Exclusive by Raïssa Robles
I’d like to share with you guys today an excerpt from my second book, Trianggulo, which narrates how the People Power monument by noted sculptor Eduardo Castrillo ended up along EDSA. It wasn’t supposed to be there but inside Malacañang Palace. The book Trianggulo is a short biography of businessman Antonio Evangelista, known to his friends by his nickname “Anteva”.
I took on the project in 1993 because it was intended to be read by his grandchildren and the late archivist Crispina Reyes had asked me to do it. The story of how the Edsa People Power monument got built is Chapter 29 entitled –
The wandering monument
The new political order, brought about by an astonishingly bloodless uprising, required fresh symbols. Magdangal Elma, the chief legal officer of the newly-installed President Corazon Aquino, phoned his friend Anteva to come over.
Malacanang Palace, now dubbed the People’s Palace, had for over a decade been closed to the general public and bulletproofed to the max. Elma wanted fresh landscaping to reflect the newly won freedoms then transforming the political landscape.
He envisioned an elegant esplanade to usher in the endless stream of gawking visitors. This public walkway would be lined with the bronze busts of all the presidents of the Philippine Republic.
Anteva caught Elma’s enthusiasm for the project. And despite the absence of a written contract, Anteva went ahead and hired renowned sculptor Ed Castrillo and landscape architect Ildefonso Santos to sketch out the dream.
“Tita Cory has to see the plans,” Elma said, arranging a briefing with her.
Anteva proudly showed her the sketches of the promenade graciously lined with the presidential busts, like an ancient Roman walkway.
“When she saw Marcos’ bust standing beside hers, that was the last time I heard from Tita Cory,” he recalled laughing.
“Problem was, I had already enlisted the services of Castrillo and given him a down payment,” he disclosed. Anteva became worried that the Commission on Audit would question the fund use for a yet-unapproved project.
He and Castrillo therefore scrapped the busts altogether. Instead, they decided on a variation of the people power theme. They would call the sculpture “Mother Philippines” and mount this beside the newly built Department of Budget building in the presidential palace complex.
Castrillo soon finished casting the monument. But just as they were about to go public, a scandal erupted over the budget building, after one senator claimed it was overpriced and a gross extravagance for a nearly bankrupt government.
Anteva quickly shelved plans for the sculpture’s unveiling. For months he scouted around for another site. Ironically, he could not find one that could host an art piece meant to celebrate people power amid attempts by adventurist soldiers to install military power.
The bloodiest coup attempt of December 1989 had resulted in the shelling of the military’s general headquarters (GHQ) building inside Camp Aguinaldo. Anteva won the contract to rebuild GHQ.
During his frequent visits to Camp Aquinaldo, located along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or EDSA, Anteva had an idea. They could put the homeless monument in the very heart of the action – in the middle of EDSA where the popular uprising had taken place in 1986.
But he was told the symbol had to give way to progress. A mass rail transit was to run through EDSA.
“Finally, we decided to put it on the corner of the Corinthian Garden along EDSA,” he said. President Corazon Aquino’s public works secretary Jose “Ping” de Jesus, who had accompanied him to inspect the site, signed the presidential executive order regarding the monument “right there on EDSA, right on my back,” he said.
At last the monument was home.
Perci says
Ms Raissa, I have a comment awaiting moderation.
raissa says
sorry.
my Akismet is acting up.
hal flores says
People bitter about martial law should push for a truth commission to find out the extent and hunt all responsible for the atrocities including LEECHES and CHAMELEONS. There should have been retribution right after installation of the new government. Sadly 30 years after no one was put behind bars. Why push for reconciliation when men and women of the cloth give a constant reminder of the devil that was martial law.
There are martial law survivors still alive today and I think it is not too late to open an inquiry to dig perpetrators who crawled to their rock, drag them to the open, expose their true colours and mock them with real justice.
It is not enough that the buck ends with Marcos. He was judge guilty by the court of public opinion and his memory trodden to dust. There is no way it can be sanitized. Now it is time to hunt down his minions like that of the inquisition for after all we all “thirst for blood and blood must be shed”.
I challenge Human rights advocates, men and women of the cloth, anti-Marcos (martial law) advocates, millennials and especially Raissa Robles to shout the battle cry for retribution. The memory of martial law is like an annoying bad breath that lingers on until you flush your internals. If you like bad breath or not aware you have it then it is a problem. If however you realized it and decided to flush it out then START THE RAGE. Let every stone unturned and get the justice you really wanted And then WE CAN ALL MOVE ON.
raissa says
I had hoped that my book, Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, will somehow start the conversation going between the torturers and the tortured.
hal flores says
That is an understatement. If I have my way I will move it further. There is no wisdom in conversation when the nation is embodied with hatred for a long time. Let us call black a black and white a white. As the public opinion is rekindled following the event of the burial lets open it up once and for all.
If we can see the present composition of the anti-Marcos, there is enough to match the powers that has been. There is a collective money and political resources to match that of the Marcoses. There remains very little time while the torturers are still alive to extract justice. We must act now or forever hold the bitterness.
Wag na tayong magbulahan, prankahan na para matapos na ito. If people claim to be a victim and have been shouting about it, it is time to present the damages whether personal or PERSONAL INTEREST, let it be known. There is enough anti-marcos logistics to support them as it APPEARS (hoping it’s true).
I am so disgusted however to those whose PERSONAL INTEREST were victims of the martial law that as soon as they recovered their assets turned a blind eye to the plight of their fellow victims while fueling them to stay on the streets and continue shouting and even become oppressors themselves. Why didn’t they put their resources together and put up a strong legal fight? a big fight for RETRIBUTION? I can only conclude of their utter self interest.
I strongly agree what Teddy Locsin said that the real heroes of the martial law are the SOLDIERS OF THE NIGHT. Everyone else are presumptuous.
(only my opinion, you are entitled to yours)
raissa says
It’s difficult.
Some victims are traumatized beyond repair.
And much of the evidence was lost to a fire in Camp Aguinaldo.
hal flores says
If the claim is in the thousands, there must be someone who is lucid enough. For example Mr. Lopez, Mr. Saguisag, Mr. Osmena, Mr. Pemintel Sr. and many more prominent people. Are they beyond repair? If there is a will there is a way. There is one conclusion I can make: that is to prolong the agony of the people, a constant reminder to hold ransom the true national unity.
Queen Elizabeth I kept Robert Dudley alive in the tower to remind her how close she came to danger. On the contrary the martial law story was kept alive with no effort to give resolution to keep the nation divided.
raissa says
I don’t quite understand the sentence – On the contrary the martial law story was kept alive with no effort to give resolution to keep the nation divided.
Pls explain.
hal flores says
typo. On the contrary the martial law story was kept alive with no effort to give resolution(,) to keep the nation divided.
There were two Aquino presidents and from the family several senators, several congressmen and a lot of high ranking government officials and yet the murder of Benigno II was a cold case. With your depth of knowledge about atrocities of Marcos (you’ve written a book) how can you explain failure to extract justice for Ninoy? Are there powers operating behind the scene? Or is it part of the narrative set out by families or certain sector of society to keep the people’s sympathy alive so that they could cling on to power or influence forever.
The other victims however that did not have those luxury are left in the limbo or in total despair.
I lived in a community that did not experience any martial law atrocities. As a matter of fact we lived well. There were few skirmishes between government and communists but all were well. It does not mean I did not know the plight of the oppressed for after all I imbibe the egalitarian principle.
Now the country needs a resolution to the problem that was martial law. The two Aquino administration failed to provide it. The public sentiments are still strong about it. Maybe it is high time to dig back and drag them out to the open- all those that were responsible for atrocities and torture while they are still alive, not wait until they die only to SPIT ON THEIR GRAVES.
I appreciate your engagement.
raissa says
My answers are in Chapter 7 of my book.
I took the trouble to explain it there.
Perci says
The Marcoses flee in 1986, but they never really left. They fled with their loot but, left behind a formidable wall to block recovery and unity. The evil family (and their cronies and minions who stayed), using their massive loot and deeply entrenched influence, continued to hold on to unseen power and remain to be an evil force to reckon with up to this very day, and now threatening to plunge this nation once again into darkness. It would have been best, if the angry mob on that glorious day of 1986, caught up with the marcoses before they were hauled into a plane to Hawaii. Until a single marcos exists, and with their stolen billions doing the work, can justice be had by each and every victims and the entire Filipino nation?
duquemarino says
Subscribing.
leona says
‘ Duterte told Reuters news service last December that he would form two new army divisions to tackle security threats. That’s more or less 8,000 men. Would these two divisions constitute an army within an army.’
Raissa May 2, 2016 article.
Normally, TOE [Table of Organization & Equipment] mil term, a division is 10,000 men. A Brigade is about 5,000 men.
If Duterte forms 2 divisions that would be about 20,000 men. . . his Duterten Waffen SS police force. An ‘army within an army?’
“Integrate ‘ the Waffen-SS into the army, as it was intended to remain the armed wing of the Party and to become an elite police force ‘ “[Hitler resisted this integration]
Wapin !. . . ‘Oo nga!’
leona says
‘the presidential busts, like an ancient Roman walkway.’ . . .
‘“When she saw Marcos’ bust standing beside hers, that was the last time I heard from Tita Cory’
Naka simang-ngot si Pres. Cory! Like saying ‘Ferdinance E. Marcos’ name should be erased throughout the land for all time!’
Now, Marcos’ small coffin is buried at the LNMB. One day, huhukayin yan ng mga tao bayan at gigibain lahat ng estraktura dyan.
Kailan sila mga Marcos mapapa-alis sa Bansa uli? Walang balikabayan na?
Marcos Martial Law. . . Never Again!