Thread by @indiohistorian

#TodayinHistory in 1972, at 8:00 pm, at Notre Dame St., Wack-Wack, Greenhills #PH, the staged ambush on Defense Sec Juan Ponce Enrile's convoy was implemented—one of the pretexts of Ferdinand Marcos' declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines. THREAD #NeverAgain

#OnThisDay at 5pm, Enrile meets w/ Brig. Gen. Mario Espina of the #PH Constabulary, to plan the military movement in Metro Manila w/out raising any alarm.

At 6pm, Marcos called on Enrile. Enrile received 3 sealed envelopes: Procl. No. 1081, Gen. Orders, & Letters of Instruction

At 7 pm, Enrile went to the AFP GHQ & echoed Marcos' orders to military commanders.

At 8pm, Enrile claims that a speeding car overtook his convoy & fired several bullets, while they were passing through Wack-Wack subdivision, in Greenhills, San Juan.

Oscar Lopez, a subdivision resident: "...we could hear a lot of shooting outside. We didn’t know what was happening. After the shooting died down, I went out. I took a peek... and I saw this car riddled with bullets. Nobody was hurt; there was no blood. The car was empty."

Journalist Vergel Santos: "Why inside a village & not on a public street, & why in that particular village? Possibly for easier stage-managing: the family of Enrile’s sister Irma... lived there, in Fordham... got the story straight from [them], as officially scripted."

#PH Constabulary general Ramon Montano: "It was fake. I don’t know who faked it but the ambush was fake because when we arrived at the scene of the crime or reported crime I found out that the bullet holes were all neatly aligned. Neatly aligned."

Enrile himself, in the press con on 22 Feb 1986 leading to #EDSA, divulged that the ambush was staged by them & not really organized by the Communists. A journalist wrote the outline of what Enrile said on 22 Feb 1986.

https://twitter.com/indiohistorian/status/1363807064267517952?s=20

Enrile soon retracted this story in his autobiography published in 2012. Nevertheless, several accounts corroborate that the ambush was indeed staged.

At around 9 pm, military units have been deployed. No. 1 in the list of people to be arrested was Sen. Ninoy Aquino.

Aquino was w/ Sens. Arturo Tolentino, Ambrosio Padilla, Lorenzo G. Teves, and John Osmeña, and House Majority Leader Marcelino Veloso in bicameral meetings in the Manila Hilton Hotel (now Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel) along UN Ave, Manila.

At 11:30 pm, First Lady Imelda Marcos who was attending a press dinner at Philippine Village Hotel was approached by her photographer. She suddenly stood up & went home to Malacañang.

At 11:55 pm, a military unit swarmed the Philippines Free Press office. Editor-in-chief Teodoro Locsin Sr. tried to make a call but an officer slapped the phone off his hand, saying that ML had been declared. They then confiscated all publications & the printer.

The unpublished Free Press issue that was supposed to come out the next day (23 September 1972) was prescient.

Photos:
- The alleged Enrile convoy ambush, Sunday Tribune, 24 Sept 1972
- Outline of Enrile's talking pts, 22 Feb 1986
- Imelda Marcos & Ferdinand Marcos, undated, Presidential Museum & Library
- Front page of the unreleased Philippines Free Press issue on 23 September 1972

For @subselfie.
@jmnualla
@tonitiemsin