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February 25, 1986

I arrived punctually before 9 A.M. –everybody –the political and local leaders, the local and foreign media– were all there. But Cory was nowhere. I inquired her whereabouts. Tessie Oreta, Butz Aquino did not know. We waited two hours. Finally at 11 A.M. I was able to talk to her on a two-way radio. “Cory –where are you? Is there a problem? You should be here now. Everybody’s waiting!” She could not talk on the radio phone, she said, “There is a problem. Could you please come?” “Where are you?” I asked. “Same place as yesterday.”

I rushed to Josephine’s house in WW. I was there in 3 minutes. When I arrived everybody was so quiet, as if someone had died. I was met by her son, Noynoy at the entrance. I was led to her room. When I opened the door Cory was seated on a chair looking out the window.

“What’s wrong, why are you still here? Everybody is waiting. And at high noon, which is 55 minutes from now, FM is taking his oath. We must beat him to it!”

“But Enrile told me not to go. He says we will all be killed there. He says I should take my oath in his office at Camp Aguinaldo. I’ll be safe there, he said. You have to talk to Enrile.”

“It’s too late to change the venue. I’ll talk to Enrile. Can someone dial him for me? I don’t know his phone number.” Ballsy dialed and in a moment Enrile was on the phone.

“Johnny, this is Doy, I’m here with Cory. She says you don’t want her to take her oath at Club. But everybody’s there now. All media is there, about 2000 leaders and news people are there. They’ve been waiting for more than two hours.

“Johnny, there is no problem about security there. I’ve taken care of that. I have about 300 Batangueños, ready to protect us. We cannot show any fear at this time. FM will take his oath in an hour. Why don’t you and Eddie Ramos take a chopper and land like commandos. That will be dramatic.” Enrile agreed, “OK Eddie and I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”