it was impossible not to weep as i watched the retelling of ninoy’s life and death by the docu Beyond Conspiracy: 25 Years after the Aquino Assassination courtesy of the Foundation for WorldWide People Power. impossible because i so remember those days.

i was 23 when marcos declared martial law and i remember ninoy aquino before that, the chubby bespectacled senator who was the fastest talker and the most fearless and most ardent critic of marcos. and i remember those news photos of a thin Ninoy through the military trial and the hunger strike,and that one time he was allowed to speak out on television — when the streets of manila were empty because everyone was indoors watching and listening to the last man standing, painfully lean, and, to me, painfully sexy, in his hunger for justice and freedom.

i remember feeling abandoned when his heart failed and he flew off to america for treatment, and three years later exulting when he announced that he was coming home, tie a yellow ribbon ’round that ol’ tree, it’s been three long years, do you still want me… and i remember that fateful sunday afternoon, how my heart sank when i heard that he had been killed, and how i wept for cory and kids and country.

but the second half of the docu left me cold. i suppose okey lang for young viewers hearing the story of the assassination and the trials and witnesses for the first time; otherwise it told me nothing new, except maybe for some trivia. to my mind the big question, i mean, the big story, is no longer who ordered ninoy killed, rather, why aren’t these masterminds in jail? because blood, or maybe even just class, is thicker?

hindi rin lang ito kayang itanong o sagutin, sana iba na lang ang tinutukan, such as ninoy’s politics, on which subject there is ample material. then maybe the kids’ iamninoy campaign would have some ground to stand on other than faithhopeandcharity.

in his goodbye statement to the house of representatives of the u.s. congress in 1983 ninoy spoke of a “program of action” that he drafted during his three years in exile which he intendedto take up with the leaders of the non-violent opposition at home, hopefully to end the bloodletting and set the economy right. nothing has been heard about this program of action since. but the book Testament from a Prison Cell published by cory in 1984 has a wealth of information about the man and his politics.

TESTAMENT Foreword:

This book is Ninoy’s ‘closing statement’ before Military Commission No. 2.

Ninoy started working on his ‘closing statement’ in 1975 and he finished it in 1977. Although many believed that the charges against him were fabricated, still Ninoy believed he should present his side to the Filipino people.

Ninoy was determined that this book should reach his people and so my children and I smuggled out the manuscript, page by page. He instructed me to furnish the international press with copies of his statement. Perhaps he had a premonition. As it turned out, the Military Commission prevented Ninoy from reading his ‘closing statement’ by keeping him locked up in his cell during the last vital eight hours of the proceedings.

I cannot help but point out the striking parallel between Ninoy’s closing statement before the tribunal that condemned him to death on November 25, 1977, and his ‘arrival statement’ for August 21, 1983. In both instances Ninoy was stopped from reading them.

Allow me then to present to you, the Filipino people, Ninoy’s testament.

CORY AQUINO

coming next are selected excerpts from Testament:

Three Generations… “I am Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., 45, Filipino, married, father of five…”

The Filipino As Dissident… “In 1954, when I first established contact with Huk Supremo Luis M. Taruc…”

A Christian Democratic Vision… “As I delved deeper into the underlying reasons behind our chronic insurgency problem…”

Manifesto For A Free Society… “In the most unequivocal terms, not a few communist leaders have told me that there is no room for politicians in the CPP/NPA set-up…”

‘FAITH IN OUR PEOPLE AND FAITH IN GOD’

August 21, 1983
Manila International Airport

I have returned on my free will to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedoms through nonviolence.

I seek no confrontation. I only pray and will strive for a genuine national reconciliation founded on justice.

I am prepared for the worst, and have decided against the advice of my mother, my spiritual adviser, many of my tested friends and a few of my most valued political mentors.

A death sentence awaits me. Two more subversion charges, calling for death penalties, have been since I left three years ago and are now pending with the courts.

I could have opted to seek political asylum in America, but I feel it is my duty, as it is the duty of every Filipino, to suffer with his people especially in time of crisis.

I never sought nor have I been given any assurances or promise of leniency by the regime. I return voluntarily armed only with a clear conscience and fortified in the faith that in the end justice will emerge triumphant.

According to Ghandi, the WILLING sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man.

Three years ago when I left for an emergency heart bypass operation, I hoped and prayed that the rights and freedoms of our people would soon be restored, that living conditions would improve and that bloodletting would stop.

Rather than move forward, we have moved backward. The killings have increased, the economy has taken a turn for the worse, and the human rights situation has deteriorated.

During the martial law period, the Supreme Court heard petitions for Habeas Corpus. It is most ironic, after martial law has allegedly been lifted, that the Supreme Court last April ruled it can no longer entertain petitions for Habeas Corpus for persons detained under a Presidential Commitment Order, which covers all so-called national security cases and which under present circumstances can cover almost anything.

The country is far advanced in her times of trouble. Economic, social and political problems bedevil the Filipino. These problems may be surmounted if we are united. But we can be united only if all the rights and freedoms enjoyed before September 21, 1972 are fully restored.

The Filipino asks for nothing more, but will surely accept nothing less than all the rights and freedom guaranteed by the 1935 Constitution-the most sacred legacies from the Founding Fathers.

Yes, the Filipino is patient, but there is a limit to his patience. Must we wait until that patience snaps?
The nation-wide rebellion is escalating and threatens to explode into a bloody revolution. There is a growing cadre of young Filipinos who have finally come to realize that freedom is never granted, it is taken. Must we relive the agonies and the blood-letting of the past that brought forth our Republic, or can we sit down as brothers and sisters and discuss our differences with reason and goodwill?
I have often wondered how many disputes could have been settled easily had the disputants only dared to define their terms.

So as to leave no room for misunderstanding, I shall define my terms:

1. Six years ago, I was sentenced to die before a firing squad by a Military Tribunal whose jurisdiction I steadfastly refused to recognize. It is now time for the regime to decide. Order my IMMEDIATE EXECUTION OR SET ME FREE.

I was sentenced to die for allegedly being the leading communist leader. I am not a communist, never was and never will be.

2. National reconciliation and unity can be achieved but only with justice, including justice for our Muslim and Ifugao brothers. There can be no deal with a Dictator. No compromise with Dictatorship.

3. In a revolution there can really be no victors, only victims. We do not have to destroy in order to build.

4. Subversion stems from economic, social and political causes and will not be solved by purely military solutions; it can be curbed not with ever increasing repression but with a more equitable distribution of wealth, more democracy and more freedom, and

5. For the economy to get going once again, the workingman must be given his just and rightful share of his labor, and to the owners and managers must be restored the hope where there is so much uncertainty if not despair.

On one of the long corridors of Harvard University are carved in granite the words of Archibald Macleish:

“How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith.”

I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer – faith in our people and faith in God.

BENIGNO S. AQUINO, JR.

‘CAN THE KILLERS OF TODAY BE THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW?

Introduction to oral statement of Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. before the Subcommittee of Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C., June 23, 1983. For full text of statement, see A Testimony by Ninoy, Human Society, No. 21.

Mr. Chairman, members of this august committee:

Please accept my profoundest gratitude for giving me this timely opportunity to testify before your committee on matters vital to the interests of our two countries on the eve of my return to the Philippines and to the prison cell that awaits me.

My family and I will forever cherish the hospitality of your government and your people that has made our exile not only bearable but an experience we shall long recall.

As you probably know, I was given a medical furlough on May 8, 1980 and was allowed to proceed to the United States for an emergency heart bypass operation by the Marcos regime while awaiting final action on the death sentence imposed upon me by a kangaroo court masquerading as a military tribunal.

Since my arrival in America, the Marcos regime has filed two more subversion charges against me, one in late 1980 and another in late 1982. The City Fiscal of Quezon City where the cases were filed announced last week-after the wire services carried the story that I have decided to return-that I would be served arrest warrants the moment I step on Philippine soil and that I would be immediately arrested.

I am returning to the Philippines because it has never been my intention to seek political asylum here … or elsewhere. When I left, I promised I shall return.

Luckily, I survived the heart bypass operation and I have regained the health I lost during seven years and seven months in solitary confinement. I have completed the research work I set out to do. I will never be as ready to return to the trenches.

The Filipino today is facing an ever deepening crisis. Never in history has he suffered from greater political and economic wants. It is time for every Filipino abroad who loves his country to return home, suffer with his people and help in the quest for that elusive national unity which is imperative for the nation’s survival.

During my stay in America, I was privileged to enjoy fellowships in two of the most prestigious academic institutions of this great Republic: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to search for answers to the many problems besetting the Philippines.

Shortly after I arrived in Boston in the fall of 1980, I was visited by some of my countrymen and asked to join the ranks of the freedom fighters who have chosen the path of revolution to liberate our people. I considered their appeal very seriously and I re-directed my academic research to a close scrutiny of the advantages and disadvantages of the use of force and violence to attain national liberation.

To gather empirical data and first hand information, I travelled to the Middle East, to Southeast Asia and to Central America. I interviewed the leaders of the most recent successful revolutions and talked to both the victors and the vanquished, the relatives of the victims and the survivors. I have concluded that revolution and violence exact the highest price in terms of human values and human lives in the struggle for freedom. In the end there are really no victors, only victims.

It is true, one can fight fire with fire, but the late Ramon Magsaysay, one of the most revered presidents of our country, proved that it is more effective to fight fire with water. Communism may be defeated not by adopting the brutal methods of the enemy and thereby lose your moral imperative, but by reinforcing human rights. One can fight hatred with a greater hatred, but Magsaysay proved that it is more effective to fight hatred with greater Christian love. “Those who have less in life should have more in law” was one of his battle-cries.

I have decided to pursue my freedom struggle through the path of non-violence, fully cognizant that this may be the longer and the more arduous road. If I have made the wrong decision, only I, and maybe, my family will suffer. Only I will suffer solitary confinement once again, and possibly death by firing squad.

But by taking the road of revolution, how many lives, other than mine, will have to be sacrificed? We are already the worst economic performer in Southeast Asia. Revolution would set us back thirty or even forty years and we may well end up the basket case in our region.

I have chosen to return to the silence of my solitary confinement and from there to work for a peaceful solution to our problems rather than come back triumphant to the blare of trumpets and cymbals seeking to drown the wailings and sad lamentations of mothers whose sons and daughters have been sacrificed to the gods of revolution. Can the killers of today be the leaders of tomorrow? Must we destroy in order to build? I refuse to believe that it is necessary for a nation to build its foundations on the bones of its young.

Last June 12, 1983, the leaders of the non-violent opposition met and signed in Manila a document entitled “A Formula for National Reconciliation.”

They appealed to the armed opposition in the hills “to give democratic processes a last chance by joining in the forthcoming elections and to demand that they be free, orderly and honest.”

To bring about peaceful reconciliation, the leaders urged Marcos to grant general amnesty to all political offenders; repeal the Anti-Subversion Law; abolish the infamous Presidential Commitment Order; and discontinue the practice of military interference in purely civilian affairs.

These same leaders warned that “armed conflict in our country is fast approaching the point of no return. Dissenters and dissidents, many of them reluctant rebels, are being driven farther and farther from the ways of peace and reconciliation.”

The formula for national reconciliation is their final effort to stave off what they perceive to be an imminent revolution.

Upon my return, I intend to join these leaders in their appeal and take up with them the program of action I drafted during my three years in exile.

Buffeted by natural and unnatural calamities. the Philippines has carded the worst economic performance among the five-nation ASEAN grouping last year. What is more tragic, in the midst of all these miseries, Filipinos are still killing each other in ever increasing numbers. This blood-letting must stop. This madness must cease.

I think it can be stopped if all Filipinos can get together as true brothers and sisters and search for a healing solution in a genuine spirit of give and take. We must transcend our petty selves, forget our hurts and bitterness, cast aside thoughts of revenge and let sanity, reason, and above all, love of country prevail during our gravest hour.

BENIGNO AQUINO, JR.

‘THE KEY IS SINCERITY’

San Francisco

Senator Eva Estrada Kalaw
Personal/Confidential

Dear Prima:

I was very touched by your concern, but I am seriously considering returning to our country soon. I think my usefulness in America has come to an end. And I think, I’ll be able to help the opposition from there more effectively than from the safety of America.

I am very worried by the seeming growth of the CPP/NPA. I do not know if Marcos and the defense establishment share my anxiety because I am afraid they are not privy to the information that have come my way. I sincerely believe that if current trends are not reversed, by 1985 the CPP/NPA will be a real threat to our Republic and way of life.

Doy and I discussed a possible dialogue with Marcos. Tragically, as I pointed out, only Marcos today can peacefully return our country to the long road back to democracy. Should Marcos die tomorrow, there won’t be anyone in our country with enough power and/or legitimacy to restructure our democratic form of government and/or re-establish the necessary institutions to restore democracy.

While I do not believe that Marcos today is in full control of the government I still believe he has enough residual power to restore certain institutions and set certain acts in motion that could hasten our return to democracy. I agree with the analysis of many Filipino watchers that Imelda is now a power in her own right. That Danding and Enrile through their control of the Coconut bank are powers to reckon with. And that Marcos today has to be careful lest alienating any of these power blocs may destabilize his regime. However, Marcos has enough residual power to influence major events.

If Marcos is sincere in holding clean and honest elections, I think we can get clean and honest elections in a majority of regions. Admittedly, his orders may be disregarded by certain local and even regional bosses, but I think with our opposition’s help, we can still manage a clean election and there will be enough people in the bureaucracy who will follow him. The key is sincerity. Tragically, I think the only power that can make Marcos sit up and listen is the US government-given the circumstances. We should therefore do everything in our power to enlist the help of the US government through Armacost and our friends in Washington. We have been doing our thing here, and you must now do your thing there. On our own, Marcos will never dialogue with the opposition sincerely. He must be pressured by a credible force that can really do him great harm. Other than the communist superpower, only the US can fill this bill.

If the US will refuse to help in this effort, I see the following scenario unfolding:

1. Marcos dies and Imelda will take over with the consent of all present actors. Divided they may fall, so they will first close in the wagons. Meanwhile, all actors will jockey for vantage position. Tragically, he who holds the gun will have a tremendous advantage. The armed forces under Ver will therefore be the major power contender. I think Ver will first try to consolidate his hold on the military before he makes his move. He will therefore strike a deal with Imelda and will prop her up till he is good and ready. Imelda will be a willing partner to the military. In time, the military will ease out Imelda and make her the scapegoat for everything that has gone wrong. Hence, we are definitely looking down on an inevitable Junta.

I believe, Danding and Enrile when Marcos dies will be content to play along so long as they are not removed from their funding source. In the event a Batasan election is called, Danding and Enrile will fund their own candidates to the Batasan in the hopes of controlling the same. But this assumes that there will be elections. We may not get to this stage and I do not see Danding and Enrile pulling a coup against Imelda and Ver. Of course you may argue: suppose Ver sides with Danding and Enrile? I do not see this possibility because Ver knows Imelda will need him more than the two guys. Hence, he’ll side with Imelda. Furthermore, Ver knows that Enrile moved heaven and earth to get Eddie Ramos the four star CS job. So there is really nothing for Ver to side with Danding and Enrile. And I submit: Ver today has effectively jockeyed his loyal followers to key positions and is the third most powerful man in the Republic.

2. The moment Imelda is eased out, the CPP/NPA will benefit from the massive disenchantment of our people. As in Nicaragua, the middle class will radicalize towards the left not right and overnight the CPP/NPA will be awash with funds and supplies. This will bring us to the brink of a civil war not unlike what is now unfolding in El Salvador. It is possible that the US might intervene and force our military junta to take in a Filipino Duarte. But I won’t bank on this. The US will panic once a junta is established and chances are it will side with the junta in an effort to prevent a greater menace: a communist takeover.

3. This scenario can be prevented if we can elect a truly representative Congress that can act with legitimacy should anything happen to FM. In a vacuum, the military will surely step into the breech.

4. Will Marcos see the logic of this proposal? No, if we do not succeed in getting super power support. FM sat down with the MNLF only when Kaddafy gave the MNLF full support. FM will soon be taking the CPP/NPA seriously the moment he is convinced the USSR is behind the latest shipment of arms. On their own, FM knows he can keep the CPP/NPA in check. But the entry of foreign supplies changes the power balance. In the same token, FM will take our moderate opposition seriously only if the US pressures him towards true democratic reforms. And it should be presented in such a way that he will adopt our proposal for his own good if not survival.

I realize many will criticize us for even thinking of possibly opening a dialogue with Marcos. Some will call this an imperialist plot designed and conceived in Washington. But if we are to prevent a communist takeover, we must help Marcos inspite of himself find a peaceful solution to our crisis.
I am sure the CPP/NPA will be most unhappy by the holding of a clean and honest election because this will delay their timetable.

Clean and honest elections will provide fresh hope to people almost desperate. If we are to prevent the rapid radicalization of our people to the left we must present them with a credible hope and that can be accomplished if we can work out a peaceful transition scenario with the top actor: Marcos.

Only a hopeless people will turn to communism. We must therefore exert every effort to convince Marcos that a genuine return to democracy is the only sure path out of the enveloping red tide.

Only more democracy can defeat communism. Increased repression will only hasten the communist victory.

While we are enlisting the help of Armacost, some of our people should start contacting our former colleagues who have gone to Marcos: i.e., Maning Pelaez, Enchong Sumulong, Lawrence Teves, Landring Almendras, even Leonie Perez and Manong Joe Roy. I think someone should try to get all the senators together and discuss this developing crisis. Collectively I think the last elected senators of the Republic can still bring Marcos to his senses. Someone should contact Turing Tolentino, Liwag, Maning Pelaez and Joe Roy. If we can convince these people of the urgency of the situation, together they can secretly call all the rest of the senators. I think, to propose a clean and honest election to Marcos will not be taken as subversion by the first couple. But only if we can convince our former colleagues on the gravity of the situation can they in turn convince the First Couple.

It has been suggested that maybe we should wait for the proper time: When the insurgents have already demonstrated their capabilities for major destruction. However, if we wait too long, events might overtake us and I am afraid when the present trickle of bloodshed becomes a flood, violence would develop a momentum of its own and we will all be sucked into the vortex. I pray to God this won’t happen.

I think Marcos today is the least of our problem. Soon, maybe sooner than later, Marcos will go. It is indeed ironical that it will be the greatest tragedy if Marcos dies tomorrow without filling in the present vacuum, without a credible institution. We must exert every effort to create this credible institution fast-a genuinely elected Congress that will truly represent our people so that in the event of Marcos’ passing, it will be able to carry out a peaceful transfer of power.

Am I indulging in an impossible dream? I hope not, for the sake of our people. Every bloody revolution has inevitably consumed its own children. What will be our future if the killers of today will become our leaders tomorrow? The lessons of Iran and Nicaragua are too fresh to be forgotten.

NINOY