President Benigno Aquino III led a crowd estimated by police at 35,000 in witnessing a reenactment of the “Salubungan,” when ordinary citizens and members of the religious sector stopped military tanks along Edsa and convinced soldiers to join the anti-Marcos forces.
But for the occasion, the military used three armored personnel carriers (APCs) decked with yellow and white flowers and bearing flag-waving soldiers dressed in the uniforms worn by the military back in 1986.

Some 2,000 soldiers and 5,000 policemen led by Fidel Ramos, the Armed Forces vice chief of staff who later became president, walked from Camp Aguinaldo accompanied by two APCs toward the People Power Monument to meet the civilian contingent.

Nuns and priests, one of whom carried an image of Our Lady of Fatima, and civilians led by Agapito “Butz” Aquino, an uncle of the President, walked from the Edsa Shrine to meet the military contingent.

They were accompanied by a third APC that carried a banner of the August 21 Movement, which led the anti-Marcos mass actions after the 1983 assassination of Mr. Aquino’s father, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

The two groups converged at 4:30 p.m. as people cheered and the People Power theme song, “Magkaisa,” played. A military chopper dropped yellow confetti as the crowd flashed the “L” (for Laban) sign.

The actual Salubungan occurred on Feb. 23, 1986, a day after Ramos and then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile broke away from the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, and the late Jaime Cardinal Sin and Butz Aquino called on the people to go to Edsa and protect the rebel forces.

Explaining the tension at Edsa back then, Mr. Aquino said the people who acted as human shields were in real danger because Marcos had sent new Marine recruits who were misled into believing that the people were communist rebels kept on edge by hunger and little sleep.

Donna Pazzibugan, Phil. Daily Inquirer