Bearing Witness to An Unfolding Revolution

Chapter 1 Transitioning While Manila Braces for the Worst


Fresh from a working stint as a foreign correspondent with Deutsche Presse Agentur, the German news agency, I moved to San Diego, California in late 1994.

I had spent my most productive eleven years at DPA, starting with the setting up of its first bureau in Manila and becoming its first correspondent and bureau manager.

Before that, I was assistant correspondent in Manila for Japan's Asahi Shimbun, the world's second-largest circulation daily. It has a sister publication in English, the Asahi Evening News.

My years here covered one of the tumultuous events in contemporary Philippine history -- the daylight assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., chief political rival of strongman Ferdinand Marcos, as he came back from exile.

The airport slaying of Aquino on Aug. 21, 1983 by his military escorts on orders of Marcos had worsened the situation in the Philippine capital. It sparked massive protests by workers, students and the populace.

Personally, it accelerated my transition. As Manila emerged as a hotspot, journalists from all over the world were coming in droves.

I quit Asahi Shimbun and joined DPA, succumbing to an offer nobody could refuse. Time was of the essence -- bad for the Japanese newspaper and good for the German wire agency. My presence in either guaranteed a native's insight and access to information reserved for the locals.

I formally became resident correspondent, ending more than a year of reporting as stringer, and inaugurating a new partnership with one of the world's major news wires.

After a few months, DPA brought me to its head office in Hamburg for further training at its English desk. In Hamburg, I kept watch on news developments in Manila, providing a constant stream of news analysis to DPA subscribers around the world.

Affiliating with DPA was a big professional leap for me. As a stringer, I filed my stories via United Press International at its Port Area, Manila office. Then, as part of my upgrade, I took a lease on a building fronting the United States Embassy in Manila. My small office was located just across from where Agence France Presse was in the same structure.

Though DPA and AFP were competitors, that did not stop me from discussing current issues with the very insightful AFP bureau chief, Teddy Benigno, who founded the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) and later on became Press Secretary.

After I came back from Germany, I moved the DPA bureau to another building on United Nations Avenue, which was close to the National Library on T. M. Kalaw Avenue.

The ominous political events at that time had prompted the wire agencies and major newspapers to relocate to Manila from elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Less than three years after the assassination, in February 1986, Marcos was overthrown and Aquino's widow, Corazon Aquino, was catapulted to the presidency by the "people power" revolt. The Philippine political landscape had now changed.

I've witnessed some bloodbaths (the bombing of a political rally in Manila's Quiapo district)as a police reporter during the time I was starting my journalism career while still pursuing my college course. The lesson I learned from that had steeled my resolve as it did my nerves.

That experience had prepared me for the worst in news coverages. Once you've witnessed death and mayhem, nothing else -- dead or alive -- could frighten. And covering the unfolding revolution with just a notebook, pen, tape recorder and a satellite phone was not to be feared either.

I spent days without much sleep covering the news, sometimes on the other side of the political divide, and most times criss-crossing the adjacent military encampments -- Camp Aguinaldo, the defense headquarters; and Camp Crame, the constabulary headquarters, both in Quezon City, a Manila suburb.

Corazon Aquno's ascent from mere housewife to the highest office in the land had been a boon to news organizations. She's celebrated for being the instrument for peaceful change in a country wracked by internecine strife.

Her six-year term, ironically, however, was marred by bloody attempts at ousting her by some of the military personages who had initially supported her against the dictator Marcos. From 1986 to 1992 when she stepped down, there were at least 11 major coups.

General Fidel V. Ramos, one of two high officials who broke off with Marcos (the other was Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile), succeeded Mrs. Aquino to the presidency. I also covered the first two years of his presidency for DPA, and then moved to San Diego in the latter part of 1994.