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Monday, August 17, 2009

Memories of Coup

the former president and a great leader of the Philippines, Cory Aquino, passed away last August 1. and of course her presidency was again remembered. and there had been a mention of seven coup d'etat. but out of this seven, i could only remember one. and this one introduced me to the term coup d'etat.

it is december 1989 (if i'm not mistaken, december 1). around 4am, while having breakfast and getting ready for school we heard from the radio (my grandma always listen to the news every morning) that the villamor airbase was attacked. honestly, i did not know what villamor airbase was. i didn't even know that we have an airbase. hehe. afterwards, it was announced that there are no classes. of course we were happy with the news but i didn't know actually why there's no classes.

we lived near camp aguinaldo. you can say the camp is walking distance from our house. that's where we hear mass. since we live near the camp, you can hear helicopters flying, you can see the jets... you will really know that something's wrong and everyone was fearful.

my family and the rest of the neighborhood evacuated the place and we went our own separate ways. we stayed at the house of my mom's friend in tandang sora. my uncle who was left behind recounted that you can hear bombings. and a day or two after the coup ended, we passed by aguinaldo and you can see bullet holes, not only on the walls of the camp but also at the house across the camp. there are still tanks in the vicinity, and inside the camp.

it was a scary experience, and we were not really in the area when the real bombings occur but still it was scary. that is why i can't imagine how those in war zone areas feel.

let's just pray for them. and the family of the soldiers.

11 comments:

Wil said...

What's even more shocking is that I read that most of those coups were done by the same clique of military officers. How they got away with it so many times is beyond me.

TK said...

My entrance exam to Medicine was postponed because of the Coup. I was given an extra week to study. That's one good thing about what happened. for me, atleast.

Mel Avila Alarilla said...

Yes, we should credit the late Pres. Cory Aquino with the restoration of democracy in our country. We now enjoy the benefits of full democracy although our present leader looks more like a throwback to the old dictator's regime. Thanks for the post. God bless you always.

freeze said...

I could only remember that there is "war" when the Phil flag in a police camp is turned upside down (red on top), I pass by it on my way to school.

Russ said...

I have really vague memories about things that were happening during those times. I think I was only 5. But I do remember that my mom kept telling me not to go out of the house.

Thanks for writing about it. I could picture the events and how scary it must have been.

BlogHopping. Hope you don't mind.
Happy Wednesday.Ü

GingGoy said...

scary indeed and economically disastrous

Sidney said...

I am not sure it will never happen again... :-(

Anonymous said...

I don't remember anything about it except that I did read it about it at school before.

bw said...

the years of the NPA was also scary. I remember back in Negros helicopters would suddenly hover over the town looking for the NPA's and you have the gut feeling that an encounter is about to happen.

Anonymous said...

Is that the one headed by Gringo Honasan? I remember that coup because my father was a police officer and we lived in military camp in Pampanga. You can just imagine the terror because the helicopter strip and the runway were just behind our house. My father was missing in action for a few days too.

ysrael said...

The truth about that coup is that Cory and her group did'nt abide what it was agreed upon after EDSA. Since it was a revolutionary goverment Cory should assumed the presidency for only 6 months pero nasarapan sa pwesto pati yung mga alipores niya. Siyempre feeling nila Enrile at Gringo et al na nagpakahirap sa EDSA ay na-traydor sila. There is no such thing as People Power laging military take over kaya may coup.