Danding Cojuangco, the mastermind behind Aquino murder?

It has been said so many times already, if Marcos wanted to kill Ninoy, He could have done it conveniently anytime while Ninoy was languishing in jail for seven years.

Ninoy was even sentenced to death by a military tribunal, but Marcos didn’t carry out the verdict.
When Ninoy needed an urgent heart-bypass, Imelda Marcos personally arranged for his flight to the U.S. together with his wife Cory and all their kids.

While in the U.S, Marcos didn’t fail to warn Ninoy of an intelligence report that the Communists will kill him should he return to the country.

And so, on that fateful day of Aug 21 1983, using the alias ‘Marcial Bonifacio‘ in a fake passport, Ninoy was daringly assasinated while disembarking from the plane. He was shot in close range before he could even set foot again in his native land.

The intel report was only partially accurate. The threat did not come from the Communists, but from within a certain quarter of the government itself. A military conspiracy it was, but Marcos has nothing to do with it. The military officers who were tasked by the president to arrest and secure Ninoy upon arrival, apparently took a second instruction, from the brains behind the plot.

The objective was to bring down Marcos. Killing Ninoy was merely ‘the means to an end‘. And true enough, Marcos was the convenient suspect, and his downfall came after just three short years.

So who did it?

Danding Cojuangco

First degree cousin of Cory and uncle of Noynoy. Blood family.

Pablo Martinez, one of the soldiers convicted for the Aquino murder in 1990, spilled the beans as early as 1994. He became a born-again christian inside Bilibid and related to his fellow inmates the real story.

He named Danding Cojuangco as the mastermind behind the espionage.

M/Sgt Pablo Martinez

Martinez gave a chilling recount of the events leading to Aug 21 1983 and that, ‘Cojuangco boys’ paid the expenses in plotting the kill. read more: Newsbreak 11/23/07 story

Indifference

But Cory & Noynoy did not pursue this revelation. With the warm relationship between the two Aquino presidents (the widow and the son of Ninoy) and the United States, why did they never ask for assistance in the repatriation of two former military officers hiding in the US. Two crucial figures who were considered as the missing link in the quest for answer in Ninoy’s death. Read more: Manila Times story by Rigoberto Tiglao

Former Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales once divulged that early in her presidency, Cory was offered by an eyewitness to divulge the truth in exchange for a guarantee of protection for her family. President Cory asked who will be implicated by the witness. “Danding” Gonzales told her. “That’s stupendous” Cory reacted. The said witness vanished after that, never to be heard of again.

Death of a witness

In 2014, while biking in Roxas boulevard, Martinez was run over by an SUV vehicle. Witnesses said it was no accident. Read more: Interaksyon story on Pablo Martinez

Closure

If Cory and Ninoy did not show interest in knowing the truth, could it be because they knew it all along? For me, these are easy to connect dots. Few days from today, we will commemorate the 33rd anniversary of Ninoy’s martyrdom. It is time to put closure to the issue.

In August 21, 1983, Ninoy and Marcos both died that day.