Today is the 31st anniversary of the assassination of the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. that happened on August 21, 1983. I have written the story of Ninoy Aquino whom I idolized during our days when I considered myself as a part of the Liberal Party because way back in 1969, the old Avila residence (now JESA IT Building) was the headquarters of Cebu's LP during the presidential campaign of then Sen. Sergio "Serging" Osmeña, Jr.
Yes, I submit that the Avila family had a long tradition of friendship with the Osmeña family since the time of my grandfather Don Jose Avila who was very close to Don Sergio Osmeña, Sr. In fact I will never forget the first of the only two times that I met Don Sergio Osmeña. First was during the wake of my grandfather in our house in Mango Ave. where my father, the late Atty. Jesus Avila, introduced me to Don Sergio telling me that he was once the president of the Philippines.
To an 8-year-old boy, Don Sergio was just an ordinary man. The second time I met him was during the historic visit of Gen. Douglas MacArthur who visited Don Sergio in his house and my father brought me along to meet the great American Caesar. Yes, I shook hands with Gen. MacArthur and met Don Sergio Osmeña for the second time. It was only later when he died and when my father also died and he left me two books, the biographies of Don Sergio Osmeña written by the late Vicente Albano Pacis. These are books that I treasure where the whole story of Don Sergio's greatness is written.
Naturally, the children of Don Sergio, such as the late Sen. Serging Osmeña, were also close family friends. So it was only natural for me to also be friends with then Mayor Tomas Osmeña, whom I served (w/o pay) as CITOM chairman and market consultant in those good days before we had a falling apart. So being with the Liberal Party was like a package deal.
Today we also commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the dastardly Plaza Miranda bombing, where many Liberal Party stalwarts like Sen. Jovito Salonga, Sen. Serging Osmeña, Sen. Gerry Roxas, Sen. Eddie Ilarde, Sen. Eva Estrada Kalaw, and Manila mayoralty candidate Ramon Bagatsing and Sen. John "Sonny" Osmeña were seriously injured. Nine people in front of the stage were killed and 95 were wounded when three grenades fell short of the stage. This was to be what my late mentor, columnist Max Soliven, wrote on Feb.12, 2004 as a "Revolution by Assassination."
I'm giving more emphasis on the 43rd anniversary of the bombing of Plaza Miranda today because only a handful of people remember this date as compared to the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. So let's focus what happened on Aug. 21, 1971. Of course all this is in hindsight now, but back then, the Liberal Party blamed Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos for that dastardly act. But now it can be told that that was only a knee-jerk reaction of the LP stalwarts.
To get the true story about who bombed Plaza Miranda, allow me to reprint what Sir Max wrote in that column in Feb.12,2004. "I recall that when Maj. General Victor Corpus, now Malacañang Civil Relations Chief in charge of the Palace "war room", came to see me in my home in 1976, just before he went in to "surrender" to one of his Philippine Military Academy classmates (he was ordered "arrested" instead and slapped into military prison), Corpus revealed that it had been Joma Sison who had ordered the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1970 - not the Marcos government.
Mind you, Corpus had fought alongside Joma as an NPA Commander for almost six years, following his raid on the PMA armory in Baguio in 1970, when he (1st Lt. Corpus) defected to the Communist rebels, bringing PMA Browning automatic rifles, machineguns, and other weapons with him. Corpus told me he was heartsick and disillusioned with the movement, and the "executions" ordered of high-ranking and loyal NPAs by their own leadership, including Joma himself.
When I met Corpus (before his "political prostitute" statement against a lady Senator) at the National Defense College of the Philippines "Roundtable Discussion", last January 27, I asked Vic - in the presence of Commodore Carlos L. Agustin, AFP (retired), President of the Defense College; Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Rodolfo Diaz, Commodore Mariano S. Sontillanosa, AFP (ret.); Rear Admiral Ariston V. de los Reyes, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, and dozens of officers and Defense College participants, whether he stood by his charge that Joma Sison had dispatched the cadre who attacked the Liberal Party's miting de advance with hand-grenade. General Corpus replied: "I do."
So it was Joma Sison who ordered the bombing of Plaza Miranda where 9 people were killed and 96 people were wounded. When Tita Cory Aquino became President after the Marcos dictatorship, she released Joma Sison for no apparent reason…not even in exchange for peace vs the communists. This is why we can no longer trust any Aquino as President.