MANILA, Philippines - The brains behind the murders of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. and Rolando Galman is still in the country, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said yesterday.
Gonzalez said he could have unmasked the mastermind of the crime were it not for his suspension by the Supreme Court when he was the Tanodbayan, or Ombudsman, working as the main prosecutor in the double murder case.
“I would say that I’ve had this conclusion since I was Tanodbayan, in 1986, ’88. Maybe if I were not suspended by the Supreme Court, I would have named that person,” he said.
Gonzalez was ordered suspended from the practice of law by the Supreme Court in 1988 for gross ignorance of the law while working as lead prosecutor of the case.
Gonzalez said his suspension came when he was poised to question Capt. Felipe Valerio and Col. Romeo Ochoco.
Both officers had led the task force of the defunct Aviation Security Command (Avsecom) tapped to secure Aquino at the airplane upon his arrival from the US on that fateful day of Aug. 21, 1983.
Aquino was shot and killed while being escorted out of the plane.
The military at the time pointed to Galman, a supposed communist hit man, as the killer. Galman, disguised as an airport crew, was eventually gunned down by security forces at the tarmac.
Gonzalez said he was able to track the whereabouts of the witnesses, sisters Ana and Catherine Oliva and Rogelio Taruc, who were supposed to shed light on the background of Galman, but the leads turned up empty after their remains were exhumed in Capas, Tarlac and identified by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
“Unfortunately I was suspended by the Supreme Court in 1988. I was surprised my successors didn’t follow up, ” he said.
Gonzalez argued the discovery of the bodies would have provided circumstantial evidence showing the link to the alleged mastermind.
Gonzalez though refused to name or reveal the identity of the supposed mastermind.
“As far as I’m concerned, based on the facts I’ve gathered before and all the circumstantial evidence that I have, yes, but I don’t want to discuss that, that’s water under the bridge,” he said.
The Aquino-Galman case was closed after the conviction of the 16 Avsecom soldiers who escorted the former senator out of the airplane.
Some of the convicts have already died but the rest have served their reduced sentence in jail. All of them maintained they had nothing to do with the murders.
Gonzalez said the Aquino-Galman case could still be reopened if Valerio is brought back to the country to face trial.
Valerio was named among the principal accused by the Tanodbayan in 1986. He was tried in absentia along with former Armed Forces chief Fabian Ver and was ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan in November 2005.
Valerio fled to the US following the ouster of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
Gonzalez said the double murder case could be reopened but only to charge Valerio.
“Let’s say Capt. Valerio will return or is extradited to the Philippines, I will order the reopening of the hearing against Capt. Valerio,” he said.
Gonzalez said he does not know the whereabouts of Ochoco,
“I’m not sure if Ochoco is still alive. What I know is Ochoco is in Australia all the time,” he said.
Apart from Valerio and Ochoco, the government is also looking for Capt. Llewelyn Cavinta, another former Avsecom officer.
In the case of Valerio, Gonzalez confirmed the report of Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida Rueda Acosta that the former Avsecom officer is shuttling from Seattle, Washington in the US to Vancouver, Canada, as a pilot.
Valerio is reportedly using the aliases Edwin Salvador and Philip Valeo.
Duty bound
The military, for its part, said they are willing to help in the search for Valerio.
Armed Forces Civil Relations Service chief Brig. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan said they are duty-bound to cooperate and assist in the search of the former Air Force officer.
Pangilinan said the military would cooperate in any effort by other law enforcement agencies to track Valerio’s whereabouts.
President Arroyo had earlier ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to lead the efforts in tracking down Valerio.
Mrs. Arroyo said the double murder case would be reopened once Valerio is extradited to present new evidence.
Pangilinan said the search for Valerio would fall under the military’s counter-intelligence operations.
“We will (help) if we have information, we are not saying we will not track him down, we are duty bound to provide information,” Pangilinan said.
“Valerio is a private citizen by now, (but) of course, being a former military man, we are duty bound to assist anything that the law enforcement entity or law enforcement agency wants us to provide,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), the political party founded by Marcos, expressed full support yesterday for the reopening of the double murder case in the effort to unmask the real brains of the crime.
KBL chairman Vicente Milliora said they are supporting calls for the reopening of the case that has left many questions unanswered, among them who had ordered the assassination of Aquino and the killing of Galman.
Milliora said the reopening of the decades-old murder case would finally reveal the identity of the mastermind of the assassination.
“Truth never loses its value, its search should never be abandoned, truth is never too late,” Milliora said.
The assassination of Aquino was primarily blamed on Marcos, and triggered his historic ouster from Malacañang.
The military has claimed that Galman, a lone communist gunman, was the assassin.
Even after the soldiers who went to fetch Aquino from the airplane were convicted of the murders and eventually served their sentence, the PAO claimed they have new evidence which points to Galman as the assassin.
PAO chief Acosta ruled out the involvement of Marcos, saying the former strongman was in coma while undergoing an operation during the killing.
Milliora said the search for the truth in the killing should have been seriously done when Aquino’s widow Corazon succeeded to the presidency.
Considering she had a personal stake in it, Milliora said Mrs. Aquino should have exerted thorough effort to uncover the real brains behind the assassination of her husband.
“It is unfortunate that she failed and refused to cooperate until now,” Milliora said. – With James Mananghaya, Perseus Echeminada