It seems serendipity or destiny that the political life and mindset of Benigno Simeon (BS) Cojuangco “Noynoy” Aquino III have revolved around a bullet.
A single bullet fired at close range to the nape of opposition leader former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. shortly after 1 p.m. on August 21, 1983 launched the trajectory of the Aquino family towards two presidencies.
The two terms have total length of 12 years and four months—six years and four months (Feb. 25, 1986-June 30, 1992) for Ninoy’s widow, Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, and six years (June 30, 2010-June 30, 2016) for their son, President BS Aquino III.
The two Aquino presidencies have largely defined what has become of the Philippines today—a country beset by massive unemployment, massive poverty, and massive corruption, and where only 100 families control politics and the economy, resulting in one of the worst income inequality ratios in the world.
Even with the combined presidencies of Cory and Noynoy, the truth never came out as to who really murdered Ninoy. The Cojuangco-Aquino family would probably never bother to unravel one of the most mysterious political murders in the Philippines. Why?
The mystery and the myth-making that accompanied the vicious killing have been good for the Cojuangco-Aquinos.
The opposition leader Ninoy could have just dropped dead with a heart attack. He had a nearly fatal attack in 1980 prompting the Marcoses, worried that their main oppositionist could die suddenly, to send him off that year to the United States for a medical self-exile.
In 1983, Ninoy tried to return to Manila with hopes of bringing back democracy to the Philippines. A single bullet thwarted his mission. Instantly, he became a national hero. His death catapulted his widow, Cory, to the presidency, riding on the crest of a national outrage over the assassination. Under ordinary circumstances, Cory could not had been elected president. The math and French major from New York’s College of Mount Saint Vincent was, after all, just a plain and obedient housewife and the treasurer of the vast 6,300-hectare Hacienda Luisita, today,the largest contiguous piece of prime land in Luzon.
In 1985, a lower court declared the Hacienda Luisita should be divided by agrarian reform. Enforcement was delayed. On April 24, 2012, the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Renato Corona unanimously declared that Hacienda Luisita is subject to land reform. The sugar plantation must be subdivided and given away to some 6,300 farmer-tenants. Additionally, the Cojuangco family must pay compensation to the farmers to the tune of more than P13 billion. The decision would drive the Cojuangco family to penury.
Thankfully, Noynoy Aquino had been elected President, two years earlier, on May 10, 2010. He immediately maneuvered to remove Chief Justice Corona by bribing with P50 million each the senator-judges sitting in the impeachment court, actually the 24-member Senate convened as a judicial body.
On May 29, 2012 Corona was found guilty of a crime he was not accused of in the first place—that of lying in his statement of assets and liabilities, a crime all government officials routinely and habitually commit. Why? Because nobody in right mind bloats his imagined wealth, except perhaps Donald Trump.
This year, the Cojuangco-Aquino family was reported to have sold the huge Hacienda Luisita in direct contempt and contravention of the Supreme Court’s April 2012 unanimous decision. One bullet, two presidencies, a family crown jewel intact. Some families are indeed very lucky.
Throughout his presidency, BS Aquino has been hounded by controversies and scandals involving bullets. In short, violence. And men authorized to carry bullets and guns—the police and the military. These men occupy crucial positions in BS Aquino’s cabinet and government giving him and his administration a bad name.
On Aug. 23, 2010, eight Hong Kong tourists died inside a bus hijacked by an enraged dismissed policeman. He started shooting his captives when policemen launched an attack on the bus in a bid to rescue the hostages.
In the 20-day Zamboanga siege of Sept. 8 to 28, 2013, 227 died (208 Muslim rebels and 19 government troopers) and 10,000 houses were burned by the army—the equivalent of razing to the ground the entire city of San Juan in Metro Manila. President Aquino was there to supervise the operation.
In the Mamasapano massacre of Jan. 25, 2015 (incidentally, Cory Aquino’s 82nd birth anniversary), 44 elite commandos and 16 others were killed a day-long one-sided battle between bandits and the police. Aquino was near the scene of the firefight and could have saved many of the murdered victims. Somebody told the army about 2 kms away to stand down. A report by the Senate Public Order Committee headed by Senator Grace Poe held the President “ultimately responsible for the Mamasapano mission.”
For all these killings involving bullets and guns, BS Aquino was never made to account.
Relatedly, the President has surrounded himself with men formally trained to use bullets and guns. They include Voltaire Gazmin, a retired general, and now secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND); Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya, a graduate of the famed Annapolis Naval Academy, and now the secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC); and Jose Angel Honrado, another retired general, and now general manager of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
Gazmin, Abaya and Honrado were former security aides of then President Cory Aquino and the incumbent President Aquino. The stupidity, incompetence, and corruption in the DND, DoTC, and Naia under Gazmin, Abaya and Honrado, respectively, have made a lie of BS Aquino’s Matuwid na Daan (Straight Path) mantra.
Under Abaya’s DoTC is the Land Transportation Office. There, car plates are overpriced and along with driver’s licenses, take centuries to be released.
Under Abaya’s DoTC is the Metro Rail Transit 3—the 17-km elevated train service running from north to south of Manila along Edsa. MRT3 breaks down daily and at times doesn’t operate at all, to the anger of its some 600,000 daily commuters. Why? Because Abaya’s men gave the maintenance contract to an incompetent group and relatives who were pocketing the maintenance billions and doing little else. MRT3 bought new trains from China—without the engines.
Under Abaya’s DoTC is the Naia. There, security inspectors converted their job into a booming industry— planting a bullet or two in the bags of unsuspecting passengers and airport visitors and threatening them with jail terms unless they are willing to cough up a bribe.
A bullet in 1983. A bullet in 2015. The same airport. You can say BS Aquino’s political life has come full circle. Thanks to a bullet.
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