SKIRMISHER

Yesterday, former Senator Agapito “Butz” Aquino (of the August Twenty One Movement fame) in an interview made a short remark that seems he has given up all hope on the capture of his Kuya Ninoy’s killers.

For the past 23 years, the people close to Benigno “Ninoy” Simeón Aquino, Jr. (27 November 1932 - 21 August 1983) haven’t been very vocal about the assassination. Well, they were, but not anymore. Just compare the sentiments and indignation of Kaye Torres, daughter of murdered actress Nida Blanca, with that of the Aquinos/Cojuangcos; just by observing Torres’ endless campaign to determine who killed her mother, it makes Ninoy’s family members seem impassive.

Either the Aquinos have given up all hope on the case, or they have been lying between their teeth.

The generic explanation for the assassination is that since Ninoy was the number one opposition man against former strongman Ferdinand Marcos, then there’s no need to explain the obvious. However, Philippine history has proven that the dictator was perhaps the smartest leader our country ever had. Thus, it is unlikely for Macoy to annihilate his arch-nemesis since accusing fingers would be naturally pointed at him.

Not even Apo Marcos‘ ”charismatic” wife Imelda Marcos could pull something shrewdly devious; Mrs. Marcos was too busy gaining wealth, power, glory, and shoes and leather bags to have herself involved in annihilating her husband’s enemies. And to her credit, she’s too cultured to commit such an atrocity.

Neither an uncultured person in Gen. Fabián Ver could pull such a stunt. The general loved Marcos like a brother (they have been playmates since childhood); he’d never do anything obtuse to put the dictator in peril. But the weight of Ver’s involvement in one of modern history’s most infamous assassinations should still not be dismissed.

So, the million-dollar question is this: who killed Ninoy Aquino?

Prior to the chaotic event of 21 August 1983, Ninoy was on self-exile in the United States. The events in the Philippines grew dramatically unstable during his years of absence from the country: the shrinking of the nation’s coffers by Marcos’s dictators worsened — it can be likened to a pack of rabid wolves fighting over a carcass of an emaciated lamb; the height of the communist insurgency kept on rising like an unchecked fever; the morale of the Filipinos over the political atmosphere was getting extremely low. But the potential catastrophe would have dwarfed all that — the impending death of Marcos.

At that time, Malacañang was keeping behind closed doors the truth about Apo Marcos’s failing health. Marcos was suffering from lupus erythematosus, a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disorder which affects the skin, joints, kidneys, and other organs (the malady focused on Marcos’s kidneys, and one of its complications somehow made Marcos to almost look like a wolf!). Aquino’s group wasn’t privy to this information, but they were nevertheless aware that Marcos was to undergo medical treatment. And many people who knew about this clandestine hospitalization believed that Marcos was about to die. In view of the foregoing, Aquino thought it was the best time for him to seize power from an unavoidable crisis that Marcos’s sudden death might bring.

Marcos and his cronies — not excluding Old Glory, The Stars and Stripes, The World’s Greatest Superpower, The Evil Empire, The Whore of Whores which is officially known as the notorious United States of America — knew that it was inevitable for Ninoy to become the Philippines’ next leader if Marcos wasn’t around, for Ninoy had the x factor, the plus ultra, to lead a nation which was still on the threshold of putting democracy in its proper order.

Ninoy has been a man-on-the-go ever since his juvenile stint at the old Manila Times (of the eminent journalist Joaquín “Chino” Roces) as a Korean War correspondent at an amazing age of 17. At 22 years of age, he was elected as the Mayor of his hometown of Concepción, Tarlac, the youngest alcalde in the history of the Philippines. Two years later, he was unseated by the Supreme Court when he was found to be 17 days short of the required age of 23 to become a town político (already, he was controversial).

In 10 December 1957, he became a charter member of the board of directors of the Tarlac Development Corporation, a new company set up by his father-in-law – and his wife Corazón “Cory” Aquino’s dad – the late José “Don Pepe” Cojuangco of the grotesquely wealthy Cojuangco clan. During his stint with Don Pepe’s company, he has involved himself in transactions which acquired for the senior Cojuangco more assets. And during his 12-year public service as Tarlac’s mayor, vice-governor, and governor, he has had numerous meetings and dialogues with the legendary Hukbo ng Bayan Laban Sa Hapon, the predecessor of the armed Left Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP). He helped repel the rebel group. He was involved in the surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc. This only shows that during his active youth, he has endeared himself to both the capitalists and the peasants.

The Aquinos of Tarlac were themselves hacienderos, and were one of the wealthiest families of Central Luzón. But Ninoy’s eyes were opened more when he himself went to the frontlines of his in-laws’ haciendas to personally oversee the production and management of the latter’s various agricultural businesses and activities. And his duties brought him nearer to the realities of an age-old existing social injustice. This awakening was enforced to him during his talks with the Huks.

This, I believe, may have contributed to his communist leanings that some political observers and scholars have conjectured for many years.

But this Ninoy is an enigma. Several times he had boasted about his connections with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Nick Joaquín even wrote that Ninoy “observed training methods in American spy schools and did a report on them for (President Ramón) Magsaysay.”

The CIA denies such “connections,” but one couldn’t find any logical reason for Ninoy to lie about it; although we may find some blemishes in the characters of many national heroes nowadays, Ninoy was not known as an egocentric. What remains unclear is Ninoy’s connections with the Left.

Let us go back further in time to yet another 21 August mystery, the infamous “Plaza Miranda Massacre” which occurred exactly 12 years before Ninoy was gunned down. This may (or may not) prove Ninoy’s connections with the CCP. During the proclamation rally of the Liberal Party at Plaza Miranda, Quiapò, Manila, wherein Ninoy was a senatorial candidate, unidentified persons hurled two grenades on the stage, killing eight persons and injuring 120 others. Among those wounded were a who’s who in Philippine politics at that time: Senator Gerardo Roxas and his wife, Sergio Osmeña, Jr., Laguna Governor Felicísimo San Luis, Congressman Ramón Bagatsing, and six senatorial candidates — John Osmeña, Senator Jovito Salonga, Senator Eva Estrada Kálaw, Congressman Ramón Mitra, Salipada Pendatún, and ex-solon Edgardo Ilarde.

But the most pitiful victim of this monstrosity was an innocent 10-year-old cigarette vendor — the child’s body was among those mutilated in the blasts.

A few hours later, Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus.

Ninoy was supposed to be included in that carnage. But in a suspicious twist of fate, he arrived late, thus saving his life. Later on, he claimed that he had received an anonymous phone call warning him of the attack. There are rumors prevailing today that it was the Maoist-Leninist armed group New People’s Army (NPA) who forewarned Ninoy of the grenade attacks. But it couldn’t be determined if it was them who threw it. In Salonga’s recent book, “The Intangibles That Make A Nation Great,” the former senator (who was left a bloody mass at the Plaza Miranda Massacre) accused José Marí Sison, one of the founders of the Maoist-Leninist NPA, as the mastermind behind the massacre. Sison’s armed communist group may have the notoriety of purging its own cadres who are suspected as military spies, but hurting innocent civilians is the last thing they’d ever do. Otherwise, their cause would have been meaningless.

Up to this day, Sison denied involvement in the massacre. Sison in turn have been accusing the Marcos regime of the massacre all these years.

But it couldn’t have been Marcos, although he’s the obvious culprit. Again, Macoy is too smart to pull a stunt like that. He knew that if he did such an atrocity, who will the people blame? Marcos had written several scholarly books trying to sell his ideas, including his “New Society” concept, even to the mainstream Filipino psyche which, unfortunately, couldn’t differentiate politics from galunggóng. To liquidate his political enemies in front of the public eye was to be a careless maneuver which he wouldn’t dare do, of course. Besides, killing Aquino wouldn’t even be the last thing he’d do. The Ilocano strongman would have rather seen the Tarlac icon rot in jail than have him assassinated, not because their “brothers” in UP Dilimán’s Upsilon Sigma Phi, but because Marcos was avoiding Ninoy to die a “martyr’s death.” Remember that on 25 November 1977, Aquino was “found guilty” by the government-controlled Military Commission No. 2 on the charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms, and subversion, and he was sentenced to die by firing squad. But this was not meted out.

And remember the attempts made by Mrs. Marcos to personally convince Aquino not to come home from his exile due to the threats to his life? The Marcoses already had an idea on what’s going to happen, and they’re afraid that their political careers will be dealt with severely if something bad happens to the bespectacled oppositionist.

The answer to who’s the mastermind could have only come from Rolando Galmán, the suspected assassin. But seconds after Ninoy was shot, the assassin’s life was snuffed away from him, too.

Journalist Antonio C. Abaya of the Manila Standard made the following observation:

“Some nine hours after Ninoy’s assassination, President Marcos announced that Galmán had been hired by the communists to kill Ninoy, but he was believed by no one. That Macoy was telling an obvious lie merely reinforced public perception that the assassination had been masterminded by someone in or close to Malacañang.

“The forensic evidence submitted to the trial court established that the trajectory of the fatal bullet was “forward, downward and medially”, the bullet entering Aquino’s skull near his left ear and exiting at his chin. This was consistent with the gun being fired at Aquino by someone behind him who was at a higher plane than he was, such as someone who was one or two steps behind him on a downward flight of stairs.

“Since they were of similar height, if Galmán had indeed shot Aquino at ground level, as claimed by Marcos and his military, Galmán would have been jumping up in the air, or holding his revolver above his own head, at the moment that the shot was fired. A ridiculous firing position for anyone, especially a cold-blooded assassin.

“So there is absolutely no doubt that Aquino was shot by one of his military escorts as he was being led down the stairway. Galmán was shot as the fall guy so that Marcos would have his “communist” hit man to blame for the dastardly deed. And Galmán was shot, not once like Ninoy with a pistol, but several times with assault rifles. They really wanted to make sure that Galmán was daid. Dead men tell no tales.”

But it couldn’t be Ninoy’s military escorts. Otherwise, the numerous journalists who were with him on the plane would have seen them. And like I mentioned earlier, Ver would have never put Marcos in a dilemma by ordering his men to kill Ninoy.

There have been cautious whispers in historiography circles that the assassins could have been no one else but the CIA.

A few years ago, I was able to speak to a prominent scholar and journalist regarding this matter. The journalist relayed to me that years ago he had a small talk with foreign journalists, and he lambasted the Marcos authoritarian rule in front of them, accusing the dictator of Ninoy’s murder. The foreign media laughed at his accusations, telling him that from a foreign point-of-view, it would have been pretty stupid for a President to kill his arch-nemesis.

Therefore, as the Filipino people were heaping accusations at the hapless President Marcos, the foreign press thought it was a tomato-throwing spectacle.

There were even rumors that Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr., Cory’s estranged cousin and Marcos’s close friend, was behind the assassination. Many people have seen his car in the airport’s premises during Ninoy’s death. There could be some basis here. According to some scholars, Danding, believe it or not, may have had some connections with the CIA, regardless of his corporate life. He could even be a CIA agent himself for all we know. And what better candidate to be a CIA agent, especially for a man who has American blood (Danding’s mom is a Murphy).

And to make the plot spicier, there were even reports that Galmán was already a dead man even before Ninoy was shot! Rumor has it that Galmán’s corpse was brought at the airport prior to Ninoy’s arrival.

But what is clear is that Ninoy was murdered by the CIA, the same body that murdered the Latino hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara, to name a few. And the CIA are the same perpetrators behind the Plaza Miranda Massacre, as well as other atrocities throughout the world. All in the name of liberal democracy, US style.

Remember that ever since the United States invaded our islands in 1898, and gave us a fabricated independence in 1946, they have had clandestine control over us. The US had had enough of Marcos, and they thought of discrediting him. Why not use his nemesis Ninoy to better rub him off? Besides, the CIA must have gathered evidence that Ninoy was indeed a communist, or at least a sympathizer. So they deemed it fit for him not to live any longer.

With this, the CIA hit two birds in one stone.

No wonder why Kristina Bernadette “Kris” Aquino had been a rebel against her family (having had indecent liaisons here and there) — she knew that her family knew the killers, but they didn’t pursue the killers with such emotion as to what Torres is doing now to give justice to her mom, the great actress Nida Blanca. Well, this is just a speculation.

With all the distortions done in our nation’s history, I sometimes think if the Filipino is still worth dying for. Especially whenever I hear some wags who say that “Hey, it’s August 21! We have a 30% bonus in our salaries today! Thank goodness they killed Ninoy!”

Stumble it!