It was a demonstration against Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s declaration of a State of Emergency on February 24, 2006. It felt like Martial Law was coming. She banned any gathering at EDSA shrine, the ground zero of the February 1986 revolution.

I was in the march headed down Ayala Avenue and did not know until I looked back that we were in front of Cory. There was tension in the air; we were told the Army would stop us. There were plainclothes thugs around. A bomb could be thrown at us. But when I realized Cory was behind me, I felt an obligation to protect her and my fears dissipated. I turned around and took this picture. She looked confident and determined. Later at the rally, she would gracefully but firmly make an appeal to President Arroyo. Resign she said.

Along with many others, I would not have been able to come back to the Philippines to renew life here if she had not led the 1986 revolution. I had been on the Wanted list for having publicly opposed the dictatorship.

And now, happily back for many years, I have been able to say whatever I felt was wrong, advocated for whatever I believed in, written whatever grievance I had. Cory’s passing reminds me that it was she who made these basic democratic rights possible after a long absence.

Her death and the retelling of the revolution she led will hopefully be the deterrent against any new revival to curb these rights.

Thank you Cory for letting me come home.

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