Recalling Ninoy’s assassination

By Herbert Vego

 

WHERE were you on August 21, 1983?

Even if you were not born yet on that date, you are no longer young today. Indeed, 37 long years have passed since former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was gunned down at the Manila International Airport (renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor).

To this writer it seemed only yesterday.  I was 33 years old and was already editor-in-chief and columnist of Panay News (at that time a fledgling weekly).

On that day, I was vacationing in my brother Efren’s house in Lagro, Quezon City. I woke up excited before the break of dawn to listen to the radio stations covering the arrival of Ninoy, who had been living with his family in Boston, Massachusetts. I was a fan of the man who could have been elected President in 1973 had President Ferdinand Marcos not declared martial law in 1972, locking him and other opposition leaders in a military stockade.

The late Salvador “Doy” Laurel (one of Ninoy’s pre-martial law fellow senators) was on the air, complaining about tight airport security. His group would not be allowed to move from the terminal building to the tarmac. He talked to reporters but could not specify Ninoy’s flight and time of arrival.

The secrecy was intentional. Although Marcos had supposedly lifted martial law two years earlier, he was still in complete control of all three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial.

However, because of rumors that Marcos had undergone kidney transplant, Ninoy had no choice but to come home and be around for whatever post-Marcos scenario at the risk of losing his own life to an assassin.

“The Filipino is worth dying for,” he had told media.

I was still listening to my transistor radio when a neighbor asked my brother and me to join him in his house for beer.

“This early?” I asked while turning the radio off.

“Yes,” he answered. “Let us celebrate the homecoming of Ninoy.”

For a couple of hours, we were enjoying our beer and pulutan when somebody barged in, shouting, “Pinatay si Ninoy sa airport.”

A flash report on TV was showing a lifeless body being lifted by uniformed military personnel from the tarmac and thrown like garbage into the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom) van.

The official report named a certain Rolando Galman as the gunman, but it was the elements of the Avsecom that would eventually go to jail.

Like millions of other Filipinos seeing that scene, I cried as if the assassinated politician were a relative.

A few days later, I joined the long line of people from all walks of life who took a last look at his remains at Santo Domingo church.

I was also in that dense sea of humanity  — hindi mahulugan ng karayum — that joined his funeral march.

Aquino’s assassination transformed the opposition to the Marcos regime from a quiet movement into a national crusade that eventually climaxed into the 1986 People Power Revolution and catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, into the presidency.

To this day, unfortunately, the man behind his assassination remains unidentified.

As we commemorate Ninoy’s assassination 37 years ago, we remember his famous words, “The Filipino is worth dying for.”

However, in the light of present circumstances that remind us of Marcos’ martial law era, can we still say he did not die in vain?

Banwa, binagbinaga.

-oOo-

WHENEVER electricity falters in Iloilo City, does it connote laxity on the part of the distribution utility, MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power)? To avoid being judgmental, let us realize that “it takes two to tango.” MORE Power has to keep pace with its transmission partner, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), in keeping the power lines safe and sound.

Last Sunday (Aug. 16), for instance, NGCP – which transmits energy from power generators to power distributors – had to switch off for nine hours to upgrade some of its transmission towers and substations.

MORE Power made good use of that time span to carry out a simultaneous pole replacement work. It resulted in the uprooting of 15 dilapidated wooden poles, replacing them with concrete ones.

“This is a small part of our efforts to eliminate the deeply-rooted problems of the electricity distribution system of the city,” MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro told us.

Removal and installation of poles and primary lines is a continuing activity of the distribution utility in one area or two at a time.  Come Sunday (Aug. 23), it will be the turn of  Plaza Libertad in front of Iloilo City Hall.

Rehab activities usually entail short brownouts. But they are inevitable to upgrade the obsolete facilities and to prevent trip-offs and accidental fires.

Well, indeed, it is no joke that MORE Power has absorbed all 65,000 customers of PECO. And with an expected 30,000 more to be “legalized” – those who used to be power pilferers – the only way to serve them all is to “modernize”.

There is no need for existing power users to apply with MORE Power, Castro told us, because their continuous use of electricity is already deemed as a “quasi-contract” with the new company.

Castro said that power pilferers are encouraged to apply as low-load users consuming only 100 kilowatt-hours or less per month. Ang bill deposit, puedeng installment.

Kaya hindi na nila kailangang magtago na parang daga na hinahabol ng pusa.