Post by phlmhunter on Feb 26, 2021 7:09:22 GMT
I recently finished a series of videos on the People Power Revolution in the Philippines in February 1986:
An iconic moment was the takeover of Channel 4, the government station, which then aired finally free from censorship. Here is an account of the events. From "The inside story of how the Lopezes got ABS-CBN back in 1986", 24 June 2020, as of 26 February 2021 (link), "Excerpt from Kapitan, authored by Raul Rodrigo, published in 2006":
Portions of the 24 February 1986 broadcast are available here:
This footage from 25 February 1986 is available online. If anyone can archive it, please do. Channel 4 (People's Television Network, Inc.) remains a government-owned and controlled corporation, so its broadcasts are not protected by copyright. (For info purposes only, not legal advice)
I hope that these broadcasts are found. This is as historic as the broadcast of Romanian television during the 1989 revolution:
An iconic moment was the takeover of Channel 4, the government station, which then aired finally free from censorship. Here is an account of the events. From "The inside story of how the Lopezes got ABS-CBN back in 1986", 24 June 2020, as of 26 February 2021 (link), "Excerpt from Kapitan, authored by Raul Rodrigo, published in 2006":
As the situation in Manila turned critical, the ABS-CBN Broadcast Center remained at the center of Jake Lopez's thoughts. Jake said: "When the revolt also broke out on February 22, I alerted some friends: Jimmy Navarro and also Prinsesito Pascual, the president of the union of the old ABS-CBN. We agreed that (the rebel group) would need media support to win. So we agreed to wait for developments. We had to be ready to move."
The sign he was waiting for came on Monday morning, February 24, at 9:56 A.M. when Marcos was speaking in a televised press conference about the crisis. Nationwide, the TV screens suddenly went blank.
The signal for the press was coming from MBS 4, in the Broadcast Center. At around 9:30 AM on February 24, rebel soldiers, Ied by Col Rudy Aguinaldo and Maj. Sonny Razon, attacked it. After a short, intense firefight, Lt. Col. Arthur Balmaceda, the commander of the loyalist soldiers guarding the network, agreed to pull out. The loyalist forces left. Technicians at the MBS-4 master control stopped transmitter operations. Finally, the man who shut down Philippine television in September 1972 was himself knocked off the air.
Soon after, Jake Lopez, Jimmy Navarro and Prinsesito Pascual arrived at the Broadcast Center. The rebel officers recognized Jake as the former GM of ABS-CBN and a member of the opposition. They let him and his friends in to get the station back on the air and have it start broadcasting for the rebels.
The sign he was waiting for came on Monday morning, February 24, at 9:56 A.M. when Marcos was speaking in a televised press conference about the crisis. Nationwide, the TV screens suddenly went blank.
The signal for the press was coming from MBS 4, in the Broadcast Center. At around 9:30 AM on February 24, rebel soldiers, Ied by Col Rudy Aguinaldo and Maj. Sonny Razon, attacked it. After a short, intense firefight, Lt. Col. Arthur Balmaceda, the commander of the loyalist soldiers guarding the network, agreed to pull out. The loyalist forces left. Technicians at the MBS-4 master control stopped transmitter operations. Finally, the man who shut down Philippine television in September 1972 was himself knocked off the air.
Soon after, Jake Lopez, Jimmy Navarro and Prinsesito Pascual arrived at the Broadcast Center. The rebel officers recognized Jake as the former GM of ABS-CBN and a member of the opposition. They let him and his friends in to get the station back on the air and have it start broadcasting for the rebels.
That first broadcast came at 1:25 P.M. on February 24. Marcos's Maharlika Broadcasting System was now redubbed the "People's Television Network." Johnny Manahan directed an improvised public-affairs show in Studio 3. The on-air talents included Orly, June Keithley, Maan Hontiveros, Noel Trinidad and Subas Herrero. Among the volunteers who worked backstage for this show were some who would later become ABS-CBN executives, such as Salvii Casino, Mariol Alberto, Enrico Santos, Charie Villa and Joanna Gomez.
Enrico, then 22, said: "I was one of those who climbed over the fence and did that news show. Someone asked: 'Who can write around here?' I just raised my hand. So I was told to write news stories on index cards and hand them to June Keithley, Fr. Efren Datu, Noel Trinidad and Subas Herrero. That's what we did, in 24-hour shifts."
Salvi Casino fed the news anchor David Nye with up-to-the-minute news bits relayed by long-distance telephone from New York, where relatives of Salvii were watching the reports of CNN and ABC news crews in Manila. The news took a circuitous route, but it worked.
Manahan recalled: "Gen. Ramos called. He wanted footage of the Edsa uprising to be shown on television. At that time, we had no news camera. Before we took over, Channel 4 took out all the vans, all the equipment, the U-matic cameras. There were only Videos 8s, Betamax cameras. I was so used to professional things, I didn't think about using these ‘toy cameras’ to cover the Edsa thing. But somebody reminded me we had the ‘toy cameras’ so we started sending people there to cover it. And we were able to get from the Americans a copy of that famous footage of Ramos jumping into the air.”
Then, ABS-CBN's ace director Mitos Villareal directed a helicopter take aerial footage of the crowd at Edsa. The liberated Channel 4 aired her footage, as well as shots of the inauguration of Cory Aquino in the morning of February 24. These broadcast clearly demonstrated to the nation that the Marcos forces were finished.
Jake said: "When we went back on the air, we started to invite some politicians to come and they would come over, but they would not stay long, because the report was the Marcos forces would attack the station.” This was actually true; the night of February 24, Marcos's son, Bongbong, was crafting a plan that had him leading an assault on the Broadcast Center. The plan was aborted at the last minute.
Orly said: "On the air, I called on our old friends from the old ABS-CBN. We called on them to come back and help—people like Bong Lapira. They came quickly. We were no longer nervous because there were so many of us now inside the studio. And the broadcast continued."
Some veterans came back to Bohol Avenue wearing their old ABS-CBN bush jackets. They would say to all who would listen: "For many years, I've kept this jacket for a day like today."
Enrico, then 22, said: "I was one of those who climbed over the fence and did that news show. Someone asked: 'Who can write around here?' I just raised my hand. So I was told to write news stories on index cards and hand them to June Keithley, Fr. Efren Datu, Noel Trinidad and Subas Herrero. That's what we did, in 24-hour shifts."
Salvi Casino fed the news anchor David Nye with up-to-the-minute news bits relayed by long-distance telephone from New York, where relatives of Salvii were watching the reports of CNN and ABC news crews in Manila. The news took a circuitous route, but it worked.
Manahan recalled: "Gen. Ramos called. He wanted footage of the Edsa uprising to be shown on television. At that time, we had no news camera. Before we took over, Channel 4 took out all the vans, all the equipment, the U-matic cameras. There were only Videos 8s, Betamax cameras. I was so used to professional things, I didn't think about using these ‘toy cameras’ to cover the Edsa thing. But somebody reminded me we had the ‘toy cameras’ so we started sending people there to cover it. And we were able to get from the Americans a copy of that famous footage of Ramos jumping into the air.”
Then, ABS-CBN's ace director Mitos Villareal directed a helicopter take aerial footage of the crowd at Edsa. The liberated Channel 4 aired her footage, as well as shots of the inauguration of Cory Aquino in the morning of February 24. These broadcast clearly demonstrated to the nation that the Marcos forces were finished.
Jake said: "When we went back on the air, we started to invite some politicians to come and they would come over, but they would not stay long, because the report was the Marcos forces would attack the station.” This was actually true; the night of February 24, Marcos's son, Bongbong, was crafting a plan that had him leading an assault on the Broadcast Center. The plan was aborted at the last minute.
Orly said: "On the air, I called on our old friends from the old ABS-CBN. We called on them to come back and help—people like Bong Lapira. They came quickly. We were no longer nervous because there were so many of us now inside the studio. And the broadcast continued."
Some veterans came back to Bohol Avenue wearing their old ABS-CBN bush jackets. They would say to all who would listen: "For many years, I've kept this jacket for a day like today."
This footage from 25 February 1986 is available online. If anyone can archive it, please do. Channel 4 (People's Television Network, Inc.) remains a government-owned and controlled corporation, so its broadcasts are not protected by copyright. (For info purposes only, not legal advice)
I hope that these broadcasts are found. This is as historic as the broadcast of Romanian television during the 1989 revolution:
