Category: ninoy

pNoy, erwin erfe, ninoy’s killers

i thought it was just another house of reps dengvaxia hearing, even if rather star-studded with pNoy himself and butch abad sitting next to da janet garin, and across them the kontrabidas (or is it the other way around) PAO’s persida acosta and erwin erfe and tony leachon.  but i was only half-listening, parang i had heard it all before.

i didn’t realize until after, from news reports, that things had heated up pala.  nagkainitan, with dr. erwin erfe’s forensic expertise questioned again and again.  erfe’s response after was to publicly remind aquino: “I reviewed your dad’s murder.”

Defending his credentials, Erfe noted that he was tapped in 2004 to review the forensic evidence in the assassination of Aquino’s father, slain senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. when his convicted killers sought a re-opening of his murder case before the Supreme Court.

“Noong 2004 po, kinuha po kami ng Public Attorney’s Office para pag-aralan ang assassination ni Senator Ninoy Aquino… Alam po iyun ng dating Presidente,” Erfe told DZMM.

The Aquino camp’s lawyer, former senator Rene Saguisag, had coordinated with PAO experts and presented their findings to the high court, he added.

that night erfe posted on his fb wall:

they humiliated me several times today — Pres Aquino and Cong Lagman. For a moment i thought I was the one under investigation

cryptic, at malaman, ang dating sa akin ng paalala ni erfe kay pNoy that he was part of the 2004 re-investigation of ninoy’s death…  the unsaid being:  meron akong alam…?  it could be just my fertile imagination, but why else would erfe bring up ninoy’s assassination out of the blue, e dengvaxia ang pinag-uusapan.  pNoy as common denominator?

my seniorcit memory bank drew a blank on PAO’s case in behalf of the convicted soldiers in 2004, but in 2009  i blogged on ninoy’s killers.  this was sometime after the release of the jailed soldiers, thanks to president gma’s grant of clemency.  the aquinos were upset because the ex-convicts continued to declare their innocence, point to galman as the culprit, and to danding as the mastermind.

at the time it seemed clear that ninoy was shot sa hagdan pa lang, and given the bullet’s downward trajectory, that the gunman was the soldier behind ninoy.  but now i’m not sure, not after watching this 2003 Saksi segment  NINOY AQUINO Assassination Theories: Did Rolando Galman do it?!  with UP prof jerome bailen who led the PAO team.  the audio is terrible so i transcribed it here.

V.O.  Ayon sa Sandiganbayan… si Constable 1st Class Rogelio Moreno ang napatunayang pumatay kay Ninoy.

Nasa likod ni Ninoy si Moreno nang mabaril ito.  Pero sa pagsisiyasat ni Professor Jerome Bailen, isang forensic expert, mali raw ang interpretasyon ng Agrava Commission na ginamit ng Sandiganbayan para desiyunan ang kaso ng mga sundalo.

Imposible raw na sa kaliwang bahagi ng ulo tatama ang bala kung ang bumaril ay right-handed, tulad ni Moreno.

Ang nakita ni Bailen na posibleng bumaril kay Ninoy ay si Rolando Galman dahil siya ang nasa kaliwa ni Ninoy.

BAILEN:  “Hindi puwedeng si Moreno ang bumaril niyan … it should be from the left.”

VO Imposible rin daw na sa hagdan binaril si Ninoy gaya ng paniniwala ng Agrava Commission dahil kung totoo ito, dapat ay sa harap ng hagdan mismo bumagsak ang katawan ng dating senador.

Natagpuan ang katawan ni Ninoy sa kaliwa ng hagdan, ilang metro ang layo sa hagdanan, na tugma sa sinasabi ng mga sundalo na binaril siya sa tarmac.

Isa pang punto, sa impact daw ng pagsabog ng bala sa ulo ni ninoy, malamang daw na magnum .357 revolver ang ginamit na armas, taliwas sa tingin ng Agrava Board na .38 o .45 caliber pistol ang ginamit.

the davide court, however, refused to re-open the case in 2005, saying that no new evidence was presented by the PAO team.

… we are not moved by petitioners assertion that the forensic evidence may have been manipulated and misinterpreted during the trial of the case. Again, petitioners did not allege concrete facts to support their crass claim. Hence, we find the same to be unfounded and purely speculative.

but check out these videos that raise the galman angle, see / sense why the galman-killed-ninoy school of thought refuses to die.

HISTORY™ (4 of 5) The Assassination of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. 
Who killed Ninoy
Ninoy Aquino Assassination: The Mystery Behind Rolando Galman’s .357 Magnum! 

it would be great to hear it from dr. erfe: why was the PAO team so sure it was rolando galman who shot ninoy?  puwede nga na hindi sa hagdan binaril si ninoy, it just means they went down those stairs pretty fast, or just faster than the prosecution would have us believe.  and the magnum .357 story is so mixed up it makes sense, if you’re trying to hide something.

but but but how does one explain what the crying lady, rebecca quijano, says she saw:  that ninoy was shot on the stairs, by the soldier behind him, which testimony was confirmed by other eyewitnesses and believed by the court.

one theory is, galman was brought in by one faction of the military to kill ninoy sa tarmac, but the soldiers escorting ninoy, from another faction, were given instructions to kill him on the stairs.

posible ba na kinaladkad na lang si ninoy down the rest of the stairs and then some of the way toward the van? habang pinapatay si galman ng iba pang faction?  but then there would be signs of the kaladkaran.  and why ba didn’t they make ninoy sakay in the van right away?  photo-op muna, to show ninoy and his alleged killer galman, and galman’s magnum .357?

the real question is, why is it so unbelievable that galman killed ninoy?  why did the supreme court consider it a “crass claim,” not to be entertained?

actually it’s not galman killing ninoy that’s unbelievable, rather it’s who allegedly set up galman, who allegedly ordered / paid for the assassination.  sabi ng ilang sundalong nakulong, ang salarin daw ay si danding cojuangco, pinsang buo ni cory na number one business crony ni marcos.  ang problema, walang proof against danding.  he has never even had to deny it.  and the courts refuse to hear it.  out of respect ba for cory who refused to believe it?

the aquino children, too, do not believe that danding could have done such a thing, family and all that.  yeah, right.  so defensive for the uncle who allied with the dictator who jailed ninoy for 7 yrs 7 mos.  too bad “family” got in the way of the aquinos, but not in the way of danding?

which brings me back to dr. erfe.  pogi points for him and dr. leachon for being on the PAO side that’s calling out the DOH on conflict of interest; it tells me they’re clean, uninvested in big pharma, or they wouldn’t dare speak out?  i’d like to hear their official report on the alleged dengvaxia-related deaths, undiluted, unedited, uncensored by the PGH and DOH or any of their agencies.

after that, let’s hear from dr. erfe on the ninoy assassination.

Yellows? The truth is Aquino betrayed the followers of Ninoy

MARLEN V. RONQUILLO

The usual political literature says the nation is deeply polarized and two factions are the major players: the pro-Duterte group and the so-called “Yellows.” Ever a doubter of easy generalizations, I tried to look for empirical evidence that the so-called “Yellows” – which means the die-hard followers of Ninoy and Cory Aquino who then transferred their loyalty to the son – really exist.

For evidence, I sought answers to this question. Was the loyalty of the original group that supported Cory and Ninoy carried over into the Aquino 11 administration? Did Mr. Aquino nurture the originals, who then quickly shifted loyalty to the son and namesake of Ninoy? I did a quick check at the major appointments of the president who assumed power in 2010 and the background of these top appointees. Here is what I found out.

For the position of “ Little President,” Mr. Aquino in 2010 selected a not-too-familiar name, Paquito Ochoa. He had the option of naming an Arroyo, a Saguisag, a Binay, a Tañada, a Locsin or a Pimentel. Instead, he selected Mr. Ochoa, a partner in the law firm MOST which stands for Marcos, Ochoa etc.

Ochoa is a law partner of the lawyer-wife of BB Marcos.

Were there ever personalities more loyal to the Aquinos than the surnames mentioned above, the human rights lawyers who have been with Ninoy since his time in prison, named to the Aquino 11 cabinet? Not a single appointee with those surnames served in Mr. Aquino’s cabinet.

The next important appointee after the Marcos law partner Ochoa was Mr. Roxas, who was an investment banker in New York during the Cory years and was forced to come home and join Capiz politics after the death of his brother Dingoy. I spent years covering the efforts to oust Marcos and I never heard the name of Mar Roxas crop up.

The next batch of appointees, the group of Mr. Purisima, were original allies of former President Arroyo. Members of the Hyatt 10 were never prominent in the first Aquino government. Mr. Purisima, if memory serves right, was a son of a former Supreme Court associate justice whose career in the judiciary advanced most during the time of Mr. Marcos.

And the appointee of Mr. Aquino who was really, really close to him was Mr. Naguiat of the PAGCOR. I am from Pampanga and I know all of the Kapampangans who were with Ninoy Aquino from his time in prison to August 1983 and beyond, and I never heard of a Naguiat in that group. From his detention cells and the military stockade, Ninoy smuggled letters to Joe Lingad and Eloy Baluyut to tell them to never lose hope and they never did.

I never think Ninoy wrote to a Pampanga family surnamed Naguiat to tell the family members about his hopes and dreams for the country.

The truth is Mr. Aquino disdained most of the personalities who laid their lives for his father, the fighters who never deserted his father during his long years in prison. Joe Lingad was assassinated by Galman-like assassins at a dusty roadside in San Fernando, Pampanga about two years before Ninoy’s own assassination. Cesar Climaco suffered the same fate in Zamboanga City.

Did Mr. Aquino look back at these sad events (the deaths of Lingad and Climaco were directly related to their loyalty to Ninoy) and asked the Lingad and Climaco kids to serve in his government even at sub-cabinet levels?

No and never.

But the snub and the disdain displayed by Mr. Aquino toward those who suffered like his father was nothing compared to what he and his henchmen did to Mr. Binay.

We all know what they did to Mr. Binay, who was crushing everybody in the polling before he was slimed and maligned and “Hacienda Binay” became the cruel meme that eviscerated his popularity and his presidential dream.

To say that the hatchet men in the Binay demolition job never took orders from the Aquino-Roxas duo is a brazen lie. The tragic sidebar of the demolition job was this: Mr. Arroyo and Mr. Saguisag, part of the originals, trying their damn best to rein in the institutions let loose to demolish Mr. Binay.

Now I can ask this question. What kind of “yellows” are you talking about? The truth is the so-called “Yellows” are more fiction that fact.

Read the succeeding sentences for the final proof and you will weep.

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) head during the time of Mr. Aquino was Max Mejia Jr., right. Now, I will tell you about Mejia Sr.

Max Mejia Sr., was one of the constabulary officers most loyal to Mr. Marcos and Fabian Ver. During the EDSA Revolution, he played a central role in the efforts to stop the EDSA Revolt. During the EDSA Revolt, he led the Ver-Marcos loyalists in bombing the communications tower of the radio stations broadcasting anti-Marcos news.

The son, of course, had nothing to do with the acts of his father.

But this thing is also true. While Mr. Aquino disdained the sons of Ninoy’s assassinated followers, he coddled the son of Max Mejia Sr. You probably saw both the farce and tragedy in Mr. Aquino’s actions. Slamming the Marcoses with Mejia Jr., by his side.

What Peping Cojuangco said during the dying days of the 2016 presidential campaign is true . Mr. Aquino betrayed what Ninoy and Cory stood for.

lying loyalists

marcos loyalist-columnists are declaring the EDSA revolution dead now that their beloved marcos has been buried in the libingan ng mga bayani.  they are also trying very hard to kill the story of ninoy, martyr and hero.  in their addled minds, walang pinag-iba si ninoy kay cory at kay noynoy.  this is such a lie.

joma sison, plaza miranda, ninoy aquino

it was while i was writing marginal notes to the ishmael bernal anti bio, grounding a “dialogue” between bernal and jorge arago (both leftists at some point) in the culture and history of their times, when i found myself forced to deal with senate president jovito salonga’s studied view that it was cpp chairman jose maria sison who had ordered the bombing of plaza miranda in august 1971, and not, as we all had believed, president marcos.

sison has always denied it.  of course.  but salonga was known for rectitude and probity; he would not have charged sison so unequivocally if there had been any doubt in his mind.  and in this light there is no ignoring related questions raised re ninoy aquino who was expected at that miting de avance of the liberal party of which he was secretary-general.  it is said that he was just delayed by a party that he had had to attend; but it is also said that he had been warned to stay away from plaza miranda by a kadre friend, thereby insinuating that ninoy had not only saved only his own skin, but even that he had been complicit in the bombing.

i wondered if that was why ninoy stayed and submitted to arrest in september 1972 instead of going underground or fleeing into exile — he felt that he deserved some punishment for plaza miranda?  perhaps he could have done something to prevent the carnage?  but what if maybe, if there had been a warning, it had come too late to warn anyone else?  more recently, as i was reading up on the affair and writing this blogpost in my head, i wondered if the discovery that sison was responsible for plaza miranda may have affected the way that senator salonga had felt about ninoy, given the latter’s admitted links to the cpp-npa.

steve salonga, a friend from u.p. days and on facebook today, was quick to enlighten me via private message:

I looked positively at those links [of Ninoy with the CPP-NPA]. That happened way before Miranda and has no relation to later events. Most of what you hear about that today was actually trumped up ‘evidence’ during Ninoy’s military trial for murder.

Dad began hearing the ‘scuttle-butt’ about JOMA ordering the Plaza Miranda operations as early as 1982. Although it wouldn’t be until 1990 that testimony at a senate blue ribbon comm hearing would expose the whole fiasco.

The rumors that Ninoy knew about the bombing before the fact are true, but then, so did we. At that time we had raw intel of a plan to bomb our campaign sorties. But nothing definite. After Miranda, the rumors about Ninoy surfaced. But neither Dad nor I believed any of it. We knew Ninoy was at a party with Doy Laurel at the Sky Room at Jai Alai. We also knew he would follow shortly after that party. We never changed our mind about his innocence.

just the same it boggles the mind that when ninoy came home from exile, he timed it so that he landed on the tarmac on the 21st of august 1983, twelve years to the day since the plaza miranda bombing.  at the very least, it tells me that august 21, 1971 was a critical juncture in his life that he deemed worth marking.  with his death, as it turned out.

*

Truth about blast first told in Sierra Madre by Jovito Salonga
Revolution by assassination? by Max Soliven
Days of Shame: August 21, 1971 and 1983 by Rigoberto Tiglao
Once upon a ride to the Plaza Miranda bombing Part 1 by Mauro Gia Samonte
Part 2 …  Conclusion 
Ninoy Aquino, the Plaza Miranda bombing and Japanese collaborators
Jose Maria Sison Arrested by Dutch Govt for Murder
Victor Corpuz, Joma Sison, Martial Law, Plaza Miranda Bombing