Word: estrada
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Estrada was given a deadline by a panel of opposition negotiators: he had to resign by Saturday at 6 a.m. All through Friday night, demonstrators continued to gather. This has been called the pager revolution for good reason: within minutes of the Senate vote, text messages had flashed through the Manila ether telling anti-Estrada Filipinos to GO TO EDSA. Hundreds of thousands converged on the capital, following directions to, as one message put it, WEAR BLACK TO MOURN THE DEATH OF DEMOCRACY. Said another text message: EXPECT THERE TO BE RUMBLES...
While the television cameras were focused on the rallies - and the commentators became lost in reveries about People Power revisited - behind-the-scenes negotiations had been going on nonstop between military factions loyal to Estrada and those who advocated a quick coup to depose the President. Chief of Staff Reyes and Defense Secretary Mercado had made their fateful call to Estrada after a luncheon attended by all the top commanders. The officers agreed that renouncing Estrada was the best course, in part because some commanders were urging more drastic resolution. If the military did not come to a consensus, there...
Former President Fidel Ramos had already warned during a visit to Hong Kong earlier in the week of the danger of a "palace coup" by forces allied with Estrada. And other retired officers were already trying to condition the public and the military rank and file to accept the notion that military intervention of one kind or another was a viable option. An ad in the Philippine Daily Inquirer sponsored by the Philippine Military Academy's Class of 1962, whose president is retired General Lisandro Abadia, promised, "The AFP and the PNP will have a crucial role to play...
Meanwhile, at least one Estrada ally was believed to be plotting to incite violence that would help the President justify use of his emergency powers to strengthen his grip on the military. According to a retired military officer, Estrada had planned to replace Chief of Staff Reyes with Calimlim. That plan collapsed when General Calimlim joined with Reyes in turning his back on Estrada...
...Friday evening, Estrada was running out of options. His hold on power, tentative since the impeachment trial had commenced, had now been virtually sundered as military and political operatives deserted him one after another. At one point, even former lovers were stepping forward to denounce the famous womanizer. Actress Nora Aunor, formerly a loyal campaigner for Estrada, publicly dumped the President, claiming he used to beat her "black and blue...