February 26, 1986: The day after EDSA, Corazon Aquino takes a terrible decision
HICKAM Air Force Base, Hawaii
FERDINAND and Imelda Marcos arrive on a United States - with her husband, Tommy Manotoc; Ferdinand “Bongbong,” Irene, the youngest, 25 years old Gregorio Araneta 3rd. Between the married daughters are four children. Ferdinand Marcos’ close aide, General Fabian C. Ver, who served as military chief of staff, is also with the family.
out a customs form. The list, as Caroline Kennedy reported, was cash; 300 crates of jewelry of un of deposit slips to banks in the US, Switzerland and the Cayman including a diamond-encrusted gold crown; $4 million worth of precious gems stuffed in diaper boxes; $200,000 of gold bullion; with pearls; and a 3- foot solid gold statue covered in diamonds.
It is not yet clear how long the Marcoses will stay in Hawaii or where they will live. Antonio Floirendo, a Marcos crony who made his fortune from banana plantations in Mindanao, and Bienvenido R. Tantoco, the real estate developer and owner of the upmarket shopping center chain Rustans, were both said to have offered them their hillside Honolulu homes. Frank Fasi, Honolulu’s streetwise mayor, instructed the city’s police chief not to give the family any protection. “Under no cents of taxpayers’ money to pro- tect any deposed head of state who comes to Hawaii to live,” he said.
The Philippine Embassy, Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C.
Benjamin T. Romualdez, the brother of Imelda Marcos and Philippine Ambassador to the embassy in chaos and disarray. No one knows where he is.
Newly elected President Cora - ignated Heherson Alvarez to head the transitional diplomatic team in Washington. Alvarez was an intimate friend of her late husband, the US- based anti- dictatorship movement. Exiled in the US with lobbied the US Congress hard to take the human rights issue in the Philippines seriously, raised funds and awareness by churning out campaign newsletters, organizing street protests and cultural events, and closely assisted journalists in their investigations on the plundered wealth of the Marcos family. Standing in the embassy’s plush - ded documents, Alvarez, though clearly emotional from the drama of events—“I had this irrepressible urge to cry,” he said—is pragmatic. He rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. He wants to restore order,
The Marcos family arrives in their place of exile, Hawaii. and calm the remaining embassy will not do that,” Commander personnel. “I made it clear we Joyce said. “They have their own were observing the rule of law. interests to protect.” There will be no summary disThe communists also believe missals, no purges. We still have that the Marcos ouster and his to collect taxes, handle passports, issue visas.” managed” by the US in order to safeguard and continue its neocolonial rule of the Philippines. Joyce said, “everything was too pat and scripted.” Marcos’ removal allows Washington to retain Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base, the large US military bases in the Philippines, he contends. “Enrile, - ing about abrogating the bases.”
proud to be Filipino precisely because millions of Filipinos risked their lives only to regain our rights and freedoms,” she said. “All the world saw and recorded people who knelt in the path of oncoming tanks… All the world wondered as they witnessed, in the space of two months, a people lift themselves from humiliation to the greatest pride.”
Although she is mindful of her debt to the Filipino people, her choices are criticized for being too “elite.”
Various places in Manila
A prominent communist rebel and one of the founders of the Communist Party of the Philippines in
Using the Commander Joyce, he relates the party’s message. The armed struggle, he says, will continue. The communists claim to have been increasing their membership by 20 percent a year since Democratic Front, commands a and think she will be nothing more than a figurehead, while her government would do little to eradicate poverty, landlessness - ity, problems that have beset the country since time immemorial.
The newly installed President Corazon Aquino gives her first press conference. Then she turns to the man who V. Ongpin, a rare critic of Marcos was known as the “architect” of in the business community who Marcos’ Martial Law, a man who had denounced the dictator for seizing become hideously rich and powerbusinesses for crony monopolies, with Marcos, and who had served Salonga, a war hero, talented lawyer the dictator as justice secretary and and Yale academic, is chair of the then defense secretary. The Philippine Commission on Good called him the “most - mentel, a local Mindanao politician cabinet, who “now has undiluted who had repeatedly been thrown control of the military, and the potential power to dictate terms Marcos, is appointed local governto the new president.” He is Juan ment secretary; Rene Saguisag, the prominent human rights lawyer, is tenure as defense secretary. called on to be presidential spokesWhen asked whether she inman; Neptali Gonzalez, the lawyer tended to extradite Marcos and - put him on trial for crimes he is accused of committing—notably lawyer who challenged the legality the extrajudicial killing of over of Marcos’ declaration of martial law 3,000 people and masterminding and took the case to the Supreme the assassination of her husband— Court, is executive secretary.
to show by my own example that the ranks of her major allies, the sooner we can forget our hurts, but tragic compromises are also the better. Let’s forget the past.” made. General Fidel V. Ramos, who under Marcos headed the terrible mistake. We are still paying feared Philippine Constabulary, the price today. The past should which had been responsible for not have been forgotten. The past the arrest, torture and killing of should never be forgotten. civilians, is appointed chief of the armed forces.