CEBU CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 25, 2014) – Filipino leader Benigno Aquino commemorated Tuesday the 28th anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution – that toppled the Marcos dictatorship – in Cebu City in central Philippines.
Aquino, accompanied by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas – whom the President is building up as his successor in 2016 – led the first ever commemoration of the 1986 revolution at the Cebu Capitol grounds.
Government media reported that Aquino traced the peaceful revolt’s roots in Cebu City – where his mother, then President Corazon Aquino, was campaigning when informed of the failed military coup led by Armed Forces chief Fidel Ramos and Defense secretary Juan Enrile against President Ferdinand Marcos.
The Philippine News Agency said Aquino ditched his prepared speech and his teleprompter and told the crowd that he was speaking from his heart.
Aquino said the first chapter of the EDSA revolt started in Cebu. He recounted that when he came to Cebu in 1983 after the assassination of his father, Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr., he saw no sign of the dictatorship.
”Parang malaya na ang Cebu (It seemed Cebu was already free),” he said.
Cebu was then the bastion of the opposition against the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Aquino also recounted that Cebu took care of her mother during the early stages of the EDSA revolt. He said his mother spoke at a rally at the Fuete Osmena in Cebu City on February 22, 1986, announcing the start of a civil disobedience campaign against Marcos when Ramos and Enrile defected to the opposition in Manila.
Aquino said EDSA was the symbol of the Filipinos’ love for his fellow Filipino. ”People went to EDSA not for any personal gain,” he said.
Others with Aquino in Cebu were Gov. Hilario Davide, Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama, Cebu lawmakers Raul del Mar, Luigi Quisumbing, Rodrigo Abellanosa, Wilfredo Caminero and Samsam Gullas; Secretaries Paquito Ochoa, Herminio Coloma, Corazon Soliman, Voltaire Gazmin, Panfilo Lacson and Rene Almendras.
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