MERRY-GO-ROUND

By FLORO L. MERCENE

In most progressive countries, peaceful or bloody uprisings are not commemorated because they are polarizing.

Old wounds need time to heal. That is not to say that there should be no justice or accountability.

The truism “to the winner belongs the spoil,” holds sway, including the “narratives” they dish out the public, while suppressing the truth or factual events, to deodorize and legitimize their political victory.

Victors deliberately hide the truths to keep the myths surrounding a successful revolution alive. At worst, these truths will continue to haunt a country, a divided nation that can never truly march forward to progress.

Last Monday, 33 years after the February 1986 People Power Revolt, the Philippines marked once again the bloodless uprising that marked the end of the Marcos administration, sans genuine transformation and perhaps with even greater disillusionment after two Aquino presidencies.

In his collection of essays entitled “Debunked,” veteran journalist and diplomat Rigoberto Tiglao offers snippets of truths – facts – on the EDSA uprising that have remained in the dark until now.

You can say what you want about Tiglao, but he is, foremost, a journalist, and journalists, regardless of political color or biases, hold facts to be sacred, above all else.

Tiglao presents five “facts” whose absence – intentionally hidden from the public or otherwise – have shaped the way Filipinos have come to perceive EDSA 1.

First, that former President Corazon Aquino had little to do with the uprising. It was Marcos’ defense minister, Juan Ponce Enrile, who was “mainly responsible” for the uprising, according to Tiglao.

Enrile and his loyal Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), were preparing for a coup attempt to capture the late President Ferdinand Marcos and his family.

Citing Enrile’s own biography and RAM’s 1986 accounts, Tiglao traced how the plotters learned that their coup plan has been uncovered when then Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin complained about the arrest of his RAM military security detail on February 22.

This prompted Enrile to make a “last stand” at in Camp Aguinaldo together with then Philippine Constabulary chief Fidel Ramos. They called on foreign correspondents to cover his bold move.

(To be continued)