![]() In his nationwide address, he cited what he described as rising "wave of lawlessness and the threat of communist insurgency" as justifications. In effect, the proclamation curtailed press freedom and other civil liberties, closed down Congress, the courts and media establishments, and caused the arrest of opposition leaders and militant activists.Īs an overnight shift deskman then of the former Philippine News Service (PNS), I felt I was privileged to be among the few people to know about the declaration of military rule in the country before it was officially announced by Marcos and then Department of Public Information (DPI) Secretary Francisco S. ![]() Tatad.īy the way, PNS was a news-gathering agency put up together by the then eight leading national newspapers in Manila – Manila Times, Daily Mirror, Philippine Herald, Manila Chronicle, Evening News, Bulletin, Fookien Times, and Bagong Buhay. I had just arrived at the PNS office at the second floor of the National Press Club (NPC) in Intramuros on the night of Friday, Sept. 22, 1972, when I got an urgent telephone call from our reporter, Jaime Panesa, who was then covering Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame for the night shift. Panesa told me that a three-vehicle convoy of then Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile was ambushed moments ago by unidentified gunmen near the Wack-Wack Golf Club in Mandaluyong, Rizal. He said Enrile was on his way home to Makati from Camp Crame when his convoy was fired upon. ![]() Nobody in the convoy was hurt, Panesa said, adding that he was rushing to Mandaluyong from Camp Crame to get more details. As all of the other PNS editors and deskmen had already gone home by then, I advised Panesa to call me again as soon as he had the facts. And dictated to me the story, which I immediately edited and transmitted by the so-called “takes” on the PNS wires or teletypes.
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