Getting it right

When I saw Victor Corpus recently I was reminded of Plaza Miranda and his bombshell of a story that it was not Marcos but Jose Ma. Sison that should be blamed for the bomb explosion that killed and wounded so many including then Senator Jovito Salonga. Corpus was in the inner core of CCP and knew what happened.

 Later Salonga visited me while in London and he confirmed the Corpus story. His source was the driver who brought the CPP/NPA men and their bombs to the scene of the mass murder. For a man who was the most seriously wounded in the bombing, it is hard not to take him seriously. Salonga later included this story in his autobiography.

But before these revelations, it was difficult not to be carried away by media reports that it was Marcos himself who ordered it because he needed a pretext for declaring martial law. During those crucial days I do not think that I was the only one who would rather believe that it was Marcos. Most were taken in by intense propaganda through media hype that it was Marcos who did it. We only read newspapers as our source. It would have been impossible to believe otherwise. We did not have access to sources that could prove it was Sison, not Marcos who was behind it. Not until credible sources like Corpus and Salonga came forward to tell the true story, incredible as it may have seemed at the time to almost everybody.

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But there are lessons to be learned from the past that should make us more guarded about blaming the government, without any proof, that it is behind the bombings in Mindanao. Brother Eddie Villanueva, I am sure must have his reasons for pointing to the government and making accusations that President Arroyo is behind it so she can declare martial law. But with Plaza Miranda in mind, we may have to demand proof other than mere statements to the press from one who is not exactly friendly to President GMA and who has declared himself a presidential candidate in 2010.

Until an investigation has been conducted and accusations against government proven, we are well-advised not to be carried away just as we had been in the time of Marcos. This is not to exonerate Marcos for other things he did after the bombing.

It is one thing that Corpus’ and Salonga’s stories corroborate on who were behind the Plaza Miranda bombing. It is another that Marcos used the incident subsequently to justify the declaration of martial law. We have to get it right. But then these might lead us to darker facets of Philippine politics we do not want to face. The declaration of martial law may have followed the Plaza Miranda bombing but it does not follow that Marcos was behind the bombing.

Villanueva was careful to add that it is also possible the Mindanao bombings came from insurgents. But in the politically charged atmosphere now, Villanueva’s accusations are not helpful to those who want to be guided by facts, not speculation.

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In another poetic twist, convicted killer of Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. and his military-tagged Rolando Galman has died just as Cory Aquino herself is battling life-threatening cancer. Former Sgt. Rolando de Guzman succumbed to a heart attack last July 8 at the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City. He was 57. 

I was with some members of the Chino Roces group to visit the soldiers in Muntinlupa at the time when a campaign was launched to free the convicted soldiers. The thrust of the visit was to see if we could befriend them and win their confidence enough to let their guard down. We hoped we could win their trust to tell us what really happened. It was a long shot.

Personally, having seen and talked to them in Muntinlupa, I think the soldiers would not have wasted their entire lives behind bars if they knew who the mastermind was and that all it would take was for them to tell the truth. It was in vain that de Guzman was among the soldiers who were freed last Feb. 6 by President Arroyo. De Guzman was sick even while in prison with severe hypertension and  had to be hospitalized many times.

The other convicted soldiers who have already died are former Sergeants Cordova Estello and Mario Lazaga.

Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, Aviation Security Command chief, who is thought to have been the ‘mastermind’ died before he could be convicted.

While talking to them I sensed they were desperate to return to their families and careers as soldiers. I remember one of them said they have passed up promotions and pensions while being in prison. These were simple soldiers who were trained to obey and they did as they were told.  If it was a conspiracy, then it was superbly executed. It is hard to believe that these soldiers would have known because in conspiracies the key to its success is that one never knows what the other is doing. They operated as autonomous units. Indeed there may not have been a mastermind as a person but there had been a masterplan by several in the name of institutions. That would be difficult and murkier to uncover but as the saying goes – sooner or later the truth will be revealed, and like the Plaza Miranda bombing we may be in for another bombshell of a surprise.

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MISCELLANY: The government should stick to their own forecasts rather than be rattled by the World Bank’s own yardstick. It is well known that World Bank is politicized and sometimes has its own reasons for downgrading a country. More important is to convince gullible Filipinos that WB is not infallible. It forecasts a negative growth 0.5 percent. The government sees the economy growing by 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent this year.

Further to this column’s item on Randy David as a board of trustee of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, Rajender Singh Negi has this to say. It might be called the Asian Nobel Awards but it is not so noble.

“It is not just a coincidence that an American industry giant like the Rockefeller family, came forward to institute and finance the award in Magsaysay’s name, almost immediately after his death, as both the US administration and the American industry had huge stakes in the country.

 Ramon Magsaysay had thrived on American patronage and in return he too obliged them with remarkable alacrity. It was no surprise then that the Americans in instituting an award in his name did not just want to immortalize him but also to provide legitimacy to his brand of politics,” he adds.