Like Lolo, Like Father, Like Son?
By Ronald Roy
In a way, I feel sorry for Noynoy. He looks like a little boy suddenly thrust in the man-size war zone of politics. Egged on by opportunists, misguided clerics, arrogant elitists, and lately the meddlesome Time Magazine, he now basks in the vanishing afterglow of EDSA I, proclaiming a right to the presidency on the basis of family relations. He would have us vote for him for president because he is the son of Ninoy the slain martyr and Cory, the "revered"saint, the grandson of a public servant named Benigno Aquino Sr., the brother of "famous" TV host Kris and the brother-in-law of basketball superstar James Yap.
Unfortunately, Noynoy has nothing much to show for himself except as an alleged participant in the massacre of farmers in the family owned Hacienda Luisita and the owner of a sub-standard legislative record. The scary part is he now threatens to hose down a nation on fire. But for the fact that Noynoy seriously exalts his lineage a as the underpinning of his "quest" for the presidency, I would hate to rake the past of dead people. However, we now stand in the electoral doorway to freedom, and it would be rank treason if I chose not to uphold the truth that is supposed to set us free.
See any old folk if you care to know if Benigno Aquino Sr. was a despised traitor to Filipinos during World War II. I remember my grandmother telling stories about Ninoy's father being a "Makapili" or a Japanese collaborator who spied on the secret activities of the Filipino guerillas, and that it was for this treasonous behavior that he was often jeered and stoned in public. He was a member of the Philippine Puppet Government whose son Ninoy and grandson Noynoy would in their respective times be similarly lured in to politics.
In this connection, it is interesting to note that certain traits, genetic or otherwise, do run through generations within a family. Don't voters now have the right to apply the modified aphorism "like lolo, like father, like son?" I now speak from personal knowledge if not with moral certainty: I share the view of countless others that Ninoy Aquino was a ruthless man. To believe what had then become folklore, I had to actually see and hear him brag how some suspected cattle rustlers writhed to death from a poison he had laced their food with.
More horrendous is the lingering widespread suspicion that he purposely did not attend the LP miting de avance at Plaza Miranda which he was supposed to emcee. Already believable is: Ninoy knew the communists would bomb the makeshift stage at 10 in the evening to annihilate the party's bigwigs, blame President Ferdinand Marcos for the carnage, and groom him as the sole surviving opposition challenger to the re-electionist Marcos.And where was Ninoy at 10 that night? At an insignificant "despedida de soltera"-- to which I had also been invited-- watching the rally on TV and looking fidgety until the grenades exploded shortly past 10.
During the years that followed, Doy Laurel and I would share the same suspicions about Ninoy-- until the communists eventually announced the carnage was their handwork.
Ninoy once urged me to build a private army which the Roys could use gain political supremacy in Tarlac's first district. For starters, he offered me a half a dozen hitmen and gangsters-- probably communists-- but I flatly rejected the offer.I told him we were a non-violent family in full support of Danding Cojuangco's armed struggle to drive the Reds out of the province.
Obviously Ninoy had hoped to intrigue between the Cojuangcos and the Roys in order to gain control of the district; but he failed. It was the same old Machiavellian divide-and-rule tactic which triggered a shootout between the rebel forces of Huk Kumander Alibasbas and those of Huk Kumander Sumulong. From the resulting disarray emerged a unifying commie leader in the persona of Ninoy. The Reds would henceforth remain supportive of Ninoy's consuming obsession to be president of the country.
This piece cannot end without citing the case of Rafael Suarez, a charismatic wealthy haciendero who ran for mayor of Concepcion, Tarlac, under the NP flag. Failing to convince Suarez to run as an LP candidate, Ninoy warned Suarez he would not assume office if he won. Suarez handily beat Ninoy's candidate. Shortly thereafter, Suarez was miraculously survived a highway ambush that killed his driver. Who did it? John Dillinger? Suarez incidentally was my late brother's father-in-law.
NOYNOY FOR PRESIDENT? THINK AGAIN. Not even Cory would endorse him if a certain Dr. Armando Armas were to be believed in his forthcoming explosive book. THINK AGAIN, if you don't want this country to be run by Joma Sison and his Maoist comrades.
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