MBCCI heat up on rubber
trees, banana and kasla

I'd like to assert that I was not at EDSA. I was in the United States at the time the expected people power revolt broke out. Today, almost everyone of note has been coming out to proclaim their participation in that historic event. I could not because I was on self-exile abroad.

But I was among the many Filipinos abroad who had a grandstand view of what was happening. And, perhaps, because we were distant from the events, we managed to develop a more holistic perspective of what was happening. And thereafter.

I was in San Diego, California, at that time, and I spent almost the entire time focused on television plus ears waiting for telephone rings. Thus, to a large extent I had a better grasp of what was going on at the time. Including some of the untold stories about that event.

That, included of course, intelligence teams eventually pinpointing the whereabouts of my two children - Mary Ann and Nenen - both St. Scholastica's College students who had gone to EDSA to join the people power mass. So with my Auntie Lina Espina-Moore and a member of her household who had gone to EDSA bringing with them food for the demonstrators.

Anyway, back to the viewing of that event. There were scores watching with me the television at the office of my younger brother, Bert Espina's office. And many of the viewers were not only Fil-Americans but included a lot of Mexicans and other Latin Americans and African-Americans.

We saw from there how a shot of the EDSA crowd showed that they were actually shaped into a giant cross. Of course, one can say that was just because of the camera angle. But if you were the pilot of either an airplane or chopper, that could have caused goose pimples.

Actually, I was aware of the role played by then Ambassador Rafel Ileto in convincing a lot of AFP generals to either stand down or shift their support for the people power revolt. My phone kept ringing as some Ileto aides kept me posted about developments - which general and which units had shifted their support from the then President Marcos to the revolt forces.

Later, there was the touching scene of General Fabian Ver asking Marcos to give him the order to fire at the crowds in EDSA since the armored vehicles of the AFP were already confronting them. Marcos said "No". And that sealed the course of Philippine history.

A Fil-American general in the US Army had earlier alerted me to stand by because I was scheduled to join him if his troops were to be airlifted to Clark Air base in Pampanga. And I was also aware that there were two combat troops of US Marines aboard two battle groups - one coming from the Pacific, the other from San Diego which had been stationed just outside of Manila.

The dramatic and precipitate departure of the President and his family brought tears to our eyes, The Filipinos who witnessed it, broke into Ang Bayan ko. And the Latinos cheered us pointing out that "La Virgen de Guadalupe ama Filipinos tanto." And they backslapped us. And congratulated us for that "milagro."

Later, the parish priest of a St. Mary Church in National City celebrated a thanksgiving mass. And he brought tears to the eyes of his Filipino parishioners when he proudly asserted that "I am happy today to have been called these past few months as the white and taller Filipino priest of this parish."

That was the touching and dramatic tale of EDSA from our vantage point. But I also witnessed how we lost that glorious moment years later when we started focusing our attention on making up for lost opportunities. That started the scramble to make up by some of the government bureaucrats of what they had failed to amass during the entire reign of Marcos.

That about spilled the end of EDSA Uno and the spirit that inspired it.

We tend to blame God for any misfortune that befalls us. Like the St. Bernard mudslide which may have accounted for the loss of more than a thousand lives. As of the present, already some 86 bodies have been recovered. But there are still hundreds missing. And rescuers are still trying to retrieve possible survivors, although chances of that has dimmed as days and hours pass by.

Apparently, however, we seem to overlook the importance of such events which are actually prophetic. The answer is simple. God allowed nature to take its course. And, as often happens, it is the innocent who suffer.

The question, however, boils down - who cut all those trees of the St. Bernard mountain? Coconut trees could not have replaced the indigenous trees sans anybody having uprooted the original trees. Or felled them down for gain. Now, don't tell me that the farmers should be blamed alone for planting shallow-rooted coconut trees by themselves. Some of them may have also destroyed the remaining trees through kaingin.

Now that brings us back to some ordinary measures that could be adopted as an early warning device for local government units. A geoscientist puts it this way - just install a few rainfall measuring device in the area. And educate the people and the local government officers on how to measure rainfall. When it reaches a certain level, that could mean they should warn their people to evacuate to higher ground. But it seems nobody had done that.*

back to top