by Diego Morra
The murder at the tarmac on August 21, 1983 has not been solved. Despite the testimonies of PAL technician Ramon Balang and Rebecca Quijano, who both saw the shooting of ex-Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Rolando Galman, and the inexplicable failure of a commission tasked to look into the murders to find the footage of the shooting as well as well as conduct thorough ballistics examinations of the firearms held by the members of the military boarding party and the security men surrounding the jet that brought Ninoy home.
Some wags are now resurrecting the story that it was Galman who did it, contrary to the documentary evidence and physical impossibility of Galman jumping from a van, leaping past the 20 steps of the plane’s stairway and shooting Ninoy at the back of the head, with the bullet fragments exiting through the mandible. The mastermind who hired Galman as sacrificial lamb was meticulous, as the people involved in the layered operation never knew who was going to be the hitman. Some officers were linked to Danding Cojuangco, others were completely loyal to Ferdinand Marcos Sr., still others were associated with “Kulot” himself, Gen. Fabian Ver.
In one interview at the National Penitentiary, 2nd Lt. Jesus D. Castro maintained that “nalusutan kami,” consistent with the official line that it was Galman who did it. Castro was among the 16 petitioners convicted in the Aquino-Galman double murder case who petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) to order a new trial, alleging “newly-discovered” evidence would overturn the factual findings of the Sandiganbayan that convicted them after the Marcos Sr. Sandiganbayan acquitted them on Dec. 2, 1985. The SC eventually determined that it was a sham trial and nullified their acquittal, leading to a retrial and the conviction by the Sandiganbayan of the 16 petitioners on Sept. 28, 1990.
The Sandiganbayan convicted the 16 in Criminal Cases No. 10010 and 10011, slapping them with two life sentences. The petitioners then alleged that due process was not observed in their trial, they were denied appropriate defense and forensic evidence proved the gunman was Galman. The SC took cognizance of their plea and examined their arguments, reviewed the evidence and examined whether they had legal leg to stand on to warrant the conduct of a third trial. In an en banc resolution dated Mar. 8, 2005 on GR Nos. 96027-28, Justice Reynato Puno denied the plea, saying that the forensic evidence adduced were not newly-discovered, being available during the trial, and the contentions of the petitioners could not disturb the solidity of the prosecution’s evidence as well as the testimonies of witnesses Quijano, Balang, Jessie Mendiola, Olivia Antimano and Mario Laher which shattered the claim of SPO4 Ruben Cantimbuhan, the driver of the Avsecom armored van, that he saw Galman shoot Aquino.
Puno wrote that it was strange for the forensic team assembled by the 16 convicts to use the very same findings of the doctors who autopsied Aquino and determined that the fatal shot was from behind him, contrary to the claim of the defense that the wound of entry was from below, not from above, even as NBI medical officer Dr. Bienvenido Munoz claimed that the bullet hit the petrous bone before it exited. A probe ran by Munoz’s understudy, proved that the bullet’s was from above and exited at the mandible. The fragments found at the skull may have come from the specialized double action bullets for cal. 357 Magnum or cal. .45. Drs. Pedro Solis and Ceferino Cunanan testified that the bullet’s trajectory was downward, and it killed the defense’s theory.
The High Court’s resolution, concurred in by 13 justices, with another one on leave, stressed that the petitioners did not submit any new evidence, and thus could not avail themselves of the benefit of the Berry rule that allowed a retrial based genuine newly-discovered evidence, or proof that could impeach the findings of the court. Moreover, the sound recordings of the event proved that Aquino and the boarding party members were still on the stairway, when the single shot was fired, which triggered the shooting of Galman. The length of the stairway and the number of people using it did not allow a quick exit, confirming the audio study by a Japanese expert that Aquino was still on the 11th rung of the stairway when he was shot.
What escapes notice in the entire investigation of the Aquino assassination was this: Who crafted the operation to take Aquino in custody and who chose the members of the boarding party led by 2nd Lt. Castro that included the suspected hitman, C1C Rogelio B. Moreno, Sgts. Claro L. Lat and Arnulfo B. de Mesa and C1C Mario Lazaga? On Aug. 21, 1983, the entire security system of the Manila International Airport (MIA) was taken over for the special operation that perhaps included crippling the close circuit TV monitoring of the plane that brought Aquino into the country. The mastermind surely had all bases covered.
Normally, passengers would take the tube but the mastermind chose to order the China Airlines plane to park at the tarmac, wait for the stairway to be set up before allowing the arrested Aquino to be brought down. However, Quijano and Balang saw the bloody assassination, and they told the Sandiganbayan what they had witnessed. Balang and Quijano now belong to ATOM, still waiting for the gunman to fess up, 43 years after the grisly murder. Still crazy after all those years? Some of the 16 convicts have died, others are stuck at the National Penitentiary, and the nation is still waiting for the pieces of that bloody puzzle to fall into place.#