By Luz Rimban, VERA Files
THE photograph is 30 years old, but it provides startling details to an old, almost forgotten story.
Taken by a Japanese photographer, the picture came out in the Sept. 5, 1983 issue of Time Magazine. It showed the apparent lifeless body of former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. whose murder on the tarmac in broad daylight on Aug. 21 shocked the world.
“I saw it when I first saw the photo in 1983, and no one has really taken notice of it,” said a VERA Files reader who sent the photograph, referring to a crucial detail the picture reveals.
“It shows that Ninoy raised both his feet by about two to three inches above the ground (see the shadow of the raised shoes) indicating he was still alive,” he added. “All other photos taken by other journalists later show both Ninoy’s feet flat on the tarmac.”
The photo can be considered another piece of journalistic evidence, one among many that helped piece together what really happened moments after Aquino stepped out of the China Airlines plane that early afternoon.
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Ninoy’s murder is like the John Kennedy assassination. We never get to know the whole truth.
What’s noticeable is not when he’s already lying dead at the tarmac, but what the scenario was minutes before he came out of the plane coming down from the stair including when he was still on board the playing landing at the airport. Here’s what he told the journalists and reporters around him at that time: “Be very quick in using your camera and taking the photos because it could be a matter of seconds. I would be shot in the head”. Ninoy was wearing bullet proof vest. He knew that he would be shot in the head. He knew it would be quick. He knew he was going to die. Why did he knew all these as if he was expecting it? It was like expecting a suicide which a person only knows when to happen.
Another question was how did he obtain his passport in the US. Did the Philippine government and US government agreed on this. Did the US maybe through her CIA got Ninoy the passport. It was already canceled when he did not return to Manila per agreement. He also broke his promise not to attack the Philippine government when he was allowed to have his heart treated in the US. A person with his status could easily be recognized by the airports and people even if he had a fake name on the passport. How did he get away with it unnoticed?
There are more questions than answers to his assassination and death. Even when it comes to real mastermind, there’s no final closure to it. Years after his death and Marcos’ death, some indications have pointed out that it was not Marcos who ordered the assassination. Like the Plaza Miranda bombing which anti-Marcos groups immediately blamed Marcos for it. Later, no less that former Sen. Jovito Salonga and retired Gen. Victor Corpus admitted that it was not Marcos but Joma Sison’s NPA. Incidentally, Ninoy was surprisingly absent during the rally at Plaza Miranda that tragic night. He was reported to have ties with the NPA and was even branded as Communist agent then.
Correction: …on the board flying (not playing) landing at the airport.
As I can see it, the one who took the video behind Ninoy while on his way out of the airplane saw the better picture of the assassination.