Once upon a time, 30 years ago

Eldon Cruz remembers “vividly” the day the EDSA Revolution broke out.

He was in Cebu with his mother-in-law Cory Aquino, who was leading non-violent rallies to protest the outcome of the Feb. 7, 1986 Snap Presidential Elections, wherein Ferdinand Marcos was declared the winner.

“The rally ended around 6:30 p.m. and Mom proceeded for dinner at Tita Britta Quisumbing’s house, where we were staying,” recalls the husband of the Aquinos’ oldest child, Ballsy. “Tita Terry Lopa, Kris and I decided to eat at Ginza with my friend John Yang. After dinner, Kris wanted to buy some export overruns in a store nearby but when we got to the restaurant’s parking lot, someone was excitedly looking for us with the news that Defense Secretary Juan Ponce-Enrile and Gen. Fidel Ramos had broken away from the Marcos government and were holed up in Camp Crame.”

It was a moment of “Somos o no somos” for the Aquinos. Those loyal to Cory, like her siblings Terry Lopa and Peping Cojuangco, never left her side. Her political ally Ramon Mitra, Nancy Cuenco, Bea Zobel, Mercy Tuason, Joey Romasanta, and her hosts the Quisumbings stood squarely behind her.  But one, a Mindanao politician who was part of their party, abandoned the group and took off for Bohol wearing a disguise when he heard about what was happening in Crame.

Eldon says it was decided by Peping and Monching Mitra that Cory would be safest in the Carmelite Convent. Together with Bea, Mercy and Terry Lopa, Eldon remained at the Quisumbing house where they hardly slept due to the exciting developments in Manila that they were closely monitoring.

At the Convent, Cory felt so safe she slept like a baby. Before the day ended, she told Eldon she wanted to hold a press conference the next day at the Magellan Hotel before their plane took off. It was scheduled to leave Cebu at 11 a.m.

No one really knew what the next minute would bring. Would Cory be arrested on her way to the airport? Would some other parties with other vested interests kidnap her?

Cory’s small party made it safely to the hangar. There were decoy planes deployed as the air space was still controlled by the government. But when the pilot asked for clearance to take off, the Cebu Control Tower radioed back, “You are cleared for take off. Have a safe flight. Kay Cory kami.”

When they passed Legazpi air space, Eldon recalls hearing the same message from the tower: “Kay Cory kami.”

And finally, the last hurdle. The Manila Control Tower. Would they be diverted to Hong Kong by government soldiers?

“Mom was calm all the time, praying the rosary. One of her security aides actually thought we were flying to Hong Kong he worried that he had no money with him,” recalls Eldon.

“You are cleared for landing,” the Manila Tower radioed to Cory’s pilots. And then, again, the magic words, “Kay Cory kami.”

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Eldon Cruz with mother-in-law Cory during the Snap Elections campaign. Photo by VAL RODRIGUEZ

They were met at a private hangar by Teddy Boy Locsin, Cory’s speechwriter and one of the prime movers of her media bureau. Cory, Terry, Eldon and Kris got on the car of Doña Demetria Cojuangco, Cory’s mother. They had no escorts.

On EDSA, they tailed an Armored Personnel Carrier laden with soldiers. On whose side they were they could not tell. They couldn’t overtake the APC, so they tailed it all the way to the Ortigas junction. If only the soldiers knew who the bespectacled woman behind them was! And if they did, would they have captured her, or protected her?

Cory made it to the POEA building where she addressed the mammoth crowd (and I was there) and joined them in singing Ama Namin.

Ballsy Cruz remembers her mom’s determination to take her oath the next day as President. Though it was the cheating in the Snap Elections that sparked the protests leading up to EDSA, word had reached Cory that some elements of the military had wanted to take over  the government after Marcos’ ouster.

With her hand on the family bible held by her mother-in-law Doña Aurora Aquino, Cory took her oath as the 11th President of the republic before Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee. She was wearing a yellow dress made by Ninoy’s cousin, Eling Castro. Her inaugural address, the draft of which was scribbled on a table napkin at the Club Filipino, was all of six paragraphs.

“Now, by God’s grace and the power of the people, we are free again,” she declared in her historic address.

After she took her oath, she had one thought: to visit Ninoy’s grave and tell him that she had kept her promise to continue his fight and live his impossible dream. There were still barricades in Guadalupe on the way to the Manila Memorial Park in Parañaque but the lady in yellow made it.

The family then had lunch at the condominium of the Aquinos’ second daughter Pinky, who was married to Manolo Abellada  on Feb. 15, just 10 days before the culmination of the people power revolt.

As it began to sink in that her mom was now President, Ballsy thought to herself: “Wow! The miracle happened!”

“Because during the campaign,  (Archbishop of Manila) Jaime Cardinal Sin said, ‘Cory is going to win! Believe me, she’ll win! There will be a miracle.’ In my mind, I was thinking, ‘what can the miracle be?’  The Cardinal said, ‘a miracle will make Marcos flee.’  Noong umalis na si Marcos, noong lumipad na, I realized, ‘Oh my God the miracle Cardinal said would happen just happened!’”

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In many ways, Ballsy says Liberal Party vice presidential bet Leni Robredo reminds her of her mother.

“Sinasabi niya na inspirasyon niya ang Mom. Kung nakikinig ang Mom ngayon siguro sasabihin niya ‘Ang bait mo naman Leni na ako ang inspirasyon mo pero sa totoo lang nadaig ako ni Leni kasi naging abogado siya’,” says Ballsy. She reveals her mother also wanted to become a lawyer, but only completed her first year at law school before becoming Ninoy Aquino’s bride.

“Like my mom, Leni was just a housewife, but both of them believed that when the time came to do something for the country, they could not look at themselves in the mirror if they turned their backs on that chance to serve. Siguro she also felt na kesa pagsisihan ko ‘to kung kinakailangan nga ng panahon, sasabak na ako. Both Mom and Leni, once they’ve committed to a cause, they’re going to give it their all. Once napasukan, talagang all out. Hindi tatamad-tamad, grabe ang kasipagan para lang matupad yung kanilang gustong mangyari. They would really work double time, triple time.”

EDSA played a role in the romance of Jesse and Leni.

Shortly after graduation from UP Diliman, Leni returned to Naga. It was her dream to be a lawyer like her father Antonio Gerona, but she decided to postpone law studies for a year. She applied at the Bicol River Basin Development Program, which was headed by Jesse Robredo.

“They needed an economist in that office, so I applied.  I was telling my mom I would just delay law school for a year. But at the time that I applied, the opening for the economist was filled up. I was told there was an opening, however, in the communications department, and they asked me to make an essay. So I wrote an essay about Cory Aquino and her role in the EDSA revolution. Jesse liked my essay so much that his assistant later on told me that since then, Jesse liked me already.”

Jesse and Leni were married at the Mary the Queen Church a year later and made Naga their home. Leni continued to look up to the housewife-turned-President.

Ballsy was her mom’s confidential secretary all throughout her presidency, and she remained her mother’s executive assistant and confidante till the day she died.

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