By BOOMA CRUZ
TWENTY-SEVEN years after the murder of opposition leader and former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., his daughters say the search for the brains behind his assassination is over, and that the Aquino family has already achieved justice.
Ma. Elena “Ballsy” Cruz and Aurora “Pinky” Abellada, elder sisters of President Benigno Aquino III, say it’s time to move on. The two, however, stressed that their brother may not necessarily share their views.
“For me, that’s so long ago,” said Abellada. “We know who did it. Many of them are dead; let’s move forward. I don’t know if human rights advocates will get angry, but for me, you cannot hold these ill feelings for long because in the end it’s you who will suffer.”
“For me, it’s over. As far as I’m concerned, it is a closed book already because we know who’s behind it. I mean, I’ve made up my mind insofar as who planned it,” adds Cruz, the eldest of the President’s siblings.
But for the rest of the country, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino will remain one the country’s biggest unsolved mysteries. Ninoy was shot and killed in broad daylight on Aug. 21, 1983, at the then Manila International Airport. He was in the custody of soldiers escorting him out of the China Airlines flight that brought him back home from three years of self-exile in the United States.
The Aquino assassination sparked a series of events that brought down the government of then president Ferdinand Marcos, Ninoy Aquino’s fiercest opponent, and catapulted his widow Cory to power in a peaceful revolution three years later. Their only son, Noynoy, was elected to office last May on the strength of his parents’ image and reputation.
But although Filipinos have elected two Aquinos to the presidency, they have yet to achieve closure as far as Ninoy’s assassination is concerned. This sentiment was expressed by national artist and Ramon Magsaysay awardee for journalism F. Sionil Jose.
Through his column titled Hindsight, Sionil wrote Noynoy Aquino an open letter which contained some unsolicited advice: “Now that you have the muscle to do it, go after your father’s killers. Blood and duty compel you to do so. Cory was only his wife—you are the anointed and only son. Your regime will be measured by how you resolve this most blatant crime that robbed us of a true leader.”
The government has been trying to find the brains behind Ninoy’s murder for the past 26 years. In 1984, Marcos designated the Agrava Commission to investigate the assassination. The commission blamed it on a military conspiracy led by then Armed Forces Chief of Staff and Marcos cousin Fabian Ver. In December 1985, the Sandiganbayan acquitted Ver and his 25 other co-accused.
When Cory became president in 1986, the case was reopened and 16 soldiers were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. The mastermind was never identified.
Three of the convicted soldiers died in prison while the rest were granted pardon by former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In jail for 26 years, the soldiers have stuck to their original testimonies that Senator Aquino was shot by an assassin, Rolando Galman.
Then a senator, Noynoy Aquino criticized the executive clemency that Arroyo had granted the soldiers, calling it an injustice. He saw it as part of a political vendetta. The Aquinos and Arroyos were allies until the “Hello, Garci” scandal erupted and Cory Aquino supported calls for Arroyo’s resignation.
Informed of the presidential pardon, Cory then issued a statement saying she had “personally pardoned and prayed” for the persons convicted for the murder of her husband.
She, however, reiterated her wish to have the real principals of the crime identified, “even if they could no longer be brought to justice.” She said the Filipino people should know the whole truth, because such knowledge could help prevent a similar tragedy.
But Cruz and Abellada, who were interviewed by The Probe Team before Noynoy’s inauguration, said they would rather see their brother dedicate his time and efforts to nation-building to improve the lives of the majority, rather than finding their father’s killers.
Cruz said the Aquinos could not ask for anything more from the Filipinos. The love the Filipino people showered on her parents, particularly during the wake and hours-long funeral processions of both Ninoy and Cory, were more than enough consolation in their time of bereavement, she added.
With or without the conviction of the soldiers, Abellada said her father got a more important reward for his martyrdom—the love of his countrymen. “Parang tama na siguro ’yun (I think that should be enough),” she said.