PINAGLARUAN SI SARA

ISANG pain ang inilatag ni Senador Risa Hontiveros kay Sara Duterte. Kumagat sa pain si Sara. Hindi basta kumagat si Sara. Nagdadakdak sa pain ay isang wala halos halaga.

May kabuuang P2.035 bilyon ang panukalang budget ng OVP sa 2025 pambansang budget na P6.352 trilyon. Barya ang budget ng OVP. Mas barya ang P10 milyon panukalang budget sa aklat para sa mga bata na ipinanukala na ang mga kopya ay ipamigay ng libre sa mga bata.

Dahil sa katangahan, nagsasalita si Sara kahit hindi kailangan. Dahil sa bugso ng damdamin, Ibinisto ang sarili na ang kopya ng ay may nakatatak na pangalan niya sa harap.

Hindi niya kailangan magbigay ng mga detalye. Ang kailangan ay sagutin ni Sara ng maayos ang tanong. Ngunit pinaghandaan siya ni Risa. Hindi nagtanong ang mambabatas sa line item ng panukalang budget ng OVP na may nakagugulat na detalye.

Tinanong ni Risa si Sara sa line item ng OVP budget na labis na maliit at inakala ni Sara ay hindi kailangan itanong. Naambus si Sara. Ipinakita ni Sara ang kulay ng salawal. Naging defensive. Hindi siya nalalayo sa pusang naiihi at nagsalita ng labis na wala na sa usapan.

Wala siyang pinatunayan kundi ang kababaan ng kanyang pagkatao. Hindi siya tinanong sa confidential at intelligence funds. Hindi siya binigyan. Tuluyang ng inalis sa OVP dahil alam ng ga mambabatas na nanakawin lang ang pera.

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ISINULAT ko ito maraming taon na ang nakalipas. Aking muling inilalathala para tandaan natin ang isang kaganapan sa ating kasaysayan na hitik sa aral.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE AUG.21, 1983 ASSASSINATION OF NINOY AQUINO

Dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. hardly anticipated the costly and prolonged public outrage over the Aug. 21, 1983 assassination of top opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. Despite his reputed erudite and wily political ways, Marcos could not stop the escalation of the Aquino’s brutal murder into crisis proportions, threatening his dictatorship for the first time in a decade.

Ensconced in Malacanang after his kidney transplant surgery, Marcos watched helplessly as the Filipino people responded swiftly, overwhelmingly, and decisively on the brazen way Ninoy Aquino was killed with his military escorts at the airport tarmac.

Despite the dictatorship’s tight control over the local media, news about Aquino’s murder spread like wildfire, triggering what could be regarded as the start of the downfall of the Marcos dictatorial regime. It pricked the national conscience, so to speak, as ordinary citizens could not contain their utter shock, disbelief, and disgust over his murder committed in broad daylight. For them, Marcos had to explain a lot since the opposition leader was killed while in military custody. Moreover, the circumstances of his brutal murder showed a direct military conspiracy.

Hours after his murder, Filipinos from all walks of life – rich and poor, young, old, and the not-so-old, formed long queues to pay their last respect to Aquino, whose body was put for public viewing at the Aquinos’ residence on Times Street in Quezon City. The Aquinos neither changed the clothes he wore upon arrival in Manila nor cleaned his wound and dirtied face, enabling the world to see what they did to Ninoy. Only when he was about to be buried ten days later did they dress him up and clean his body.

Two days later, wife Cory Aquino and their kids arrived from Boston and decided to transfer his remains to a bigger and spacious venue to accommodate the increasing number of people, who paid homage to him – the Santo Domingo Church along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, which is about two kilometers away from their residence. The crowd got bigger and the lines longer, as more Filipinos started to perceive Ninoy Aquino as a martyr of Philippine democracy.

Despite the public anger and polarizing effects of the brutal murder, known supporters of the dictatorship attempted to go to the wake to show some degree of sympathy and condole with the family. But because of the tense situation, some visitors were shunned. Their rebuff revealed the deep political wounds his murder had caused. Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, the former foreign affairs minister of the Marcos dictatorship as among them. Burial marshals politely told him to leave, hurting his pride. Later, he showed a change of heart by quietly denouncing the dictatorship, claiming that Marcos used his “international stature” to get what he wanted from the Americans.

Ten days later (August 31, 1983), the longest funeral procession in Philippine history took place. An estimated two million people participated to bring Ninoy’s remains to the Manila Memorial Park in suburban Paranaque City. Almost overnight, an alphabet soup of organizations mushroomed to lead the protest demonstrations against the perceived complicity of the Marcos regime in Aquino’s murder.

Younger brother Agapito, or Butz, led in the creation of the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM), to press for the prosecution of the people behind Ninoy’s murder and signal the rise of the middle class and professionals in the protest movement against the Marcos authoritarian rule. The Justice for Aquino, Justice for All (JAJA), became the broad coalition of all opposition forces against the Marcos dictatorship

The Aug. 21, 1983 assassination of Ninoy Aquino drastically altered the political equation. It galvanized the political resolve of the democratic opposition, as they went to the extent of pressing for the resignation of Marcos, whom the opposition leaders thought had blood in his hands. They demanded an end for one-man rule, and transition to democracy. It served as the single spark to enhance communist insurgency in the country, as rebels recruited more adherents, staged more ambushes against government troopers, and intensified armed struggle.

The assassination also provided the impetus for the middle class to join the protest movement against Marcos dictatorial rule. Business executives and their staff went out of their offices to join protest demonstrations. The usually placid business district of Makati, or the Ayala district, became the hotbed of activism and protest demonstrations against Marcos. It weakened the ruling Kilusang Bagong Lipunan coalition, as its members began to doubt Marcos. Overall, Marcos never felt it so bad until the Ninoy Aquino murder took place.

Even the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Manila, as represented by Ambassador Michael Armacost, were so surprised by the public outrage, prompting them to start distancing themselves from Marcos. Seeing the magnitude and depth of the collective public anger over Aquino’s murder, Armacost avoided getting cozy and warm again with the dictatorship, as he treated them at an arm’s length and with ultimate formality. Where before Armacost was photographed dancing with Imelda, the ambassador avoided her except on formal occasions. It was a sharp contrast to the friendship which the Marcoses enjoyed with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and wife Nancy. (May karugtong)