NINOY AQUINO by Jose Alejandrino
Lifted from FB
NINOY AQUINO by Jose Alejandrino
On August 21, 1983 Ninoy Aquino returned from self-exile in the US. He was the sharpest critic of Ferdinand Marcos who allowed him to leave for the US for a bypass heart operation. On the China Airlines plane which brought him back, he told the journalists on board that things could go very quickly once he landed at the Manila International Airport. He had a premonition he was going to die and clutched his rosary beads as he was picked up by soldiers and escorted out of the plane. Before he got to the last step of the stairway down the plane, he was shot from behind with a .22 calibre pistol mounted with a silencer by his escort Sgt. Rogelio Moreno. Then other gunshots followed. Ninoy was dragged on the tarmac not far from Rolando Galman who was lying dead. Rogelio then handed the .22 pistol to an officer waiting inside a car with tinted windows.
This was all recorded on videotape. The CIA got hold of the tape but never released it because there would be too many questions asked as to who took it and how the CIA had obtained it. Gen. David Frankel saw the videotape and told me how the execution was carried out. He told me Marcos had nothing to do with the assassination and that it was part of a family feud inside the Aquino-Cojuangco family. It was no secret that Ninoy and Danding did not get along together and that Danding, a capitalist, did not share Ninoy’s socialist views. Nor for that matter did Cory. She once told me that Ninoy had married her for her money which he needed to advance his political career. It was also no secret that Ninoy had presidential ambitions. When I told Cory what the CIA knew, Cory said, “Let sleeping dogs lie.” I had the impression she already knew and that is why she did not pursue the investigation of Ninoy’s death. It could open a can of worms. Besides, blaming Marcos was politically convenient. It led to EDSA and the election of Cory, and later, her son Noynoy to the presidency. Behind Cory’s concern was always the preservation of Luisita Hacienda. When GMA and CJ Renato Corona wanted to dismantle it, they both paid the price when Noynoy was president.
Ninoy, Gen. Frankel told me, was forced to come home because Harvard didn’t renew his fellowship. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation submitted a report to Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis that Ninoy was organizing communist cells in Boston. Dukakis passed the report to Harvard and Ninoy’s fellowship was terminated.
All these I wrote in my memoirs published in the US in 2009.
Was Ninoy a hero? If we go by the definition of a hero who is admired for his courage, his outstanding achievements, and noble qualities, Ninoy falls short. No doubt he had courage but what were his outstanding achievements as a Tarlac governor and as a senator? Certainly he was intelligent and an excellent orator, and probably did love his country in his own way, but is that enough to qualify him as a hero?
I prefer to see him as a martyr, as someone who was killed for his political beliefs. Ninoy was quoted as saying the Filipino is worth dying for. No doubt Ninoy was ready to die for the Filipino in pursuit of a political ambition but that to me is the mark of a martyr more than a hero. Compare Rízal to Ninoy. Rizal had no political ambition. In fact he turned down Andres Bonifacio’s invitation to lead the revolution when my granduncle Pio Valenzuela y Alejandrino went to see him in Dapitan to extend Bonifacio’s invitation. Rizal placed his country’s interest above his personal interest. Did Ninoy do this? Or did he place his personal interest above his country’s interest? If you are a communist or socialist, you would of course argue Ninoy was a hero. But if you are neither one nor the other, you would not. It all depends on where you are coming from. Still, Ninoy died at the hands of someone because of his political beliefs. And that is worthy of any person, regardless of whether we agree with those beliefs or not. The real question we should ask, however, is was his sacrifice in vain? To answer that question, we have to look at the record of achievements of the Cory and Noynoy presidencies.
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