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Saturday, February 25, 2006
Nalzaro: Reminiscing Edsa 1
By Bobby Nalzaro
How time flies. I was a neophyte broadcaster way back during my Zamboanga days when the memorable and historic Edsa People Power revolution broke out. That was 20 years ago.
I was then with radio dyRZ of UMBN-RMN and with a local newspaper, The Zamboanga Express. Since much of the action happened in Metropolitan Manila, what we did in Zamboanga was just to hook up with our network’s flagship station and to get reactions from local political leaders and military officers.
Zamboanga City was then known as an opposition country because of its legendary mayor Cesar Climaco. Though Climaco was murdered two years before Edsa 1 broke out, his political allies continued his crusade against the administration of Ferdinand Marcos.
To protest Marcos’ rule, Climaco did not cut his hair until the dictator lifted Martial Law in 1984. But it was also on that year that Climaco was felled by an assassin's bullet.
There were reports a top-ranking military officer assigned in Zamboanga but based at the Southern Military Command killed Climaco upon the instruction of higher-ups. There was also a theory that the group of former policemen Rizal Alih may have been behind the murder. In 1989, Alih led a group of detained policemen who took over the PC/INP Regional Command headquarters after holding hostage and killing the commander, Brig Gen. Edgardo Batallla.
Anyway, like the unsolved murders of known oppositionists during Marcos’ time, Climaco's death remains a mystery until now.
Climaco was well loved by Zamboanguenos because he stood up against the Marcos dictatorial regime. When I was still a student at the Ateneo de Zamboanga before joining media, I joined the rallies and demonstrations he organized. Students were already militant at that time, with Kabataang Makabayan and National Union of Students in the Philippines in the frontline. Bayan Muna did not exist then.
I can still recall having anchored our radio coverage when then PC/INP Regional Command 9 chief Carlos Aguilar announced his defection to the Fidel Ramos-Juan Ponce Enrile camp. But then Southcom chief Delfin Castro, a known Marcos loyalist, stood behind his boss.
Castro, though, did not attempt to deploy forces to disperse the anti-Marcos rally snowballing at the city's Plaza Pershing. No confrontation erupted among the military in Zamboanga City while the three-day Edsa revolt took place in Manila.
Zamboanguenos were jubilant when news finally spread that Marcos and his family had fled to Hawaii. Well, the rest of that is history.
(bgnalzaro@gmanetwork.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 25, 2006 issue)
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