Two traumas shaped the mind and the personality of President Benigno Simeon (BS) Cojuangco Aquino III.
The first is the assassination of his father, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., in broad daylight on Aug. 21, 1983 while the charismatic opposition leader was going down the stairs of a China Airlines jet at the Manila International Airport tarmac.
The second is the ambush against the then-young BS Aquino III and his presidential security escorts at an Arlegui street military checkpoint during the bloody August 28, 1987 coup against his mother, Cory Aquino, near the presidential palace, Malacañang.
The young Aquino thought the checkpoint was still held by loyal yellow presidential security guards. He was wrong. In the ensuing gunfight, he was wounded from the left neck down. It is believed his body still carries pieces of bullet parts.
Noynoy Aquino had been out that day and his mother was frantically looking for him and had told him to rush back to the palace which was then under siege from the military rebels of the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM) of then Lt. Col. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan. About 53 died and 200 were wounded in that coup.
BS Aquino sees both incidents as an assassination attempt – the first, in 1983, on his father and the second, in 1987, on his person.
The lesson he learned from the first assassination is vengeance, that someday, he would deliver the comeuppance against those who killed his father and the mastermind behind it. The gunman, the one who pulled the trigger that delivered the fatal bullet to Ninoy Aquino was identified as a police sergeant, Rogelio Moreno.
The lesson Noynoy learned from the second assassination attempt, in 1987, is that one must trust only very few people. Trust only your loyal military officers. They may be stupid, incompetent, callous or corrupt — but they are your loyal servants who will take bullets for you. So keep and nurture them. Support them.
Of Noynoy’s four bodyguards, he claims three were killed at the checkpoint encounter. The Davide Commission (page 182) reports only one bodyguard killed but adds, “two other people died, and a third one was seriously wounded in the car behind them.” Only the timely arrival of the group of a young police officer, a certain Alan La Madrid Purisima, saved the day for the young Aquino in that dawn encounter of August 27, 1987.
There is a third lesson Aquino learned from the two incidents – that people are expendable, that they could be killed in pursuit of a higher goal, one not necessarily noble. That is why faced with so many deaths, Aquino can sometimes be unfeeling and completely lacking in empathy.
Fast forward to Jan. 25, 2015. A group of loyal police officers concocts a mission to get two high-value targets – Zulkifli bin Hir, alias Marwan, a Malaysian bomb expert believed responsible for the Bali bombing of 2002 in which more than 200 died, and his Filipino cohort, Basit Usman, also a notorious terrorist bomber, operating in Mindanao.
This is Oplan Exodus. Its mastermind is now police general Purisima. His chief operating officer is police two-star general Getulio Napeñas, the chief of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force (SAF). Purisima and Napeñas work for only one boss, President BS Aquino who provides them the inspiration and the wherewithal to undertake a very dangerous mission that took months to plan.
It didn’t matter that on the day (Jan. 9, 2015) the three finalized Oplan Exodus, Purisima was serving the 36th day of his 180-day suspension by the anti-graft prosecutor Ombudsman on graft charges. So legally, the disgraced former PNP chief had no personality nor power to supervise Exodus. Still, BS Aquino trusted Purisima 100 percent. After all, he saved BS Aquino’s life, didn’t he, in 1987?
Napeñas handpicks 74 men for the mission – the 38 men of the SAF 84th Company, under Capt. Raymund Train, and the 36 men of the SAF 55th Company, under Police Senior Inspector Ryan Pabalinas. Napeñas actually recruited 392 men for the delicate mission but 318 of them idled themselves for more than 18 hours along the Maharlika Highway of Mamasapano town, in Maguindanao province while the oplan was in progress, 5 kms north of the road.
As it happened, SAF 84 got their man, Marwan, who they claimed they killed but forgot to carry his body. The second target, 300 meters away from Marwan’s hut, Usman, escaped. A firefight ensued, lasting for more than 12 hours. At the end of the day, as the cliché goes, nine of the 38 of SAF 84th died and 35 of the 36 of the SAF 55th died. Total dead, government side, 44; enemy side, 18. Civilians dead 5. Total toll: 67 dead.
In the Mamasapano massacre, Aquino’s two traumas went into autopilot. When the President met with the widows of Fallen 44 on Feb. 18, 24 days after the incident, one of the widows asked him pointblank for justice for her husband. Aquino’s reply: “My father was also killed, so I know how you feel. We’re all even now.” A policeman killed Noynoy’s dad, remember?
As for the second trauma, well, Purisima and Napeñas are running true to form. They are protective of their commander-in-chief. Aquino, their boss, cannot be blamed. Boss Noynoy gave the instructions – for Napeñas to coordinate with the military in undertaking Exodus, and for Purisima to ask the military for infantry and tank support to provide cover to the retreating embattled SAF men. Napeñas and Purisima did not obey their boss.
So 44 had to die. Here, the third lesson is at work.
How traumatic.