By Al S. Mendoza

 

I was rummaging through my files and look what I found. A story on Bongbong Marcos regarding the 1986 People Power revolution.

Written by the eminent Fernando del Mundo, it appeared in the Inquirer issue of 2006, the year I retired from the Inquirer after serving in various capacities there as sports editor, motoring editor, associate editor for sports and sports/motoring columnist for 20 years.

Del Mundo wrote the article after interviewing Hermie Rivera, the late and lamented sportscaster who was the manager of former world boxing champions Luisito Espinosa and Morris East.

Rivera, who died in 2016 at age 77 in Newark, California, after a short illness, was a trusted press officer of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the late unlamented dictator-father of Bongbong.

Rivera’s wife, Atche Tina, was a native of Dagupan City. They were dear, dear friends of mine. They would always prepare a steak dinner whenever Sol and I would come visiting Los Angeles.  We miss them.

In the martial law years from 1972 to 1986, Hermie had full access to Malacanang.

He was the unchallenged Palace jester with the uncanny ability to make the elder Marcos laugh even in the direst of times.

Excerpts of Del Mundo’s article:

“Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had opposed his father’s decision taken on the second day of the breakaway by rebellious Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Gen. Fidel Ramos.

“A mainstay of the popular ‘60s, early ‘70s dzHP news team, Rivera said he had been called to the Palace at around 6 p.m. on that lazy Sunday—Feb. 23, 1986—and had taken with him dispatches from Washington to brief the President.

“Why am I going on the air again?” Marcos asked Rivera moments after he was ushered into the President’s room.

“Rivera had just started explaining when the Galil-wielding Bongbong, wearing jungle fatigues, butted in: ‘No! Don’t go on the air!’

“Rivera continued his briefing.  It was essentially that US President Reagan had threatened to withdraw support if Marcos ordered an assault on the rebel-held camps Aguinaldo and Crame in Quezon City.

“’Bongbong was vociferously objecting to the TV appearance of the President while I was trying to explain to him the need for that, based on the wire stories and the radio reports that I had heard’ Rivera recounted.

“As Bongbong continued his tirade, Marcos turned to his valet and said, in Ilocano: “Can you get the makeup artist?  There is something shiny in my forehead.”

“’I took that as a cue that he was disapproving Bongbong!’ said Rivera.

But Bongbong was undaunted.

“’He told Rivera, in Tagalog: ‘You interfered again. I already told you not to meddle.’

“’No, sir. I am not meddling, sir. We are just following orders.’

“’No, no, no,’ said Bongbong, then a mop-haired, 28-year-old Army lieutenant.

“’All sorts of invectives came out of him,’ said Rivera. ‘What I was concerned most was not the viciousness of his tirade, but more on the prospects of being killed. For what?’

“After what seemed like eternity, Bongbong mercifully turned around and left Rivera.”

Marcos went on to appear on television to order his troops not to fire at the people massed at Edsa.

The rest, as we love to say, is history.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments