Update (5.30 pm)

The sun is setting over Bataan, Brother Eddie is saying mass at the Ninoy statue, and the demonstrators who were dispersed at noon at the rally at the Edsa shrine have only just reached the river:

Feb. 24, 05:09pm

Rallyists blocked in Mandaluyong
MANDALUYONG CITY--The anti-Arroyo protesters that were dispersed earlier today from the People Power Monument have now reached the Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge.
After being dispersed from the People Power Monument, the rallyists went to Boni Serrano and then Wilson Street in San Juan, which is an opposition bailiwick.
The protesters are now trying to make their way to Ayala Avenue, to converge with the marchers led by former president Corazon Aquino, according to TV reports.
Anti-riot police, however, are trying to prevent the rallyists from proceeding. The government has said that no street rallies will be permitted.

It’s been a long day. The weather has been beautiful—the confetti rained down on the Ayala march like snow from a cloudless sky. It was funny to see how everyone’s face lit up as the paper floated gently down from the offices – it gave the march a childlike feel.

I approached the march from Glorietta and the first thing I saw was the police cordoning off a group of about 1,500 demonstrators. Since this group was obviously not part of the main march (which was coming the opposite way down Ayala Avenue) the police seemed pretty determined to keep it hemmed in and there were about 400 SWAT police blocking the way to Ninoy.

From there I walked down Ayala, saw mlq and a couple of other people I knew, and met Frayed and her friends at Ayala and Rufino. How we would have managed this without cellphones I have no idea. From there we returned to Ninoy's statue to hear Cory, see the laying of the wreath and hear the start of the rosary. That dampened any remaining ardor so we wandered back to the car. As we left, the cordoned off group was starting to make a racket, so whether they managed to break free of their shackles I don’t know.

It was a pretty mixed bunch on old Ayala Avenue I must say. Winner Foundation was well represented, but so was RAM ostentatiously brandishing baliktad flags with the red at the top, which frayed tells me is a sign of sedition. There were religious types like Brother Eddie, some poor people, office workers, senior citizens, FPJ supporters, trapos (Drilon, Binay), quite a few curious foreigners, bloggers – all political life was there.

That’s all – gotta run for a well earned beer.

Comments

[Skunkeye]

I appreciate your first-hand coverage.
The events in Manila are not quite front-page here - CNN has also buried it behind other stories and hasn't reported anything substantial. Today The Washington Post ran a story about the failure of democracy in the Philippines - which is a bit much, I think, considering the state of things in other SE Asian countries. The article did not mention much about a coup.

see link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/24/AR2006022400184.html

And the current US administration seems just about as corrupt as any of the Filipino political clans.

The Philippines are somewhat "hot" right now after the mudslide (which happened to occur on a slow news day here) - last Monday Martha Stewart ran a rather clumsy Filipino cooking segment (um, adobo of course), replete with a folk dancing demonstration!
anyways, keep us posted - we're not what is going on here either!