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6. The Philippines: The Impossible Dream
- Brandeis University Press
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· 6 · the philippines The Impossible Dream • There are moments in life one never forgets. For me such a moment came in summer 1983, in the midst of a congressional trip to Asia. On a hot, humid Sunday afternoon, I was relaxing at the guest house of the American ambassador in Bangkok when I received a call from the us embassy in Manila. It brought tragic news: Benigno“Ninoy” Aquino Jr., returning from a three-year exile in the United States, had been assassinated by a gunman as he stepped off a plane at Manila’s international airport. To me this was a personal as well as a political tragedy. Having met Ninoy on several occasions, I admired him as a political leader and liked him as a man. Our first encounter was at a coffee shop in Newton, Massachusetts , where he lived. We talked for several hours. He was charming and charismatic, and spoke eloquently about the need to restore democracy in the Philippines. Born into a prosperous Philippine family of landowners,Ninoy had become the preeminent leader of the political opposition to the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.Charged with murder and other trumped-up crimes, he was found guilty by a military court and sentenced to death. He then languished in prison for over seven years while Marcos hesitated to execute him,fearing it would turn him into a martyr.When Ninoy suffered a heart attack, Marcos resolved this dilemma by allowing him to go for surgery to the United States, where he would presumably remain in exile. By 1983, however,Ninoy had concluded that the struggle for democracy against the dictatorship required that he return to the Philippines.There were reports that Marcos was in failing health, and Ninoy felt he had to go back if he was going to play a role in shaping his country’s future. So it was that on June 23, 1983, in a great act of courage, he announced this intention before my Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. Ninoy was determined to return despite the real possibility that he might be killed or imprisoned. At the hearing he made an eerie prediction: “I the philippines 113 was sentenced to death in 1977. That sentence is now with Mr. Marcos. If I go back to the Philippines and he decides to have me shot, he can have it done the moment I arrive.” In response, I stated that his decision “constitutes a tremendous tribute not only to your courage but to the depths of your commitment” to the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. I was planning to go to the Philippines that August and asked Ninoy if he wanted me to meet him in Manila. Such an action would demonstrate to Marcos that Aquino’s fate was important to the us Congress and the American people, so Ninoy responded that he very much hoped to see me there. Originally, Ninoy had planned to return to the Philippines in July, before my arrival. As fate would have it, Imelda Marcos, the dictator’s wife, asked him to postpone his return for a few weeks (for reasons that remain unclear), and Ninoy agreed. Thus when I arrived in August, Ninoy was not yet there, and I had to leave the day before his return. On that day, August 20, I met with Marcos in Manila’s Malacanang Palace, the traditional seat of power ever since the Philippines became a Spanish colony three centuries earlier. He had been incommunicado for the previous couple of weeks.The official cover story was that he was writing several books. In reality, as I later discovered, he was having a kidney operation. Certainly—especially compared to the energetic Aquino— the dictator looked frail. He had a yellowish pallor and walked haltingly, although he displayed his customary intellectual vigor. Whatever else might be said about Marcos, no one could deny that he was very intelligent and politically shrewd. Our conversation covered the full range of issues concerning the Philippines, but since Ninoy had not yet returned, and I wasn’t planning to come back, I refrained from asking Marcos to meet with Ninoy. I left Manila for Bangkok that night, only to learn the terrible news of Ninoy’s death the next day. As I discussed it with Nina, who was with me on that trip, the first question in my mind was whether to cancel the rest of my itinerary and return to Manila to pay my respects...