Aquino Leads Victory Rally, Restores Rights

In a human sea dotted by yellow balloons, fireworks, doves and large statues of the Virgin Mary, nearly 1 million Filipinos on Sunday celebrated their victory over the tyrannical rule of Ferdinand E. Marcos at a combination Roman Catholic Mass and political songfest in a huge park on Manila Bay.

Beaming from the stage at the smiling throng, just five days after the overthrow of the man who had ruled them for two decades, President Corazon Aquino declared in her first televised speech to the nation: “Twenty years of oppression, hardship, repression, injustice, corruption, greed and waste finally ended--ended by a revolution of peace, prayers, reverie, radios and, above all, human courage.”

Her First Proclamation

She congratulated the Philippine people for standing up to tanks and guns with rosary beads and flowers, and she announced her first proclamation: the lifting of Marcos’ four-year-old suspension of the right of habeas corpus, which safeguards citizens against illegal detention or imprisonment.

She also announced the immediate retirement of 23 top military officers appointed by and once deeply loyal to Marcos who have served beyond their retirement ages. And she said she will open up the presidential residence, Malacanang Palace, to the poor.

Yet, as firecrackers exploded and white doves trailing yellow streamers were released from the crowd, the 53-year-old leader cautioned: “Our struggle is not yet over. It has just begun. People Power must now turn its attention to the countless challenges of building our nation.

“The situation, while stable, is not totally under control yet. There are still holdout pockets of military and civilian loyalists. All of us should serve as vigilantes and watchdogs over our government.”

Several times during her speech, Aquino was interrupted by applause and chants of “Cory, Cory, Cory!” but the combination rally and religious service was as much a celebration for the people themselves as it was for their new leader.

Many of the middle-class and working-class people in the crowd wore T-shirts that proclaimed, “Long Live People Power” and “I Was a Human Barricade”--both referring to the role that civilian demonstrators played in protecting rebel military units during the three-day revolution that overthrew Marcos.

The crowd carried signs that declared, “This nation will be great again” and “Mary in Heaven, Cory on Earth” beside pictures of the Virgin Mary and the Philippines’ first woman president.

During her speech, Aquino also gave hints about the kind of president she hopes to be during her six-year term.

“I will not tolerate deviation from the path we have pledged to follow. I will be uncompromising about corruption, graft, nepotism, usurpation and abuse of power and authority--also against extravagance, incompetence, abuse of human rights and a guarantee of the basic freedoms of assembly, thought and nonviolent action. No one will be exempt.”

Aquino also pledged to turn the sprawling and luxurious Malacanang Palace over to the people and said the poorest of the poor will have the first chance to visit it.

As for the lingering Marcos loyalists who did not flee the country with him last Tuesday, Aquino told the cheering crowd, “Now is the time for healing and reconciliation, and I will be magnanimous in victory.”

But she quickly added, “Magnanimity does not mean an absence of justice.” She said her government is gathering evidence and will try anyone from the regime who has committed “grave crimes against the people.”

Before she spoke, Cardinal Jaime Sin, the archbishop of Manila who directed priests and nuns to bring the people into the streets during the rebellion, gave Aquino Communion and delivered an exultant homily.

“We have regained lost freedoms,” the prelate declared. “We have started on the road to democracy. All this, with hardly a shot fired or a drop of blood lost.”

But Sin, too, stressed that the country is just at the beginning of “a chapter of glory in our history.”

“The job before us is only 10% done. Almost everything lies before us,” he said. “A victory has been secured, but the danger is not yet passed. . . .” Sin, too, warned of holdout loyalists who may be regrouping to attack the new regime.

The rally ended in a blinding sunset over Manila Bay as the crowd sang “Ang Bayan Ko” (My Country), the patriotic hymn that has been the rallying cry of the opposition since the 1983 assassination of Aquino’s husband, opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.