People respond to Enrile, Ramos call
AN ESTIMATED 5,000 people trooped to the main gate of Camp Aguinaldo near midnight last night to lend moral and material support, in terms of foodstuffs, to Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and AFP Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos.
The crowd apparently went to the camp after hearing the appeal of Butz Aquino and Jaime Cardinal Sin over Radio Veritas for the members of the August Twenty-One Movement and concerned citizens to show their courage by going to the camp and serving as the buffer between any possible “bloody” confrontation between soldiers for Enrile and Marcos’ military men.
As early as 11 p.m., people have started to converge in front of the camp’s main gate while traffic has become increasingly worse along Santolan Road and 15th Avenue leading to the camp.
Cars were honking the familiar sequence associated with Cory Aquino’s campaign motorcade and its passengers were exchanging Laban signs with the pedestrians who have converged in street corners and those walking to join the crowd at the camp’s gate.
The outpouring of support was manifested with the foodstuffs including several cavans of rice, canned milk, bread, and others which were passed and sometimes tossed over the steel gate of the camp which the donors gave to stave of the hunger of the soldiers manning and guarding Minister Enrile and Gen. Ramos.
The crowd was chanting “Cory, Cory, Cory”, singing songs like Ang Bayan Ko and “Marcos Mandaraya” and were continuously showing the L-sign whenever the chanting starts or somebody shouts anti-Marcos slogans.
At around 12:30 a.m., a lady speaking through a megaphone announced that Gen. Ramos is in Camp Crame, saying that it is the strategy agreed upon with Minister Enrile, and requested that some of the crowd should also go there “para magka-guardiya rin doon.”
The lady likewise thanked those who have donated foodstuffs, but requested that instead of uncooked rice, the people should give bread instead because, she said, it is very hard to cook rice.
As of press time, a lot of people are still gathered in front of Camp Aguinaldo although some had already left presumably to go over to Camp Crame.
The chanting of loud protests broke the stillness of Saturday midnight as some 2,000 people who converged in Cubao as reserve forces for those holding vigil in Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame aired jubilation over former Minister Enrile’s publicly-announced disavowal of the Marcos regime Saturday.
Large stores which have already closed since 9:00 p.m. overflowed with workers about to leave or home but who chose to stay and watch history made.
People of all sexes, from different sectors of Philippine Society were in the middle of Aurora Boulevard flashing countless “Laban” signs to vehicles whose occupants cheerfully answered likewise with “Laban” signs.
There was a mixture of both joy and fear etched on their faces as a priest who joined the Cubao assembly said: “Joy because the end of the dark tunnel is near and fear because no one knows what awaits the people in the darkness still left.”
Policemen were present but not to do their duties with “maximum tolerance” but to participate with the people in what they deem as another gain in their ceaseless struggle to bring down a shameless dictatorial regime.
A large delivery truck of San Miguel beer was stopped by people in the middle of the street but no untoward incident occured.
