Tipped off by one of the Filipino colonels plotting that coup, I was standing in the hotel’s entryway at 5 pm as the mob, fury written on their faces, surged past me.įor the next 24 hours, that hotel’s marbled lobby became the stage for an instructive political drama.
After speakers had whipped the crowd of 5,000 into a frenzy with-and yes, this should indeed sound familiar in 2021-claims about a stolen election, thousands of ordinary Filipinos pushed past security guards and stormed into the nearby Manila Hotel, a storied symbol of their country’s history. One Sunday afternoon, four months after his flight, they massed in a Manila park to call for the restoration of their beloved president.
