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Perhaps, he just didn’t feel like going.
“Former President Fidel V. Ramos, one of the key players in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution, was absent in ceremonies marking its 29th anniversary,” reports GMA News Online.
The report cited former Department of Trade and Industry Usec. Ernesto Ordoñez, who noted that “it was the first time that Ramos missed ceremonies at EDSA.”
So where was he?
Reports say that Ramos dropped by instead in front of Camp Crame and answered some questions about the Mamasapano tragedy.
The report recalled: “In 1986, Ramos, then-Philippine Constabulary chief, withdrew support from then-President Ferdinand Marcos, along now-detained Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, who was defense minister at the time. Ramos and Enrile’s actions triggered a series of events that ousted Marcos and installed President Benigno Aquino III’s late mother, Corazon, to the presidency. He served as Defense secretary under Mrs. Aquino’s administration, and eventually succeeded her as President.”
The encounter in Mamasapano, Maguindanao on Jan 25 left 44 members of the elite Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force (SAF) dead. The PNP-SAF troopers had been out to capture Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and Filipino bomb maker Abdul Basit Usman. Both men had bounties on their heads placed by the U.S. government: US$5 million for Marwan and US$1 million for Usman.
The operation turned bloody when members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) said they had to fight back because the PNP-SAF had breached their territory. They alleged that they had not been informed about the operation to get Marwan and Usman. The hostile encounter lasted 11 hours. The MILF lost 18 of their fighters.
Both the government and the MILF are currently doing probes on the Mamsapano encounter to determine what went wrong, as the incident threatens the Bangsamoro peace deal. It has since been revealed that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and even some armed civilians were also involved in the clash.
