It is said that nearly a million Filipinos massed up on Edsa from February 22 to 25, 1986 to oust Ferdinand Marcos. It was one of the most stirring moments in contemporary Philippine history, one much admired throughout the world.
Yet today, many Filipinos are also asking themselves what Edsa was all about. What did it accomplish? What went wrong? What went right? How have Filipino lives changed?
These are difficult questions but some of the answers can be found in the lives of the 20 Filipinos featured in this exhibit. The paths they have taken provide a map of what the country has been through since People Power, edition one.
The 20 Filipinos in this exhibit include some of the main players at Edsa, but many are ordinary individuals who led extraordinary lives and made brave choices before and after 1986. Each story that is told here is but one thread of a complex tapestry, but each narrative is also part of a broader pattern.
Today the luster of Edsa has been somewhat lost. But many Filipinos will always remember Edsa as our Camelot, our brief shining moment. Edsa showed to us our capacity for greatness and our willingness to sacrifice for the country’s good. It may well also be a constant reminder of promises unfulfilled and hopes dashed, but nothing that happened afterward can take away the glory of those four days.
Certainly, the fault does not lie with Edsa, or with Filipinos as a people. The well of greatness lies within us. We have yet to tap its full potential.
1. Corazon C. Aquino
‘All of us Filipinos have to make sacrifices’
CORY AQUINO was borne to Malacañang on the wings of People Power. The widow of assassinated senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr., she became the symbol of the country’s suffering under the iron rule of Ferdinand Marcos. The Aquino presidency re-established democratic institutions, but was marred by several attempts by military rebels to launch a coup d’etat. Today Cory Aquino is in political retirement, but continues to speak out on matters she feels strongly about.
2. Imelda Marcos
‘The greatest moment of Marcos was Edsa’
IN 1986, Imelda Marcos and her family fled the Philippines in disgrace. She returned in 1991 after being acquitted in a trial in New York and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1992 and 1998. Imelda’s fairy-tale life — and her “Imeldific” excess — continues to fascinate Filipinos. Although the Marcoses were named by Transparency International as the second most corrupt leaders in the world in the past 20 years, Imelda has so far not been convicted by any court. She still parties, still shops, and still dazzles.
3. Fidel V. Ramos
‘The people are tired of constant political bickering’
A COUSIN of Ferdinand Marcos, Maj. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos withdrew his loyalty from the besieged president and joined the rebels at Camp Aguinaldo on February 22, 1986. His defection turned the tide in favor of the rebellion and deprived Marcos of loyal troops. Ramos’s pivotal role in Edsa and his defense of the Aquino government against military rebels catapulted him to the presidency in 1992. He remains an outspoken critic of the governments that succeeded his and continues to be an influential force in Philippine political life.
4. Juan Ponce Enrile
‘Our leaders are more preoccupied with appearing popular and democratic without doing the reforms’
HE WAS Marcos’s defense minister, but Enrile and his men had been plotting to oust the strongman since 1982. Their attempt to finally attack Malacañang and take over power in February 1986 was found out, however, forcing them to retreat and make a last stand at Camp Aguinaldo. The failed coup turned into a successful popular uprising, thanks to the support of the Roman Catholic Church and mainly middle-class Filipinos. Today Enrile, now on his third Senate term, still regrets handing over power to Cory Aquino in 1986, saying the country needs strong, visionary leaders.
5. Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan
‘The military, once it intervenes, cannot go back to the barracks’
SEEN AT Edsa as the dashing, rifle-bearing colonel who was supposed to have led the assault on Malacañang, Honasan is the face of military rebellion. The leader of several unsuccessful attempts to topple the Aquino government, Honasan articulated the military’s resentment against civilian authority. Briefly detained before escaping from his floating prison in Manila Bay, he served in the Senate from 1995 to 2004. He now heads the Guardians, a military brotherhood, and is still the most compelling symbol of the politicized soldiery.
6. Jose S. Concepcion, Jr.
‘Let us now look to tomorrow’
A WEALTHY industrialist and one of the prime movers of Namfrel, the election watchdog, Concepcion led millions of volunteers who kept watch over the 1986 “snap” election. Namfrel’s parallel count exposed the fraud undertaken by Ferdinand Marcos and helped set off the chain of events that eventually led to People Power. Concepcion joined the Aquino Cabinet but resigned amid a corruption controversy. He remains active in Namfrel, although the group has recently come under a cloud of doubt for supposedly favoring Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 elections.
7. Rene A.V. Saguisag
‘We cannot give up on the only country we have’
SAGUISAG WAS one of many human-rights lawyers who defended the rights of political dissidents during the Marcos era. Having provided advice to Cory Aquino, several of these lawyers were roped into her Cabinet when she became president in 1986. Saguisag was elected senator in 1987 but dropped out of politics when his term ended. Today he still takes off-the-beaten-track legal forays, defending a wide range of clients, including former president Joseph Estrada. He is still the quixotic dissenter, the quintessential lone voice in the wilderness.
8. Bernabe ‘Kumander Dante’ Buscayno
‘Edsa was like a new dawn for me’
KUMANDER DANTE, the legendary founder of the New People’s Army (NPA), was rotting in a Marcos prison in Camp Crame when People Power broke out in the streets just outside his cell. Freed from detention after Marcos fell, Dante and other communists took a stab at electoral politics, running for the Senate in 1987. He lost, and was nearly killed not long afterward when unknown men fired at his vehicle. He has since returned to farming in Capas, Tarlac, the birthplace of the NPA. He no longer believes in the primacy of armed struggle.
9. Nur Misuari
‘Without justice, there can never be an end to the war in Mindanao’
THE FOUNDER of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was in exile in Libya when Marcos fell. He returned to Mindanao in 1986, confident that the wrongs of history would finally be righted. Misuari talked peace with the new regime and eventually signed a peace agreement with the Ramos government in 1996. He was elected governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao the same year. In 2001, as his term was about to end, he declared war against the government and his men engaged the military in battle. He was arrested and has spent the last four years in detention in Laguna.
10. Teresita Ang See
‘We could not stay as bystanders’
TESSY ANG See learned her husband had liver cancer on the second day of Edsa. Chin Ben See put off going to the doctor, saying the fight against Marcos could not wait, so the couple continued discreetly collecting donations for the revolt from Chinese Filipinos who were afraid to be seen openly in support of the rebellion. Chin Ben See died nine months later, but Tessy pursued his dream of integrating the Tsinoy community into the mainstream of Philippine society. She became the community’s spokesperson as kidnappers targeted the ethnic Chinese, who were seen as the new kings of post-Edsa prosperity.
11. Romeo ‘Archie’ Intengan
‘People power practiced too often sends a message abroad that you’re an unstable country’
A JESUIT priest and medical doctor active in the anti-Marcos resistance, Fr. Archie fled to Sabah in 1980, after incurring Imelda’s ire. There, he lived in a Moro rebel camp together with other dissidents. He later flew to Spain to study, while remaining active in the party he helped found, the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP). The PDSP was against both Marcos and the communists. Intengan returned to Manila after Edsa, remaining with the PDSP while also serving for some time as provincial superior of the Philippine Jesuits. Today he gives President Arroyo occasional advice on religious matters.
12. Eugenia Apostol
‘It’s not just the leadership that must change. The people, too, must change.’
EGGIE APOSTOL was publisher of the opposition daily, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, when People Power broke out. One of the leading lights of the “mosquito press” that published reports that could not come out in the Marcos-controlled media, Apostol was also the founder of the bestselling Mr. & Ms. Special Edition that printed uncensored follow-up stories on the 1983 Aquino assassination. In 1999, in reaction to President Joseph Estrada’s attempts to clamp down on the press, she put out Pinoy Times. Today she is involved in another “revolution,” this time to raise the quality of public school education.
13. William Torres
‘The electoral system must be changed’
ONE OF the country’s information technology pioneers, Dr. Torres was a consultant of the Commission on Elections in 1986. He was aghast when he saw how the count was being rigged to favor Marcos, and weeks later, was in Edsa taking part in the People Power revolt. He contributed his technical expertise as head of the National Computer Center during the Aquino administration and was largely responsible for encouraging government bodies to set up information systems. Torres also helped lay the foundation for the country’s Internet infrastructure. Today he is an advocate of modernizing the electoral system.
14. Carmen Deunida, a.k.a. Nanay Mameng
‘If it’s possible, I want another Edsa to take place now’
NANAY MAMENG, a laundrywoman, has not given up. Now a 77-year-old grandmother, she is angry that the lives of the poor remain unchanged despite all the political upheavals the country has undergone. She was at Edsa in 1986, as she was in other rallies against Marcos in previous years. She was also in Edsa 2 and in many rallies before and after that as well. For decades now, Nanay Mameng has lived in a clapboard shack in the depths of the Leveriza slum, just a 10-minute walk from Manila’s tourist district. Despite ill health, she goes to rallies whenever she can, fighting for a better world that she fears she may never see.
15. Jim Paredes
‘We should awaken memory’
SINGER AND songwriter Jim Paredes joined June Keithley in Radyo Bandido, which broadcast news of the Edsa revolt to Filipinos. Soon after, he composed “Handog ng Pilipino sa Mundo,” which became the Edsa anthem. After the 1989 coup attempt that nearly toppled the Aquino government, Paredes went to the U.S. embassy to surrender his green card, a symbolic act that affirmed his faith in country and democracy. This year, on the 20th anniversary of People Power, he is migrating to Australia with his family to “take a vacation from being a Filipino.” His disaffection reflects that of many among those who took part in Edsa.
16. Sister Luz Emmanuel Soriano
‘We will never have anything better unless we try’
SISTER LUZ of the Religious of the Assumption was preparing sandwiches when the tanks drove into Edsa at the height of the People Power revolt. She and the other nuns were soon on their knees, thinking they would die there and be in heaven the next moment. But the tanks never fired. Sister Luz remains a firm believer in the emancipatory potential of education. Apart from being an educator, she has set up a butterfly sanctuary and is on the board of several NGOs and foundations. She was also part of the consultative commission on charter change formed by Assumption alumna Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
17. Raymundo Jarque
‘We returned to democracy, but the practices are undemocratic’
THEN AN army colonel stationed in Pampanga, Jarque joined the military rebellion that toppled Marcos and barricaded the highways to prevent loyalist troops from moving to Manila. In 1989, as the general who headed the Negros Island Command, he launched a vicious offensive against communist rebels. Ironically, a few years later, Jarque would seek protection in a communist camp after a Negrense landlord unjustly accused him of theft and corruption. Jarque has since returned to “normal life” but remains a maverick, keeping in touch with communist friends while securing a government corporation.
18. Jose Luis Martin ‘Chito’ Gascon
‘We removed the dictator, but we retained the political system’
CHITO GASCON was president of the University of the Philippines student council when the Edsa revolt broke out. He was there every day, as were thousands of other students. Not long afterward, he was appointed the youngest member of the commission that drafted the 1987 constitution. Since then, he has remained actively engaged in political and social movements. He is a member of the Liberal Party and was briefly education undersecretary. Like many of his generation now inching toward middle age, Gascon realizes that the country is in a quagmire. But unlike many of his contemporaries, he has not been swallowed up by the system but continues to fight it.
19. Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda
‘What I’m fighting for today is an extension of what I fought for before’
SHE WAS a fish vendor at the age of five to help feed her family. But Oebanda grew up to become Kumander Liway, renowned throughout Negros for her exploits as a communist guerrilla. Arrested in 1982, when she was eight months pregnant, Oebanda was released with other political prisoners after Marcos fell. Moved by the tragedy of the flood in Ormoc, Leyte that killed 8,000 people in 1991, the former rebel helped form the Visayan Forum
to raise funds for the victims. Since then, the Forum has rescued young Visayans brought to Manila to work as domestic helpers and maltreated by their employers. Oebanda won an international award for her work in 2005.
20. Alfonso Tomas ‘Atom’ P. Araullo
‘If we will pin our hopes on one thing, it must be in our capacity to shape the future’
A RECENT physics graduate, Atom Araullo is an athlete, television host, and activist. In 1986, when he was only three years old, his parents brought him to Edsa. He barely remembers what he saw there, but he believes Edsa is a milestone in the Filipinos’ struggle for democracy. Araullo is an oddity among a generation that is mostly indifferent to politics and prefers the cocoon of their own lives to engagement with the world outside. But he believes that his “lost” generation will redeem itself and contribute to positive social change.
20 years since People Power: Podcasts by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Photographs by Lilen Uy