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Philippines From Aquino's Assassination to People's Power
Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino was, like his life-long rival
Ferdinand Marcos, a consummate politician, Philippine-style. Born
in 1932, he interrupted his college studies to pursue a
journalistic career, first in wartime Korea and then in Vietnam,
Malaya, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Like Marcos, a skilled
manager of his own public image, he bolstered his popularity by
claiming credit for negotiating the May 1954 surrender of Huk
leader Luis Taruc. The Aquino family was to Tarlac Province in
Central Luzon what the Marcos family was to Ilocos Norte and the
Romualdez family was to Leyte: a political dynasty. Aquino became
the governor of Tarlac Province in 1963, and a member of the
Senate in 1967. His marriage to Corazon Cojuangco, a member of
one of the country's richest and most prominent Chinese mestizo
families, was, like Marcos's marriage to Imelda Romualdez, a
great help to his political career. If martial law had not been
declared in September 1972, Aquino would probably have defeated
Marcos or a hand-picked successor in the upcoming presidential
election. Instead, he was one of the first to be jailed when
martial law was imposed.
Aquino's years in jail--physical hardship, the fear of
imminent death at the hands of his jailers, and the opportunity
to read and meditate--seemed to have transformed the fast-talking
political operator into a deeper and more committed leader of the
democratic opposition. Although he was found guilty of subversion
and sentenced to death by a military court in November 1977,
Aquino, still in prison, led the LABAN (Lakas Ng Bayan--Strength
of the Nation) party in its campaign to win seats in the 1978
legislative election and even debated Marcos's associate, Enrile,
on television. The vote was for seats in the legislature called
the National Assembly, initiated in 1978, which was, particularly
in its first three years essentially a rubber-stamp body designed
to pass Marcos's policies into law with the appearance of correct
legal form. (The LABAN was unsuccessful, but it gained 40 percent
of the vote in Metro Manila.)
Allowed to go to the United States for medical treatment in
1980, Benigno Aquino, accompanied by his wife, became a major
leader of the opposition in exile. In 1983 Aquino was fully aware
of the dangers of returning to the Philippines. Imelda Marcos had
pointedly advised him that his return would be risky, claiming
that communists or even some of Marcos's allies would try to kill
him. The deterioration of the economic and political situation
and Marcos's own worsening health, however, persuaded Aquino that
the only way his country could be spared civil war was either by
persuading the president to relinquish power voluntarily or by
building a responsible, united opposition. In his view, the worst
possible outcome was a post-Marcos regime led by Imelda and
backed by the military under Ver.
Aquino was shot in the head and killed as he was escorted off
an airplane at Manila International Airport by soldiers of the
Aviation Security Command on August 21, 1983. The government's
claim that he was the victim of a lone communist gunman, Rolando
Galman (who was conveniently killed by Aviation Security Command
troops after the alleged act), was unconvincing. A commission
appointed by Marcos and headed by jurist Corazon Agrava concluded
in their findings announced in late October 1984, that the
assassination was the result of a military conspiracy. Marcos's
credibility, both domestically and overseas, was mortally wounded
when the Sandiganbayan, a high court charged with prosecuting
government officials for crimes, ignored the Agrava findings,
upheld the government's story, and acquitted Ver and twenty-four
other military officers and one civilian in December 1985.
Although ultimate responsibility for the act still had not
been clearly determined in the early 1990s, on September 28,
1990, a special court convicted General Luther Custodio and
fifteen other officers and enlisted members of the Aviation
Security Command of murdering Aquino and Galman. Most observers
believed, however, that Imelda Marcos and Fabian Ver wanted
Aquino assassinated. Imelda's remarks, both before and after the
assassination, and the fact that Ver had become her close
confidant, cast suspicion on them.
For the Marcoses, Aquino became a more formidable opponent
dead than alive. His funeral drew millions of mourners in the
largest demonstration in Philippine history. Aquino became a
martyr who focused popular indignation against a corrupt regime.
The inevitable outcome--Marcos's overthrow--could be delayed but
not prevented.
The
People's Power
(see Glossary) movement, which bore fruit
in the ouster of Marcos on February 25, 1986, was broad-based but
primarily, although not exclusively, urban-based, indeed the
movement was commonly known in Manila as the
EDSA Revolution (see Glossary).
People's Power encompassed members of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy, the business elite, and a faction of the
armed forces. Its millions of rural, working-class, middle-class,
and professional supporters were united not by ideology or class
interests, but by their esteem for Aquino's widow, Corazon, and
their disgust with the Marcos regime. After her husband's
assassination, Corazon Aquino assumed first a symbolic and then a
substantive role as leader of the opposition. A devout Catholic
and a shy and self-styled "simple housewife," Mrs. Aquino
inspired trust and devotion. Some, including top American policy
makers, regarded her as inexperienced and naive. Yet in the
events leading up to Marcos's ouster she displayed unexpected
shrewdness and determination.
Data as of June 1991
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