BY THE early morning of Feb. 22, the security group Enrile had assigned to then Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin was caught casing the house of Marine commander Brig. Gen. Admiral Artemio Tadiar in Fort Bonifacio. Enrile would later get a call from Honasan, who would say they had to make a decision: disperse or face Marcos in Manila. Enrile's reply: "Let's face him in Manila."

	JUAN PONCE ENRILE Photo by Lilen Uy

Enrile then chose Camp Aguinaldo as their base because it happened to be his turf. He was simply unfamiliar with the terrain of the other military camps that his men were suggesting.

"That was how Edsa People Power came to be," he says. "People went to Edsa because it was in Camp Aguinaldo that I decided to hold myself there to challenge Marcos."

Later, he would make that famous crossover to Camp Crame, where AFP Vice Chief of Staff Fidel V. Ramos, who had also withdrawn his support from Marcos, was. The reason for the crossover was practical: the buildings at Crame were stronger.

Enrile says that from the start they were confident they would be supported by the public, which they felt had more than enough of Marcos at that point. But they didn't anticipate the size of the crowd that eventually massed at Edsa.

Yet, Enrile says they would have succeeded even if the people had not come. "In the evening of Monday (Feb. 24)," he says, "we were already sure that we had the force to drive Marcos out. We had already the Air Force."

Enrile ordered an aerial attack on Malacañang, but took care to say the palace should not be hit directly. He says, "Marcos was so scared when the helicopters flew over Malacañang."

Enrile's order may have been a tit-for-tat for his own scary moment. That came in the morning of Feb. 24, when rumors flew that Marcos had ordered an aerial attack on Camp Crame. He says, "Although I knew that if any helicopter would take off, those helicopters would join us, my misgiving arose because I heard that the commander was Col. Antonio Sotelo , who was unknown to me." But Sotelo, an Ilocano, was known to many others to be very close to Ver, Marcos's ever-loyal general.

There was a five a.m. mass at Crame that day, and Enrile's seatmate turned out to be activist Bishop Francisco Claver. At the end of the mass, Philippine Military Academy alumni among those present sang their college song. It was a very emotional moment, and Enrile was moved to ask Bishop Claver to give him the rites of extreme unction. He was ready for Sotelo. The colonel did come later with his helicopters, but he and the seven other pilots with him would land at the Camp Crame grounds and join the rebels.

Enrile admits to also being afraid at the beginning of their revolt. "There was no question that there was some tingling in my stomach but finally I made the resolution that this is it, either I will make it or I die," he says. "You become calm, you become serene."

SERENITY, HOWEVER, however, isn't something people usually associate with Enrile. This was, after all, the man who was said to be the real mastermind of martial law. Acknowledged as a brilliant lawyer, Enrile was also considered as sharp and as cunning as Marcos.

Today at 82, he shows little sign of any wear and tear. During Estrada's impeachment trial, he clearly outclassed the other senators, and probably had the private prosecutors wishing they had him on their side instead.

His savvy also extends to business, with interests that range from matchsticks manufacturing to real estate. Last November he incurred the ire of environmentalists when his timber company in Samar obtained a permit to resume logging in a national park. His business interests were already formidable before 1986. But since then, they have flourished and expanded, although they had been hit by bad times in recent years.

Enrile says he is disappointed the Philippines has missed out on the opportunities presented by People Power. He says it all boils down to leadership. "I realized that people are idealistic, they want to do good," he says. "But then, when they hold power, they forget their promise to the people."

He says people who participated in our political upheavals may want to appear revolutionary, but do not turn out to be so. Enrile says there has been no one "in the class of Mustafa Kamal Ataturk of Turkey, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, Vietnam's Pham Van Dong and China's Deng Xiaoping." He notes, "Our leaders are more preoccupied with appearing popular and democratic without doing the reforms that are needed first in the economy and later on in the political life of the country."

Still, Enrile has serious doubts that protests against President Gloria Arroyo would succeed. There is simply a lack of a military component, he points out. Not that the military is less political now, he adds, "but it's an institution that believes in stability and the Constitution. You must give them a very big cause to break the chain of command."

He also says, "Arroyo's continued stay in power despite her unpopularity and protests led by no less than Cory Aquino disproves the myth created after EDSA Uno that the one that made Cory Aquino president was actually People Power."

"Without that military group," says Enrile, "Cory Aquino and her group would be marching all over the place for the next decade and they won't accomplish anything."

Enrile is writing his version of Edsa 1 for his grandchildren, some of whom are already grown up. "I want them to read it when I'm gone," he says. In the meantime, Enrile says he and his RAM boys will be marking the upcoming Edsa 1 anniversary the same way they have done for the last 19 years: they will attend mass and say a prayer for the Philippines. — Ellen Tordesillas