President Cory Aquino after a meeting with foreign correspondents in Malacanang.
PHILIPPINE VILLAGE VOICE - Redefining Community News
Currents & Breaking News
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Volume 4, Issue No. 29
/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /
. . . . . A community service of Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . . .
The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Thursday, August 19, 2010
~ I thought I had the biggest news coverage of my professional career when bombs were exploded at a political rally in Manila's Quiapo district on August 21, 1971 that nearly wipe out the political opposition. It was my baptism of fire. Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. wasn't there providentially. Twelve years to the day later in 1983, the bigger story happened. Aquino was felled by an assassin's bullet at the tarmac of the Manila airport as he returned from exile. It's been 27 years since his death and the memories of that coverage remain vivid, etched forever in my mind. The much bigger story, perhaps the biggest of all, was when his widow took power three years after his death in 1986, kicking out the hated dictator Ferdinand Marcos and setting off dramatic changes in the Philippines. Now the Aquinos' son, Benigno Simeon III or P-Noy is president.
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PREROGATIVE
By Romy Marquez
MY NEWS COVERAGE 27 YEARS AGO
The Assassination of Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. --
the Event That Fueled Big Changes in the Philippines
TORONTO -- I never had an inkling that after 27 years, the son would try to fill in the shoes of his father and attempt to live the legacy of his mother.
One generation is gone and another is just unfolding. That's basically the story of the Aquinos -- from the former senator Benigno Jr., to his wife Corazon, to their son Benigno Simeon III. That's also the story of the Philippines, condensed in a sentence.
But the struggle has been long and laborious from the time Benigno Jr., aka Ninoy, was felled by assassin's bullets on August 21, 1983, to the transformation his death had fueled, to that moment his widow, the popular Cory to many, had been catapulted to the presidency the senator had had coveted.
Now, his namesake and only son, Benigno Simeon alias P-Noy, is president, less than a year after Cory had died on August 1, 2009.
These transformative events happened in all of 27 years. And thanks, and no thanks, to Ferdinand Marcos, the Aquinos had been in and out of the corridors of power that Ninoy had craved for and which Cory had despised.
I was among the several dozen foreign correspondents who covered Ninoy's homecoming on August 21, 1983 at the Manila International Airport. As events would later turn out, it was going to be one of my biggest news coverages ever, next only to the People Power revolution that was to happen three years later.
Then, the talk was rife that Ninoy would be arrested upon landing. The worst-case scenario was that he would be shot. Quite a few, however, had ruled this out, saying Marcos would not take such a gamble on a very popular critic that Aquino had been to him. He would be afraid to fan widespread unrest.
Some foreign correspondents wagered that while an assassination was possible, it was also implausible. The eyes of the world were upon Marcos and his totalitarian rule.
The airport was an unlikely scene. Being under the control of the military, the blame would inescapably be on the military, which, under a martial law situation, would mean the very top man in the political and military hierarchy. That meant Marcos.
So the general expectation was that he would be felled in transit as he's taken from the airport to a safe house or to the nearby Fort Bonifacio where he would be kept on house arrest.
Such a discussion continued with Aquino's relatives who were on hand to welcome him, among them, his sister Lupita and her husband, ABC reporter Ken Kashiwahara, and brother Agapito "Butch" Aquino, Salvador Laurel and many others in the opposition.
I was covering the arrival for my principal, Japan's Asahi Shimbun and my string, Germany's Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
The Japanese had an immense interest in Aquino, he being the scion of another Aquino who had been a friend of many Japanese politicians, specially during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. In fact, the Aquinos are quite popular in Japan as his father had collaborated with the Japanese along with President Jose P. Laurel.
But within minutes of the plane's arrival from a stopover in Taipei from the United States, Aquino lay dead on the tarmac.
The first news dispatch via satellite phone to Tokyo and Hamburg was a crisp one-liner: "Aquino shot upon arrival".
That first witness account flashed all over the world was enough to trigger an avalance of pre-written stories, awaiting a new lead that would come from Manila.
The second one-liner was more expressive than the first: "Aquino feared dead by assassin's bullet".
In the hours that followed, the airport was in chaos. Soldiers from the Aviation Security Command had formed a wall to stop the growing number of people who wanted to get in.
Meanwhile, we rushed to the Army hospital inside Fort Bonifacio where Aquino's lifeless body was taken. He had already succumbed by the time his army escorts made a show of whisking him for medical aid.
Between 10 p.m. and midnight, Aquino was brought to his Times St. home in Quezon City. His mother, Dona Aurora Aquino, had made sure Ninoy wore the same clothes he had had when he was shot.
I was there. I was one of the very first journalists to witness how his mother grieved while standing next to his coffin.
(This Currents & Breaking News may be posted online, broadcast or reprinted upon request by interested parties. Permission by the author and the editor must be obtained before any re-posting online or re-publication in print or re-broadcast. Copyright by Romeo P. Marquez, Editor, Philippine Village Voice, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Volume 4, Issue no. 29, August 19, 2010. Email at: PhilVoiceNews@aol.com or CurrentsBreakingNews@gmail.com).
For other stories, please visit:
1. http://currentsbreakingnews.blogspot.com/
2. http://travelsthemes.blogspot.com/
3. http://gotchajournalist.blogspot.com/
For news videos, please visit and click the links:
1. Toronto's Fetish Fair: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op1qMCTzslA&feature=channel
2. Part II of Pistahan sa OLA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAnedigYdkM&feature=channel
3. Pistahan sa Our Lady of the Assumption: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZCp_iHdnIc&feature=channel
4. Santacruzan in Toronto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkE1Jk7_U6U&feature=channel
5. Beauties & Queens of Toronto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5CCCUneQ1I&feature=channel
6. Shirt as a Medium to Foster Pride in the Philippines: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQszB31Coq8&feature=channel
7. Katrina Halili and the Signing Stars in Toronto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnnQ_nV9CT0&feature=channel
8. Toronto Mayoral Candidate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ9h4OrGl5A&feature=channel
For newsvideo coverage of Caribana, North America's largest Caribbean parade, on Saturday, July 31, 2010:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLzF2QNBw3U&feature=channel
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBJfXcSaX8o&feature=channel
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLiC6wyLZo
For post-G20 summit coverage:
1. Sideshow at Bubbles for Peace Protest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UzRcsnvnSY&feature=channel
2. Bubbles for Peace Protest at Queen's Park in Toronto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFztAw9-5o&feature=channel
For video coverage of the G-20 summit, click the following links:
1. The other side of protest at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buJvzJm-E5A&feature=channel
2. Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRYY6xhuOW8&feature=channel
3. Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEX5W6Xgfy8&feature=channel
4. Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWm3_GAw4Kk&feature=channel
5. Part IV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q6OMZ53xzA&feature=channel
6. Part V: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4IIek0-_ZE&feature=channel
7.Part VI: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQO7om6gPro&feature=channel
8. Part VII: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icDJYp_Fx-c
Emailed to PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com:
ReplyDeleteA great article on Ninoy Aquino's assassination. BTW, were you that guy behind Cory Aquino in the picture?
Don Azarias
Chicago,Illinois
Emailed to PhilVoiceNews@aol.com
ReplyDeleteJust read your assassination story. Very compelling reading. Short and to the point. I liked Ninoy. He had charisma. He was eloquent. He was also a very brave man to take that chance. From what I understand he was forewarned that if he "goes home," he would be shot. Imelda Marcos herself went to see him here in America, in Boston to tell him that. So perhaps, he was a foolish, brave man.
Nevertheless, I admired him. He had the courage of his convictions. And he voiced them out fearlessly. And acted on those convictions fearlessly, too. He would had been a top-notched president of our Motherland.
Too bad Noynoy, aka, P-Noy, the son, is NOT Ninoy, the father. Far from it. I really believe that he has a personality disorder and some sort of a mental retardation. THAT our kababayans refused to see and believe. And I think that's very sad. P-Noy's mantra na kung "walang corrupt, walang mahirap" is a reflection of his mental retardation. I don't think corruption in the Philippines can be eliminated. It's deeeply ingrained in our culture. Kaya ang poverty sa atin will always be there. Kailangan sa atin disiplina and a strong leader to implement that discipline. P-Noy is NOT that kind of a leader who would be able to do that.
To me, pare, P-Noy means "Pekeng (Ni) Noy."
Jesse Jose
Seattle, WA