May 1 Palace siege a failed coup — FVR

As far as former President Fidel Ramos is concerned, the so-called EDSA III was no more than a failed coup attempt.

Ramos likened the May Day siege on Malacañang last year to the commotion at the Manila Hotel in 1986. Both, he said, were "palpak" (failures).

In July 1986, Arturo Tolentino tried to install himself as president, claiming he was the constitutional successor of the ousted President Ferdinand Marcos. The Labor Day attack, on the other hand, was carried out at dawn by a group of rabid Erap loyalists. It has since been referred to as EDSA III.

"The turmoil after the arrest of the former President Joseph Estrada (from) about the 30th of April to the first of May last year must not be seen as EDSA III, because it has no commonality with EDSA I and EDSA II," Ramos, a key player in both mass actions, said in an interview at the EDSA Shrine after a Mass celebrated by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.

Ramos argued that EDSA I and EDSA II were motivated by countrywide popular resentment against a despotic regime, which could not be said for the events on May 1, 2001.

Secondly, he said, the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police supported the two people power revolutions in a very significant and meaningful way.

Thirdly, a great many political leaders were out there with the people and the soldiers at the front line. Such was not the case in the May 1 attack, he said, because the loyalists’ leaders stayed away, not wanting to risk their necks.

"(But) we must learn from the lessons of May 1," the former president said, and pay more "attention to the needs of the poor who are also entitled to equal opportunity and a better quality of life."

He called for the strengthening of our democratic institutions "so that there will be no more EDSAs after EDSA II."

Ramos had supported the plan to celebrate EDSA through a Mass and prayers and not through political rallies. He also supports the idea of celebrating EDSA in other places and not just on the historic highway.

"In fact, as president" said Ramos, an honorary member of the EDSA Commission, "I mandated that EDSA I should be celebrated in all provincial capitals in our 78 provinces."