Transcendence

Considering the circumstances, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. handled the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. pretty well.

The failure to identify the mastermind/s behind the killing of Ninoy Aquino and alleged communist hitman Rolando Galman is Exhibit A in establishing beyond reasonable doubt that the criminal justice system in this country is hopelessly compromised.

Raul Gonzalez, the tanodbayan during the retrial of the double murder, told some of us reporters who covered the judiciary at the time that he had a witness, never presented in the original trial, who could help identify the mastermind. He said the witness was housed in a farm.

But in 1989, Gonzalez was suspended indefinitely by the Supreme Court for contempt. This was after he said, in connection with another case, that “rich and influential persons get favorable actions from the Supreme Court, [while] it is difficult for an ordinary litigant to get his petition to be given due course.”

The suspension took him out of the Aquino-Galman case, and no new witness was ever presented. Whatever story was going to be told in court was carried by Gonzalez to his grave.

The Aviation Security Command members who escorted Ninoy out of the plane were convicted and sent to prison, with the brains never identified. By 2009, all the Avsecom soldiers had been freed on parole with the approval of then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Gonzalez was her justice secretary.

One of the Avsecom men, while serving his sentence in Bilibid, narrated a story that jibed with what Gonzalez had told us about the likely brains. Former master sergeant Pablo Martinez was freed on parole by GMA in November 2007 on humanitarian grounds. In May 2014, he died when a Mitsubishi Montero sideswiped his mountain bike and the driver, instead of stopping, ran over him while he was cycling along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.

The Montero driver was Henry Roque, a 29-year-old Philippine Airlines employee. Roque settled the case with Martinez’s family.

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Former president Noynoy Aquino, when he was a senator, had opposed the release of the Avsecom soldiers.

The release was seen as GMA’s retaliation for Cory Aquino’s call for her to step down as president over the 2004 “Hello, Garci” vote rigging scandal. But some quarters criticized Noynoy, saying he was being heartless in his opposition and there was no way the soldiers could have known who had ordered the twin murders.

Noynoy took the trouble of getting in touch with me at the time, to explain that he did not expect the Avsecom men to know the brains. But he said he wanted the soldiers to speak about certain details surrounding his father’s death. For example, why was the critically wounded Ninoy taken on a slow drive to an Army hospital at Fort Bonifacio in a closed van? Noynoy suspected that his father was finished off with a beating inside the van during that drive, as indicated by Ninoy’s injuries.

There were two crimes committed on that fateful day, Noynoy told me: one was the double murder, and the other was its cover-up. The second crime was never prosecuted, Noynoy lamented.

He said there were reports that the families of the Avsecom soldiers were well provided for throughout their imprisonment, ensuring their silence.

Such unresolved issues are in the way of BBM’s call, issued on Ninoy Aquino Day, for Filipinos to “transcend political barriers” to attain “a more united and prosperous Philippines.”

This call for unity has been issued even in the first year after the 1986 people power revolt. Cory Aquino’s consistent comment was that reconciliation is not possible without justice. And with the brains behind Ninoy’s assassination never identified, justice has not been served.

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Today, those who had hoped for justice for Ninoy are in the political opposition. It was moving to watch Ninoy and Cory Aquino’s eldest daughter Ballsy Cruz, her voice breaking as she thanked the people who joined her family at the mass the other day to mark her father’s death.

Throughout the two Aquino presidencies, Ballsy remained humble and amiable. You never feel any VIP airs around Ballsy and her sisters Pinky and Viel.

“To you, our fellow Filipinos, who joined us today when being seen with Aquinos is not exactly in fashion during this time, thank you for being one with us today in remembering Ninoy Aquino,” Ballsy said in her closing message at the mass held at Santo Domingo Church in Quezon City – the same place where Ninoy’s wake was held in 1983.

At least, the family was not alone – hindi pa rin nag-iisa – 40 years after Ninoy’s murder. And by now, after all the rats have abandoned the ship, the heirs of Ninoy and Cory know who their true friends are.

On the 40th anniversary of the double murder, with the Marcoses back in power, people asked: Ninoy, was it worth dying for?

The other question, which people have been asking since the 2022 elections became known (rigged, if you ask Eliseo Rio), is where Ninoy’s fight is headed.

President Marcos had positive words for his father’s nemesis: “By standing for his beliefs and fighting for battles he deemed right, he became an example of relentlessness and resolve for many Filipinos.”

You also appreciate the effort that went into crafting that carefully worded statement.

Under different circumstances, BBM’s call for transcendence of political barriers makes sense. A nation cannot become great if it doesn’t rally behind the flag and country.

This may be possible in certain aspects of life, such as in national security. There’s increasingly loud public condemnation of an entrenched fifth column actively promoting the interests of China.

But in politics, this kind of unity is unlikely. Which could be good for the country where, 40 years after the murder of Ninoy Aquino, there is no rest in the battle against the abuse of power.