Mr. Aquino Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution with the dynamic trio who triggered the historic four-day chain of events that toppled the Marcos dictatorship.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, former President Fidel Ramos and Sen. Gregorio Honasan returned for the first time to the conference room of the Department of National Defense (DND) in Camp Aguinaldo where they announced that they had withdrawn their support from Ferdinand Marcos
on Feb. 22, 1986.

Enrile was then the defense minister, Ramos was Armed Forces vice chief of staff and Honasan was then a lieutenant colonel and Enrile’s close-in security.

Mr. Aquino formally inaugurated Tuesday the refurbished conference room as a mini-museum that bears memorabilia donated by Enrile, Ramos, Honasan and other people.

Enrile had a falling out with Mr. Aquino’s mother, then President Corazon Aquino, during her administration, while Honasan, a leader of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement that had plotted to seize power from Marcos, launched a number of coup attempts against her.

The Aug. 28, 1987, coup d’etat nearly killed Mr. Aquino when rebel soldiers led by Honasan attacked Malacañang. He took five bullets one of which is still embedded in his neck.

Tribute

But on Tuesday, Mr. Aquino paid tribute to the role played by the defense establishment and the military in the first people power uprising that ended the Marcos dictatorship and installed his mother, Corazon, as the President 25 years ago.

“Senator (Gregorio) Honasan was right when he said that today we commemorate the date, the minute when the Armed Forces of the Philippines returned to serving the people,” Mr. Aquino said at the inauguration of the conference room as a small museum.

“It was the time when they followed their conscience, in light of the problems that they saw, that they will no longer serve just one person or one group. It was already the time to serve the people,” the President said.

He lauded the military for the role it played through the years in taking care of the people and in responding to immediate needs in times of natural disasters.

“If perhaps 25 years ago today, you returned and embraced the people, now is the time for the people to return your embrace and take care of you,” he said.

Mr. Aquino promised to build homes for military and police personnel which will be ready in six months.

Defining moment

Ramos said EDSA I was one of the three “defining moments in Philippine history,” after the 1896-1898 war for independence against Spain and the 1942 defense of Bataan.

Enrile said EDSA I “was one single event that has inspired similar events,” like the fall of the Berlin Wall and the uprisings in Central and Eastern Europe.

Enrile said EDSA I also inspired the recent events in the Middle East.

“I firmly believe it is the greatest gift to the world from us. They copied the technique,” the Senate President said, referring to the phenomenon of massive demonstrations to force a leader out of power.

“May every Filipino hold his head up high and say with unmistakable pride that EDSA did not only change us but it also changed the world this century and maybe in the next,” Enrile said.

He acknowledged that it was “one of the highlights of my public career and my being a Filipino.”

Enrile’s memoirs

Enrile said he had begun writing his memoirs, noting that there have been “many exaggerations, distortions and omissions” in the accounts written about the events leading to and about EDSA I.

“Now, I think it is about time that, as one of the initiators of the people power revolution in 1986, I finally tell the true events and circumstances that led to the restoration of freedom and democracy in our land,” he said.

Honasan, who became the face of rebel forces, said he was proud of what had happened which he called the country’s “shining moment.”

Honasan said he had no regrets about his role. “We were and continue to be proud of that event 25 years ago. It was a shining time when in the name of God, country and family, the Filipino people loved, dreamed, dared and acted for the future,” he said.

Photograph of press con

The refurbished room-cum-museum has on one wall a black and white mural photograph of the news conference held by Enrile, Ramos, Honasan and other rebel soldiers before a select group of journalists 25 year ago.

The original oval conference table, now surrounded by 21 chairs, is still there.

The room will also contain memorabilia like personal items worn that day by the key players—Enrile’s green bulletproof jacket, Ramos’ blue shirt and Honasan’s boots.

There is also RAM’s original countersign patch worn by rebel soldiers and designed by then Lt. Col. Eduardo Kapunan, a replica of the image of the Our Lady of Fatima that Enrile raised during Mass led by Fr. James Reuter on Feb. 24, 1986, and the Walkman, transistor radios, cassette recorders and microphones used at the press conference.

The hallway leading to the DND conference room has black and white photos and a timeline of the events from Feb. 22 to 25.

Gazmin’s idea

It was Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin who came up a few months ago with the idea of converting the old conference room into a holding area that would show visitors the room’s historical significance.

Asked how he felt marking the anniversary as president with Enrile, Honasan and Ramos, Mr. Aquino said they reminisced the danger they faced at the time.

“We were all prepared to die at the time,” he said.

The President said they all shared common aspirations for the country, though “we can say at certain points in history that we took our own routes.”

‘Nothing really changed’

In Ocampo town, Camarines Sur province, the President earlier said nothing had changed in the 25 years since EDSA I.

He said that while people power brought back democracy in the country, there were little gains for the people because corruption remained prevalent in government.

“After 25 years, was there change? Unfortunately, nothing really changed—corruption is still rampant and the result, the needs of the people were left unattended,” he said before thousands of participants in the launching here on Tuesday of the tree-planting initiative of the provincial government.

He said his administration was addressing poverty to help alleviate the plight of the people.

The ‘other’ revolution

Mr. Aquino rallied the people to work for the environment like the way his mother did as a legacy for the future generation.

In another event, this time at the NBC Tent in Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, the President said his administration would continue the other “revolution” started by his late mother, this time involving the promotion of entrepreneurship among the poor to lift them out of poverty.

He said “people power lives, and it has already manifested itself in many sectors of our society.”

He thanked the five-year-old PinoyMe, a private sector-led organization, for helping people “defeat poverty through microfinance and micro-entrepreneurship.”

Missed opportunities

A priest said it was time to put to right the “missed opportunities” of the first Aquino administration.

Fr. Edu Gariguez, executive director of the Catholic bishops’ National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace, said these included an audit of the country’s foreign debt and the implementation of genuine land reform.

Donna Pazzibugan & Norman Bordadora, Phil. Daily Inquirer