Revolution?

It’s a pretty tense day here in the Philippines. Tomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of the EDSA revolution that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy, such as it is! This is always a cause for big rallies and protests and this year it is even bigger. As you know, for the entire time I have been here there have been coup rumours and threats and they are in full force today. A lot of the city is blocked off, including the Presidential Palace (so Emily gets the day off work!) and they have revoked the permits of a lot of rallies, closed the schools and, quite hilariously, revoked permits to carry a gun today!! I was going to have a birthday party tonight, but cancelled it as people said they would never be able to get near to my place. We live quite near to the Shrine of Remembrance, which is where the revolutions happen and where most of the rallies still happen around Manila (a continuous cause of bad traffic for me – and they always seem to happen on a Wednesday, when I want to get to Bible Study!) and a lot of the roads will be closed off – it will be impossible to move around.


The military have already arrested three alleged coup plotters and apparently foiled a coup attempt at Fort Bonifacio, in Manila, this morning. People are not getting much work done – everyone is looking at news websites and wondering what is going on.


The President has just announced a press conference and there is speculation she will declare a State of Emergency. It is on the radio now and half the office are listening, but it is in Tagalog so I stopped. Okay – Lorna just came back and said that she declared a State of Emergency. But we don’t know what that means… The radio is on in the middle of the office and occasionally people call out things in response (it sounds like they are airing a press conference) but of course, I don’t understand what they are saying.


I am a little scared – I have never lived through anything like this before. The military is on red alert and a lot of people are trying to get out of Manila – we are all saying we want to go home with my colleague Gemma to Baguio (her home, where she returns each weekend) this weekend – it is about seven hours out of Manila. I was just talking to one of the guys in my cubicle – he is my age and has already lived through two revolutions, so is fairly blasé!!! But it is all somewhat new for me. We have gone through this quite a few times this year, but this one feels more ominous, somehow. And I really don’t want to be sent home with six weeks left in my time here.


Hopefully all will be well – I will keep you posted. Am now wondering how much water we have in the apartment!!!


P.S. – will come back and tell you about my amazing trip to Thailand another time. Needless to say, I’m a little distracted right now.

Okay - another update. Apparently they are now saying they will arrest everyone who is currently marching in Makati, because they don't have a permit. This includes former President Aquino who is out there with the ralliers. The police are saying they will use force. There are already thousands out there (and the rally is not supposed to start for another two and a half hours) - I think it is going to get very ugly. Am still nervous - we are now starting to mumble that we shouldn't be at the office, but should be going home.