Monday, December 28, 2009
UNTOLD STORY OF EDSA I: BAMBAN BARRICADE
Not limited to EDSA
By Tonette Orejas
ANGELES CITY - The 1986 civilian-backed revolt that toppled Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship was not limited to Edsa.
The uprising of Feb. 22-25, 1986, also took place 100 kilometers north of that now historic highway. But the story of the "Bamban Barricade" -- as how then Malaya correspondent Elmer Cato called the Kapampangans' version of People Power I -- largely went untold.
Cato, now Central Luzon director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said the story was not reported by the Manila newspapers because "the event was overtaken by the collapse of the Marcos regime."
And yet, he said, the little known episode marked by the formation of a human barricade at the approach of Bamban Bridge, gateway to Marcos challenger Corazon Aquino's home province of Tarlac, was a vital phase in the ouster of the strongman.
This was how it happened in Cato's recollection:
On Feb. 25, more than 20,000 civilians blocked the bridge on the Mabalacat (Pampanga) side.
They stood nervous but alert, their arms tightly linked. Their mission: to stop the advance of a large armored column from the Army's Northern Luzon Command at Camp Servillano Aquino in Tarlac City.
The mission of the soldiers, led by Gen. Antonio Palafox, was no less urgent: to reinforce Marcos' loyalist forces at Edsa. (Earlier, Marines sent by then Armed Forces chief Gen. Fabian Ver had been held at bay by the crowd massed on the highway.)
But Lt. Col. Amado Espino Jr., commander of the then Angeles City Metropolitan District Command, had gotten wind of the soldiers' marching orders.
Determined to stop the deployment of Palafox's troops to Edsa, Espino hastily met with local leaders of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
Espino had no other recourse because at the time "only the militants had the experience and the organization to mobilize a large number of people for a sustained protest action," Cato said.
Still, Espino - a 1972 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and captor of New People's Army chief Bernabe Buscayno - was not too optimistic about the prospect of support. Bayan had boycotted the "snap" presidential election and was still deliberating whether it would back the uprising.
But an unlikely alliance was ultimately forged. Then Bayan-Pampanga chair Edgardo Pamintuan, its secretary general Alex Cauguiran and Benedicto Tiotuico agreed to mobilize the Kapampangans in blocking Bamban to protect the civilian targets at Edsa.
Takeover
Cato said that on Espino's orders, Constabulary troops took over the radio stations dwGV and the Cojuangco-owned dzYA, both in Angeles City.
The move initially stirred panic.
The takeover group, escorted by heavily armed troops under Maj. Nestor Senares, proceeded to dwGV along Miranda Street in downtown Angeles. "The people panicked when they saw the Constabulary men alight from the vehicles and position themselves outside the Jao Building," Cato recalled.
Some entered a nearby bookstore-and later emerged with yellow ribbons tied to the muzzles of their rifles.
"Upon seeing they were reformist forces, the people immediately started clapping and congratulating them," said Pamintuan, now general manager of the National Housing Authority. "The people were relieved to know that the soldiers were on their side."
From the secured radio stations, Bayan leaders called on the residents to assemble at Bamban or bring food and water to some 5,000 civilians and reformist forces already there.
Before nightfall, Cato and another Malaya correspondent, Sonny Lopez, were pulled out of Bamban and told to continue airing reformist messages and appeals to reinforce the barricade.
"Sonny and I transformed dwGV into Pampanga's version of Radio Veritas," Cato said.
His recollection of Lopez's first announcement on radio was: "This is the revolutionary government announcing the takeover of this station."
By early evening, Pamintuan said, the men and women at the human barricade had numbered in the thousands --students, farmers, office workers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals.
This was not counting the hundreds of others gathered on the sides of MacArthur Highway from the commercial district of Dau to the town proper of Mabalacat.
With the huge crowd, Cauguiran said, there was "no way for the loyalist troops to make it through."
Yet tension was high in the area lighted only by torches and vehicles' headlights. The number of reformist troops was not enough to protect the barricade in case the loyalist soldiers decided to force their way.
In fact, Cato said, Cauguiran anticipated violence.
"Not only was there just a small number of reformist troops, there was also no place for the people to seek cover in that dark, desolate stretch between Mabalacat and Bamban should the situation get out of hand," Cato recalled.
Several US Air Force CH-53 helicopters more known as the Jolly Green Giants flew over the Jao Building that same night.
Still on radio, Lopez cracked a joke: "Ayun na yata sina Marcos at mukhang dumaan na po sa atin (It looks like Marcos and company just went past us)."
Cato said he realized seconds later that it was no laughing matter.
The choppers, bound for Clark, the base of the US 13th Air Force, were actually ferrying the members of the First Family on the first leg of what was to be their exile.
Cato and Lopez subsequently left the station and went to Bamban.
"We wanted the crowd to mass outside Clark and prevent some prominent loyalists from linking up with the Marcoses," Lopez said.
But by that time the people had heard confirmed reports that Marcos had fled Malacañang, and the human barricade had been dispersed.
"The people were already celebrating the downfall when we made it there," Cato said.
Source: Bamban barricade
Posted: 0:40 AM (Manila Time) | Feb. 23, 2003
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service (www.inq7.net)
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_Default_Files/Philippine_Culture/2003_remembers_edsa_i.htm
By Tonette Orejas
ANGELES CITY - The 1986 civilian-backed revolt that toppled Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship was not limited to Edsa.
The uprising of Feb. 22-25, 1986, also took place 100 kilometers north of that now historic highway. But the story of the "Bamban Barricade" -- as how then Malaya correspondent Elmer Cato called the Kapampangans' version of People Power I -- largely went untold.
Cato, now Central Luzon director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, said the story was not reported by the Manila newspapers because "the event was overtaken by the collapse of the Marcos regime."
And yet, he said, the little known episode marked by the formation of a human barricade at the approach of Bamban Bridge, gateway to Marcos challenger Corazon Aquino's home province of Tarlac, was a vital phase in the ouster of the strongman.
This was how it happened in Cato's recollection:
On Feb. 25, more than 20,000 civilians blocked the bridge on the Mabalacat (Pampanga) side.
They stood nervous but alert, their arms tightly linked. Their mission: to stop the advance of a large armored column from the Army's Northern Luzon Command at Camp Servillano Aquino in Tarlac City.
The mission of the soldiers, led by Gen. Antonio Palafox, was no less urgent: to reinforce Marcos' loyalist forces at Edsa. (Earlier, Marines sent by then Armed Forces chief Gen. Fabian Ver had been held at bay by the crowd massed on the highway.)
But Lt. Col. Amado Espino Jr., commander of the then Angeles City Metropolitan District Command, had gotten wind of the soldiers' marching orders.
Determined to stop the deployment of Palafox's troops to Edsa, Espino hastily met with local leaders of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan.
Espino had no other recourse because at the time "only the militants had the experience and the organization to mobilize a large number of people for a sustained protest action," Cato said.
Still, Espino - a 1972 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy and captor of New People's Army chief Bernabe Buscayno - was not too optimistic about the prospect of support. Bayan had boycotted the "snap" presidential election and was still deliberating whether it would back the uprising.
But an unlikely alliance was ultimately forged. Then Bayan-Pampanga chair Edgardo Pamintuan, its secretary general Alex Cauguiran and Benedicto Tiotuico agreed to mobilize the Kapampangans in blocking Bamban to protect the civilian targets at Edsa.
Takeover
Cato said that on Espino's orders, Constabulary troops took over the radio stations dwGV and the Cojuangco-owned dzYA, both in Angeles City.
The move initially stirred panic.
The takeover group, escorted by heavily armed troops under Maj. Nestor Senares, proceeded to dwGV along Miranda Street in downtown Angeles. "The people panicked when they saw the Constabulary men alight from the vehicles and position themselves outside the Jao Building," Cato recalled.
Some entered a nearby bookstore-and later emerged with yellow ribbons tied to the muzzles of their rifles.
"Upon seeing they were reformist forces, the people immediately started clapping and congratulating them," said Pamintuan, now general manager of the National Housing Authority. "The people were relieved to know that the soldiers were on their side."
From the secured radio stations, Bayan leaders called on the residents to assemble at Bamban or bring food and water to some 5,000 civilians and reformist forces already there.
Before nightfall, Cato and another Malaya correspondent, Sonny Lopez, were pulled out of Bamban and told to continue airing reformist messages and appeals to reinforce the barricade.
"Sonny and I transformed dwGV into Pampanga's version of Radio Veritas," Cato said.
His recollection of Lopez's first announcement on radio was: "This is the revolutionary government announcing the takeover of this station."
By early evening, Pamintuan said, the men and women at the human barricade had numbered in the thousands --students, farmers, office workers, doctors, lawyers and other professionals.
This was not counting the hundreds of others gathered on the sides of MacArthur Highway from the commercial district of Dau to the town proper of Mabalacat.
With the huge crowd, Cauguiran said, there was "no way for the loyalist troops to make it through."
Yet tension was high in the area lighted only by torches and vehicles' headlights. The number of reformist troops was not enough to protect the barricade in case the loyalist soldiers decided to force their way.
In fact, Cato said, Cauguiran anticipated violence.
"Not only was there just a small number of reformist troops, there was also no place for the people to seek cover in that dark, desolate stretch between Mabalacat and Bamban should the situation get out of hand," Cato recalled.
Several US Air Force CH-53 helicopters more known as the Jolly Green Giants flew over the Jao Building that same night.
Still on radio, Lopez cracked a joke: "Ayun na yata sina Marcos at mukhang dumaan na po sa atin (It looks like Marcos and company just went past us)."
Cato said he realized seconds later that it was no laughing matter.
The choppers, bound for Clark, the base of the US 13th Air Force, were actually ferrying the members of the First Family on the first leg of what was to be their exile.
Cato and Lopez subsequently left the station and went to Bamban.
"We wanted the crowd to mass outside Clark and prevent some prominent loyalists from linking up with the Marcoses," Lopez said.
But by that time the people had heard confirmed reports that Marcos had fled Malacañang, and the human barricade had been dispersed.
"The people were already celebrating the downfall when we made it there," Cato said.
Source: Bamban barricade
Posted: 0:40 AM (Manila Time) | Feb. 23, 2003
By Tonette Orejas
Inquirer News Service (www.inq7.net)
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Tagalog_Default_Files/Philippine_Culture/2003_remembers_edsa_i.htm
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