BOGUS | 'He spoke through me from the dead' and other fake witnesses to Ninoy Aquino's assassination

BOGUS | 'He spoke through me from the dead' and other fake witnesses to Ninoy Aquino's assassination

By: Robert JA Basilio, InterAksyon.com
August 21, 2013 4:22 PM





Manila's rumor mills worked overtime moments after Benigno "Ninoy" S. Aquino Jr.--the top opposition leader against then-President Ferdinand Marcos--was shot dead 30 years ago in the airport that now bears his name.

"But not everyone believed that Marcos personally authorized the murder," British writer James Fenton wrote in The Snap Revolution, a 155-page piece published in a 1986 issue of UK-based Granta Magazine.

"At the time of Ninoy's death, Marcos was in the military hospital," Fenton said, quoting a man who "was involved in the design of presidential dentures." "[W]hen he heard the news, Marcos threw his food tray at his wife, Imelda. Others say he slapped her but I prefer the food tray version."

These and many other allegations swirled about in Manila, whose residents were, in the least, already antsy about regaining their freedoms and regime change during that period.

Like Fenton, Bienvenido A. Tan Jr. also encountered spurious accounts about the Aquino assassination. Tan dealt with fake witnesses as indicated in The Public Has The Right To Know, a book he wrote about his stint as the Public Coordinator of the Agrava Fact-Finding Board, the five-member panel tasked to look into the Aquino murder.

In October 1984, the board blamed Aquino's death on a military conspiracy involving three generals and 20 other officers. This, among many other findings, was contained in a report that, obviously enough, overlooked the account of the witnesses below.

1) 'Karim'

Karim first called up Andres Narvasa, the Agrava board's general counsel, saying he had pictures of the assassination. Later, Tan himself received a note from someone who identified himself by the same name, giving an address in Brunei.

After a check with his two Brunei connections came up empty, 'Karim' resurfaced, Tan said in his book. The mystery man called up Narvasa again, claiming he sold three pictures for P3 million to "the head of a large bank with coconut connections."

“He kept copies of the pictures for the Board which he would let us have," Tan said. However, the photos—as well as Karim—have not materialized.

This "leads me to think that the "Karim" business was that of a crank, another case of intrigue or people trying to confuse us," Tan wrote.

Agence France Presse did come up with a full name for 'Karim,' who was identified in a report. But it was sued for libel shortly, Tan said.

2) The Swimmer.

During the first few days of the Agrava Board hearings, Tan was assigned to deal with a man who tried to get through security so that he could talk to Chairperson Corazon Agrava.

If the Board fulfilled certain conditions, which, in turn, was enumerated on a document that he gave to Tan, "he would tell us who shot Aquino since he had witnessed the whole incident."

After Tan took notes and captured the whole conversation on a tape recorder, the man told him that "he would not talk until the Board fulfilled certain conditions."

"I concluded that he wanted money so I asked, "How much?" Tan wrote in his book. "Oh no, it was not money he wanted, he said; it was something more important. If we could get him enrolled in the University of the Philippines and make him a member of their swimming team, then he would talk."

Tan added: "I turned off my recorder, stopped writing on my pad, signaled security for rescue but it was still quite a while before we could get rid of him."

3) A female medium.

From the get-go, several mediums approached the Board, saying that they could reach Aquino in the afterlife. None of them got close to being ever asked to testify, Tan said. But that didn't prevent them from sending their feelers.

Once, "a well-meaning Army colonel" sent Tan "a tape recording of the voice of Aquino from the dead" who was supposed to have talked to a female medium.

"As recorded, the medium's voice rose and fell, wailed and cried," Tan said. "We were not able to make heads or tails of it."

On another occasion, Narvasa's wife later showed the Board a handwritten note that was presumably written by Aquino through a medium.

A portion of the note was addressed to Ken Kashiwara, Aquino's brother-in-law who accompanied him during his last flight to Manila. It reminded Kashiwara about their deal of handcuffing themselves together while deplaning, "so that they would not be separated," Tan said.

Information contained on the note was "old hat" but it was "interesting because not too many people knew about it," Tan said.

"For one reason or the other, the plan was never carried out," Tan said. "Maybe for the better—we could have easily had three dead men instead of two."

4) A family member of a victim of a Rolando Galman impersonator.

Rolando Galman—whom the military said shot Ninoy Aquino—is not Rolando Galman. At least that's according to one witness, who was close to one of Tan's business associates. The witness claimed that Galman was, in fact, Maximo Delina, "who had killed some members of his family and been sentenced to a long prison term."

"It would appear that he was given the identity of Galman and then shot and killed on the tarmac, and that the real Galman was in Muntinlupa," Tan said. "The story did not make sense to me because there was no acceptable reason why one criminal should have been preferred over another."

In March 1984, upon orders of the Chairman, all five members of the Board took a surprise visit to the Muntinlupa penitentiary to check out the witness' story.

"The trip was made without notice in order to catch the Muntinlupa officials unaware," Tan said. "At the penitentiary we asked to see Maximo Delina. He was dead...and the prison authorities had all the necessary records."