08/21/2016 07:40:23 PM
“History is a product of conspiracy theory.”
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| Photo from Asiaweek, obtained thru Philstar.com |
We all know it has been 33 years since hat unfortunate incident that has changed the landscape of the Philippine politics forever. While the former senator and political prisoner just stepped out of the plane he aboard to Manila, he was gunned down that seemingly worst and horrendous since the assassination of JFK.
Yes, at 1 in the afternoon of the 21st of August, year 1983, at the tarmac of then-Manila International Airport. Two deaths were recorded: the senator and a gunman named Rolando Galman (whose suspected to be the former's killer).
How mysterious despite being laid in broad daylight and in front of local and international press in the surroundings.
While three decades have passed by, the dictatorship has been ousted and new sets of administrations have taken over the state, there's one question that has yet to be answered publicly: who was the CLEAR verdict of the assassination of Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino Jr.?
Some have said it was a ploy made by his rival, the late former president Ferdinand Edralin Marcos; while others are foreseeing it was otherwise. Perhaps that speaks like a bunch of conspiracy theories was unveiled by various documentaries made by the Philippine media.
It was kinda ironic, though, that while his late wife – and almost two decades later, his son – have ascended to presidential throne, neither were reported to take the matters of the case. Like both remained at mum. For a noob political spectators like yours truly, it seems the curious case of Ninoy was left in the dark like a person's “dark secret” (though not sexual in content).
Makes some of us wonder, what really happened? After the investigations, interrogations, and verdicts, one angle became almost visible – inside the relatives' circle of the late president has been accused.
Yes, it was almost because just last year, it was reported that the Agrava Commission has not found sufficient evidence leading to either the Marcos couple, or to Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
While this may not be a Marcos era anymore, I think it's suffice to say he has not taken part of it. I mean, the jury has spoken outside this time period. So to say, the early 1980 politics has made the bad blood between these two get even worse might be a bit invalid.
And if reports are to believed that Pres. Marcos actually wanted the military to protect Ninoy in case he arrive, it will all boil down to a huge blow made by his armed forces. And Gen. Fabian Ver – though tagged as the mastermind but was acquitted two years later – will be really held responsible for the incident, aside from his commander-in-chief.
Military, perhaps, could be considered as one of the principal-but-blurry angles on this one, with Ver and the so-called “Five Wise Monkeys” being the questionable personalities (16 military men in all) way back then. And probably they were the answers in the eyes of news-cravers.
However, the late Pablo Martinez, one of then-convicted culprits, confessed in 2007 that it was the oligarch whom he referred as the real mastermind.
Well, Ninoy's assassination was a fitting (if not clear or perfect) example of conspiracy theory. If his political rival had already warned him before of being unable to protect him, it's not just the literal definition. It just showed one huge flaw of the past administration, since everyone knows that both Benigno and Ferdinand were the arch-nemesis of Philippine politics during the second half of 1900s. And him being unable to protect one of the popular figures in the Senate earned more tongue-lashing from the already-sick-and-tired-of-Martial-Law public.
But with sets of plot twists and turns have set its jury over the course of time, it is sad that this case – though resolved as it seems – remains mysterious just like some of the politically-driven shenanigans in the past.
Either that or the dark secret was kept into oblivion.
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Author: slickmaster | © 2016 september twenty-eight productions
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