MANILA - After two major investigations, two trials and the conviction of
low-ranking military officers, the assassination of former opposition leader
Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr remains largely unresolved after 26 years.
Now a series of executive pardons granted by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
to soldiers convicted of the crime is seen as part of an evolving political
process to rehabilitate the Marcos family name and legitimize their efforts to
reclaim assets ordered seized during and after Corazon Aquino's presidency.
After a batch of releases in March, Arroyo has now pardoned all 16 of the
surviving soldiers convicted in the murder that eventually
sparked the People's Power revolt that ousted Ferdinand Marcos from power and
drove him and his top aides into exile in the United States. All but one of the
convicted soldiers still claims their innocence.
Arroyo's pardons controversially coincided with the Public Attorney Office's
call for a new probe into the assassination, on the grounds of new forensic
evidence of the bullet that killed Aquino was uncovered. The pardons also came
against the backdrop of the Marcoses' political resurgence, which some analysts
say has been enabled by their close ties to Arroyo's government and family.
Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, a staunch Arroyo ally in the House of
Representatives, has said he will contest a senate seat at the 2010 elections.
Former first lady Imelda Marcos has hinted she will run to become Manila's next
mayor. Imelda's youngest daughter, Irene, is married to businessman Greggy
Araneta, a cousin of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, President Arroyo's
husband, and is also believed to have political ambitions.
Arroyo's administration has taken clear sides in the long boiling family feud
between the Marcoses and Aquinos, two of the country's most influential
political families. Analysts say that could weigh on the future ownership of
key commercial assets and properties, which the Marcos clan are trying to
regain and other powerful business families, some affiliated with the Aquinos,
maintain claims. It also could contribute to a whitewashing of well-established
political history.
Death and deception
The killed Benigno Aquino was the leading opposition politician against
Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist and often under
martial law from 1965 to 1986. Aquino was brazenly killed in broad daylight on
the tarmac of Manila's international airport - which has since in memorial been
renamed after him - shortly after returning from exile in August 1983.
Rolando Galman, the alleged communist assassin who entered the airport's
restricted zone, was shot to death by soldiers after he reportedly shot Aquino.
But opposition groups have long blamed Marcos and his top aides for
masterminding the murder - charges the deceased former leader and his surviving
family members have consistently denied.
After receiving the testimony of 195 witnesses, an investigative team concluded
that several military officers, including Marcos' armed forces chief of staff
General Fabian Ver, had conspired to kill Aquino. Ver was the second-most
powerful figure during the Marcos regime and he remained loyal to the strongman
until his death in exile.
An anti-graft court in December 1985 acquitted Ver and several other
high-ranking military officers in a shock decision that many considered an
egregious political cover-up. That decision contributed to Marcos' famous
People's Power ouster in 1986 and eventually paved the way for a new trial
under president Corazon Aquino, the slain opposition leader's widow.
Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989 and the 16 soldiers tasked with
providing security to Aquino on the day of his assassination were convicted to
double life sentences during his widow's tenure as president. Ver was indicted
but escaped conviction by going into exile in the United States.
A number of the convicted soldiers died in detention, but the remaining 16 have
all been released through executive pardons given under Arroyo. Aquino family
members, including Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, have strongly denounced
the pardons, saying that the moves have been politically motivated because his
mother and former president has emerged as a vocal and potent critic of the
Arroyo administration's anti-democratic tendencies.
Power plays
There could also be a big business angle to the pardons. Master Sergeant Pablo
Martinez, who was released from prison under Arroyo in 2007 and is the only
convicted soldier to confess to participating in the assassination plot, has
publicly accused influential businessman and former Marcos advisor Eduardo
"Danding" Cojuangco as one of the masterminds behind Aquino's killing.
Cojuangco is currently the chairman of San Miguel Corporation, Southeast Asia's
largest food and beverage firm, and, adding a twist to the saga, an estranged
cousin of Corazon Aquino. He is now firmly aligned with Arroyo's administration
and is battling for ownership control of the profitable Manila Electric Company
(Meralco) with the powerful Lopez family, which is renowned for its close ties
to the Aquinos.
Corazon Aquino's government was instrumental in seizing assets from the
Marcoses and after nationalization selling them to the Lopezes. That process
gave the Lopezes their controlling stake in Meralco. Cojuangco's recent bid to
wrest control of the power company has come with the apparent assistance of the
state pension fund, the Government Service Insurance System, and is believed by
many industry analysts to have Arroyo's tacit backing.
The Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG), the agency created under
Aquino's government to recover the Marcos family's alleged ill-gotten gains,
has been dragged into the Meralco fray. Opposition critics claim the agency was
politically compromised when it entered into a recent agreement with Cojuangco
that opened the way for his ownership challenge.
PCGG commissioner Narciso Nario denies any foul play and asserts that his
agency has recovered over US$1.8 billion from the Marcoses and their business
associates since the agency was founded in 1986. He also said that recovery had
been encumbered because many alleged ill-gotten assets are now held by Marcos'
former business associates.
The Marcoses have maintained that they have never been convicted of corruption
in a court of law and have long questioned the legality of the Aquino-created
PCGG's seizures. As the former first family has over the years restored the
family's political connections and clout, Imelda has become bolder in her
claims and ambitions, including her intention to be elected Manila's next
mayor.
She was famously quoted as saying in 1998 that "we own virtually everything in
the Philippines", a few months after the election of president Joseph Estrada,
a known Marcos ally. With her family ties to Arroyo's government, she has vowed
to reclaim some $13 billion worth of assets she says are now wrongfully in the
hands of her late husband Ferdinand's former business trustees.
She has named in particular beer and tobacco magnate Lucio Tan, industrialist
Jose Yao Campos and energy industry dealmaker Herminio Disini as some of those
holding assets that she claims rightfully belong to her family. Should she
succeed in re-staking those and other claims, the Marcos family would have
substantial resources to bolster its rising political ambitions and facilitate
further revision to its controversial past.
Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance
journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times
and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.
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