as she had always done. A native of Roxas City, Capiz, she had won the titles Mutya sang Sinadya sa Halaran in 2015, Miss West Visayas State University in 2018 and also Miss JCI Philippines in the same year.

No wonder, both Capiz Governor Fredenil Castro and Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas have expressed confidence and full support for the candidacy of their contestant.

She posted on her FB page, “Taason ko gid ang akon nga lupad!”

By the way, that is not a pun intended to demean Capiz.