NINOY, A HERO?

NINOY, A HERO?

By Erick San Juan

He, who thinks of the late senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. as a hero, must either be joking, or is unaware of who Ninoy really was.

This is never saying that the late Ninoy was evil. No, he was not. Only, like you and I, Ninoy was an ordinary mortal. We just have yet to find something he did that made him stand out above the rest of us. In short, Ninoy’s supposed fete is nothing but hype – a product of the imagination of some vested interests.

What we are saying is our “hero” must be mischievously turning and laughing in his grave. With one of his eyes winking, he must be telling himself: Success! Look, no sweat. I was able to put one over the 92 million or so stupid Pinoys.

The checkered past of the late “Noxy,” as he was fondly called by his erstwhile peers in the fraternity of Filipino journalists, were indeed eye-poppers, or, at the very least, was an eyebrow-raiser. Like you and I, the late “Noxy” was an ordinary mortal – a “salsalero” – a writer who passes his imaginations off as a gospel truth like he worked with the CIA (read Conspiracies and Controversies).

To give you a glimpse on what a persona their much-revered idol really was, here it is:

First, a hero must be one whose sense of patriotism and selflessness is beyond reproach; second, he must have done something seamless for all to cherish, rather than just a distinct group much less, his own family to enjoy and lavish; and third, his motive for laying down his life and all of what he did to cause his martyrdom, must never be suspect.

In his lifetime, this highly controversial and slimy glib-talking Ninoy led a life of “palusot.” He quickly seized the admiration of his gullible editors as a result of his having established contact and maintained a liaison with the leaders of the communist rebel Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB) and its’ eventual break-away faction, the Maoist Bagong Hukbong Bayan (New Peoples Army) skippered by Jose Ma. Sison and Bernabe Buscayno. His liaison with the HMB went on even long after Kumander Alibasbas got slain in a massacre that followed one of Ninoy’s trips to the rebels’ mountain lair in his hometown of Concepcion, Tarlac.

Ninoy’s late arrival – his own version of a dramatic entrance - at the bombed out miting de avance of the Liberal Party in Plaza Miranda, Quiapo in 1971, made legions suspect that it was he who had the place blasted to eliminate as potential rivals to the Presidency of the Philippines, the likes of Senators Gerry Roxas, Ramon Mitra, and Jovito Salonga,etc.

No doubt, the reason why the Philippines is now experiencing a shooting war in its southern backdoor, is because of the Treason committed by Ninoy when he prematurely exposed a Top Secret of the Marcos regime to recover for the Sultanate of Sulu, the oil-rich island of Sabah, which was just on loan to the British Crown, but got appended to Malaysia when it became an independent nation. Because of Ninoy’s expose (which originated from a bedroom conversation between Major Eduardo “Abdul Latiff” Martelino and the wife of a publisher), Oplan Merdeka got pried open and many lives of young Filipino Muslim fighters got wasted away in an ensuing series of massacres at Corregidor island.

It is a known fact that since then, Malaysia had to contend with the reality that some day, somehow, it can wake up realizing that the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu now runs the territory that was leased to the British Crown centuries ago. Also, several times, Philippine Presidents have been making a killing out of the State’s claim on Sabah, which the Philippines government never gave up formally. So, in a bid to install an early warning device against potential national security threats posed by the Philippines ’ claim over Sabah , the Malaysians have to lavishly broker the peace parley between the Philippine government and a band of bandits and kidnappers calling themselves as the Mindanao Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

Witnesses are still around. They were there when Ninoy discreetly entered the suite of then First Lady Imelda R. Marcos at New York ’s Waldorf Astoria with the help of a close 'friend' and accepted the suitcase-full of United States dollars for Ninoy’s promise that he will return "only" at the proper time. Ninoy insisted to return when he found out that President Marcos was seriously ill.

Fact is: While Ferdinand was having trouble with the kidney donated by his junior, Imelda was overly zealous and eager to takeover the reigns of government once Marcos breaths his last. And so was Ninoy. That accounted for the most potent reason why he had to be ordered eliminated. This was reconfirmed at ANC's Ricky Carandang's Big Picture talk show with Steve Psinakis and Precy Lopez Psinakis and replayed Sunday,August 24,2008 10 pm.

Through the deliberate leak of a foreign intelligence agency who fed Ninoy the information that Marcos was dying in Malacanang, Hacienda Luisita’s wonder boy immediately set a journey homeward bound with just one thing in mind – to capture the Presidency and quench his thirst and those of his confederates on the mullahs that usually accrue to the tenants of Malacanang. In fact, it was a now-sitting congressman from the north who helped Ninoy got his passport (showing that he was Marcial Bonifacio), upon his arrival in Taipei , Taiwan .

Now, Ninoy a Hero?