World | Philippines
Aquino spurned pardon plea of husband's killers
Former President Corazon Aquino has revealed that she spurned the pardon request of 14 soldiers who were convicted as conspirators in the killing of her husband.
- By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
- Published: 00:00 August 22, 2006
- Image Credit: AP
- People stage a rally to commemorate the 23rd death anniversary of Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr in Manila’s financial district of Makati.
Manila: Former President Corazon Aquino has revealed that she spurned the pardon request of 14 soldiers who were convicted as conspirators in the killing of her husband.
In an interview with the Philippine Star, Aquino said, "They had written to me twice, once when I was president. They wrote again two years ago."
"The soldiers wrote to me asking for help to get them pardoned. How could I do that when they are still insisting that it was Roladno Galman who killed Ninoy? They have to tell the truth," said Aquino.
"I know the mastermind. It was somebody very powerful," said Aquino, adding, "It had to be the dictator."
She referred to former President Ferdinand Marcos. Her husband Benigno or "Ninoy," a Marcos critic, was killed after he disembarked with military escorts through the service stairway of a China Airlines plane on August 21, 1983.
The government's version during the time of Marcos said a former communist leader Rolando Galman managed to join the airport's ground service crew, allowing him to shoot Aquino at the tarmac.
But other witnesses said that a man in uniform shot Aquino at the back of his head while they were at the service stairway.
Aquino's funeral, attended by two million people, sparked an anti-Marcos sentiment, which culminated in a people-backed military mutiny that paved the way for the removal of Marcos, and ascendance of Aquino to power in 1986. She ruled until 1992
She personally acquitted her cousin, food tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco of his alleged liability in the murder case. He was then a business associate of Marcos.
"Danding and I have never talked [again]. But Kris [her daughter] has talked to him, and she is even doing San Miguel commercials for him."
Commenting on the lack of a definite finding on the death of her husband, Aquino said, "Don't forget the John F. Kennedy assassination case in America, the most powerful nation on earth. There are still many unresolved questions on that case up to now."
Meanwhile, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) sent a letter to President Gloria Arroyo asking her to grant pardon to the convicted killers of Aquino and Galman.
In a letter to Arroyo, Dante Jimenez, the VACC founding chairman, said, "The VACC respectfully requests Her Excellency to grant absolute pardon without necessarily admitting the guilt on the part of the ex-soldiers who were wrongly convicted of the Aquino-Galman double murder case."
"They are qualified to seek presidential pardon," said Jimenez who cited the recent repeal of the death sentence by the bicameral Congress as a basis for his request.
"They have been imprisoned for 20 years. Many of them are sick. They have co-accused who managed to leave the country," said Jimenez who asked for a re-trial, adding that the soldiers should be allowed to defend themselves with their old arguments.
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