To those with short lived memories, here's your memory lane down 28 years ago in Bohol as we mark the first People Power Revolution at the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Manila this coming Tuesday. Rolando Butalid G. was the incumbent governor at that time. His vice –governor was Stephen Bernido. Edgar M. Chatto was the provincial president of the Kabataan Barangay (KB), an ex-oficio member of the Sanggunian Panlalawigan. The incumbent city mayor in Tagbilaran was the late Jose Ma. Rocha and his vice-mayor was Rudolfo Yap. The no. 1 city councilor was Dr. Simplicio Yap Jr. in the Sangguniang Panlungsod together with Atty. Dodong Gonzaga and Dan Lim as among its members. Yes of course, Edi Borja was the city KB president, also an ex-oficio member of the city council.

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In 1986, BGlante was the lead anchor together with Fred Araneta over the morning program Inyong Alagad at Station DYRD. BGlante and Fred Araneta were the lead stars in the local media at that time together with the late Tibbs Bullecer. They are considered as DYRD's triumvirate. BGlante left DYRD months after the EDSA revolution in 1986 when he started with this paper. He re-reunited with the Inyong Alagad program months before the local election last year. Bohol was represented in the Batasang Pambansa, the country's lawmaking body, by Assemblymen David B. Tirol, Ramon Lapez and Eladio I. Chatto. They were fondly called in the media as the TLC (for Tender, Loving, Care). One of the top Boholano officials in the national government at that time was BIR Commissioner Tomas Toledo. We stopped working as a stringer of the DYRD newsroom in October, 1985 and joined the National Media Production Center (NMPC), a conduit of the Office of Media Affairs (OMA) under the Office of the President in Cebu City when the military led by the AFP Vice Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, Minister Juan Ponce Enrile of the national defense and his aide, Lt. Col. Gregorio Honasan of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement-Young Officers Union (RAM-YOU) launched a coup ‘d etat being backed up by the civilians including the religious groups led by Jaime Cardinal Sin against Ferdinand Edralin Marcos, a month after the snap presidential election in 1986.

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NMPC had a provincial office at the Capitol. It was headed by our late ninong Dim Butawan (father of BPI Branch Manager Deo Butawan) while OMA in Bohol was headed by Dionisio Calibo Jr. now the presiding judge of Regional Trial Court of Bohol, Branch 50 based in Loay, Bohol. When the Enrile-Ramos-Honasan coup ‘d etat broke out, we were working as a communications technician at the NMPC regional office in Cebu City which was located right at the premises of the Cebu provincial capitol. Our regional director at that time was Manang Bes dela Cerna, a known media personality in Cebu radio stations before she joined the government. Our job there was simple, man the audio-visual unit of NMPC which was equipped with a roving film player and conduct public film shows in the different municipalities in Southern Cebu.

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Anyway, the Tagbilaran-Cebu route is only served by the famous inter-island vessel, Sweet Heart of Sweet Lines, Inc. which will leave Tagbilaran City every midnight and leaves Cebu for Tagbilaran the following day at noontime. Just like now, the alternate route in going to Cebu is through Tubigon town. When Pres. Ferdinand Marcos presented a group of military rebels in Malacanang in the evening of Feb. 20, 1986 which he identified as members of the so-called RAM-YOU we know that there is already a coup ‘d etat. This was broadcast nationwide. We immediately took the M/S Sweet Heart for Tagbilaran City in the evening of the following day and left our job at the NMPC in Cebu City without further ado.

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POSTSCRIPT: Days after the EDSA revolution, we decided to resume our work as a stringer over the DYRD newsroom. In the later part of 1986, we decided to put a stop of being a bachelor and tied the knot. A year later, Constancio C. Torralba assumed as OIC governor of Bohol succeeding former OIC Gov. Victor de la Serna. We joined the capitol staff of OIC Gov. Torralba. In the 1988 local elections, Torralba got elected as Bohol governor while Atty. Jose V. Torralba became the city mayor of Tagbilaran. It was the time that TCTC was born. It was not the defunct Tagbilaran City Traffic Commission, it was Torralba sa Capitol, Torralba sa City Hall…There's more when we return.