19 years after, Aquino
legend refuses to die
Posted: 0:09 AM (Manila Time) | Aug. 21, 2002
Inquirer News Service

Yearly 'confidential messages'

NINETEEN years after the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr., the legend refuses to die.

Only last week, former president Corazon Aquino received a "confidential" cryptic message written on California hotel stationery.

The mysterious sender claimed knowing "what really happened" on the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport on Aug. 21, 1983, according to the fallen leader's only son, Tarlac Representative Benigno Aquino III.

The congressman said he called up the letter-writer's mobile-phone number but there was no answer.

"Around this time every year, we really get messages like this," Representative Aquino said.

Wednesday marks the 19th death anniversary of his father, then the No. 1 political enemy of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. He was returning from a three-year exile in the United States and was felled by assassin's bullet while being escorted out of the plane by soldiers.

Representative Aquino said the messages came from alleged informants or witnesses to the assassination. The killing sparked massive protests that culminated in the downfall of Marcos in the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

The Aquino family has also been frequently visited by "espiritistas" (mediums), who claim to be in touch with the spirits of the slain hero or his murderers.

"They come to us at any time of the day. Some of them even go into trance," the young Aquino said.

Despite the conviction of a general and 15 other soldiers for the murder in September 1990, he said questions remained as to who really ordered the killing.

The young Aquino said the mystery was not so much what happened on the tarmac but what happened before the killing. No mastermind was identified during the trial.

The congressman, who was only 13 when his father was killed, acknowledged that the difficult part was proving in court Marcos' hand in the murder.

"They were adamant that my dad didn't come home (from exile),'' he recalled.

He said that while there were "middle operators'' who apparently took orders from General Fabian Ver, then the Armed Forces chief of staff, "what happened probably was that Marcos was really ill and he left guidelines" for his military chief to execute.

He said that even though Marcos and Ver were now dead, the entire truth about his father's killing needed to be unraveled for the benefit of the future generations.

He said the Marcoses should apologize for atrocities committed during martial rule.

"They have to admit that they were wrong and truthfully reconcile with the Filipino people," he said.

In Congress, Aquino crosses path with Marcos' daughter Imee who is representative of Ilocos Norte.

"I bear no ill will toward the children because we are only victims of the parents," he said.

"The only difference is that I know (injustice)," he added.