THE SEEDS of military discontent were sown during the martial-law years when Marcos, a second cousin of Ramos, gave some special favors to officers based on unquestioning loyalty to him. Marcos extended the services of retireable generals, stunting the rise of professional, competent, and ambitious younger officers.

	FIDEL V. RAMOS Photo by Lilen Uy

The retirement of the overextended AFP chief of staff, Romeo Espino, in 1981 intensified the competition between Ramos and Gen. Fabian Ver, commander of the Presidential Security Command, as well as the head of the National Intelligence Service Agency. It was well known that Espino's choice as his replacement was Ramos (who was by then already an extendee), but Marcos put premium on loyalty and chose Ver.

The 1983 assassination of opposition leader Benigno 'Ninoy' S. Aquino Jr. added to the simmering outrage. Ramos also says the spark that ignited the Edsa 1 explosion was the widespread irregularities of the Feb. 7, 1986 snap election highlighted by the walkout of canvassers of the Commission on Elections.

Days and weeks before Feb. 22, Ramos says, he was already discussing withdrawal of support from the Marcos government with family members and friends. His sister, Leticia Ramos-Shahani , who was assistant secretary general for Social and Human Development in the United Nations, had resigned two months earlier from the Philippine foreign service. Ramos says his case was more complicated because he was responsible to a 110,000-strong organization. He had to make sure that once he did turn around, they would be with him. Which was what happened.

But even then, he didn't expect the massive crowd that protected them at Edsa in response to the radio appeal of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin. He also saw the Divine hand touching the conscience of loyalist commanders who refused to fire at the crowd. Even Marcos, he says, had some pangs of conscience because the beleaguered strongman refused to give the order to attack, despite the insistence of Ver, who was caught by television cameras telling his boss excitedly, "We will attack, sir! We will attack!"

Ramos says one of Edsa 1's valuable relics is the blackboard on which Ver and the generals who remained loyal to him drew up their plan of attack against Camp Crame. The attack was to take place from four or five directions, recalls Ramos: "Bombardment by mortars that were brought closer to our neighborhood, infiltration by the rangers, attack by the marines, and also crowd dispersal units by some elements of the Metropolitan Police Command to get the civilians out of the way so that they could attack with full military force our station in Camp Crame."

Ramos would later have to deal with nine coup attempts, but by then he would be on the"other side," repelling the disillusioned soldiers, first as AFP chief of staff under the Aquino government and then as its defense secretary.

The transition from an authoritarian regime back to democracy was not an easy one. He says that toward the end of Corazon Aquino's six-year presidency, the country was posting "zero economic growth," and that credit ratings were down. The country was dealing as well with "low international credibility, increasing insurgency, and severe power shortage," he says.

People who saw how it was with Edsa 1 urged him to grab power. But Ramos says he told them: "I am a military man with 42 years of service behind me, but I'll enter into the presidential arena as a civilian and I will do it in the legal, constitutional way."

The country experienced remarkable economic progress under Ramos, although that success was marred somewhat by the Asian economic crisis that began in 1997. Out of Malacañang for more than seven years now, the 77-year-old Ramos has not slowed down. He was back in Edsa in January 2001 to oust Joseph Estrada, an elected president, and install Arroyo in Malacañang. He is now asking Arroyo to cut short her term and push for a shift to parliamentary system to save the country.

In between his international speaking engagements, Ramos holds court in his book-lined office of the Ramos Peace and Development Foundation, Inc. (RPDEV), which he wants to be his legacy. "Even as ex-president, as long as you're physically able, or even if you are physically handicapped as long as your mind is still working, your brain is still intact, continue to do your job as a responsible and concerned Filipino," he says. "In the private sector, of course."

He has written about management rules for the movers and shakers of the country. He says, "For those who cannot cope with the immediate and forthcoming challenges, let us bid them to learn the rules and to try again so that they can change themselves."

"For those who cannot learn to change," says Ramos, "Well, they should be changed." — Ellen Tordesillas