SPECIAL REPORT
‘The most suspicious soldier on the tarmac’
By Fe Zamora
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:31:00 08/25/2008
Filed Under: Assassination, Government, Politics, Crime
Read Part 4: 4 innocents picked up, never to be seen again
Read Part 1: Fewer than 10 people in plot; 5 core, 5 others ‘in the know’
Read Part 2: Marcos: ‘My best successor is Ninoy’
Read Part 3: The Pattugalan Memos on Project ‘Four Flowers’
(Fifth of a series)
(Editor’s note: This part of the series on the Aquino assassination was based on interviews with Msgr. Roberto Olaguer, chaplain at the New Bilibid Prisons; lawyer Virgilio Pablico, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group legal division, who was a Criminal Investigation Service investigator in 1983; ex-Sgt. Ernesto Mateo, one of the 16 soldiers convicted for the Aquino-Galman double slaying; retired M/Sgt. Ruben Cantimbuhan, driver of the SWAT van; and the sworn statements of convicted Sergeants Rolando de Guzman, Rodolfo Desolong, Ruben Aquino and Pablo Martinez, which were filed in August 2004 in their bid to reopen their case.)
Over two decades after the assassination of opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr., Sgt. Rolando de Guzman can still see the grin on Rolando Galman’s face on that sweltering afternoon of Aug. 21, 1983.
Prisoner No. 140213 would be haunted by the grin. This was what De Guzman confided to Msgr. Roberto Olaguer, the chaplain.
“He could not forget Galman’s face, that Galman was laughing, that Galman looked very happy. Kulang na lang tumalon (Almost jumping for joy), I did it! I did it!” Olaguer quoted De Guzman as saying.
In the report of the Agrava Board which investigated the double killing of Aquino and Galman, the alleged assassin, Philippine Airlines ground engineer Rolando Balang testified he saw Galman grin at the soldiers just after the first shot was heard.
According to the report, Balang had a full view of Galman’s face and raised arms. But he did not see Galman’s hands or whether he was holding a gun. Balang also saw the soldiers shoot Galman. The engineer, however, said he did not see who shot Aquino. All he heard was a gunshot and when he looked in the direction of the gunfire, he saw Galman smiling at the soldiers.
Based on Olaguer’s recollection of De Guzman’s account, the sergeant was standing on the rear bumper of the SWAT van when he saw a man in a blue polo shirt dart behind a man in white and fire a gun, pointblank, at the man’s head.
A bemedalled sharpshooter, De Guzman pulled his .45-cal. pistol and trained it on the assailant, who was grinning, almost laughing at the soldiers. He seemed to be telling them, “I did it! I did it!”
De Guzman would not be distracted. He pulled the trigger. Bang! He fired again. And again. The grin on Galman’s face dissolved into a grimace as his back hit the tarmac, just a few feet away from the prone figure of the man in white, Ninoy Aquino.
De Guzman quickly closed the metal door of the van, leaving it slightly ajar, intently listening to movements from the outside. Seated across from him on the metal bench running along the side of the van, Sgt. Ernesto Mateo gripped his Armalite. Sgt. Rodolfo Desolong was shouting: “May kalaban! Baba! Baba! (There’s an enemy! Go down! Go down!)”
Gunplay expected
The door of the van opened wide. Mateo jumped out, aimed his Armalite at the body of Galman. AIC Cordoba Estelo followed suit, then De Guzman. A fusillade reverberated across the airport.
Galman’s arm jerked upward as De Guzman emptied his .45-cal. pistol on the body of the fellow dressed as an airline maintenance crew member.
Among the members of Team Alpha assigned to the airport tarmac, De Guzman alone was expecting gunplay that day. He announced it so himself, in the morning, when the SWAT van drove onto the restricted apron of the airport.
“You think there’s no action today? You just wait,” he crowed, cocking his .45-cal. automatic at the same time. The other soldiers just looked at him, holding on to their Armalite rifles.
‘Best shot’
De Guzman knew because M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez let him in on a “secret” one day in July. Meeting behind the carpool, Martinez recruited De Guzman to the “special operation team” in preparation for the return of Aquino from US exile. It was a secret mission on orders of Col. Romeo Ochoco, deputy chief of the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom).
Martinez was not the only one interested in De Guzman’s skills as a marksman. On Aug. 19, Ochoco sent his driver, Sgt. Franklin Maniego, to scout for Avsecom’s “best shot.” Maniego ended up talking to De Guzman.
The ace shot would not be seen around the office premises until Aug. 21. He showed up just as Team Alpha was preparing to drive off for the tarmac.
Capt. Felipe Valerio, commanding officer of the Special Operations Squadron (SOS), did not want De Guzman in Team Alpha. When De Guzman boarded the van, Valerio ordered him to get off. The sergeant boarded the van again; Valerio ordered him to get off again. Valero’s actions puzzled the soldiers.
Sometime before 7 a.m., Ochoco sent Valerio the final instruction: “Eliminate enemy or friendly forces that will harm the ex-senator.” When Valerio held the final briefing on Oplan Balikbayan, the much vaunted military security plan for Aquino’s arrival, he made sure De Guzman was there.
De Guzman had to be on the tarmac because he had “shoot-to-kill” orders from Ochoco. The specific target was “anyone who would do harm on Aquino.” Soldier or stranger, it did not matter. Orders were orders.
Vivid recollection
De Guzman’s recollection of what happened was always vivid. He would show Olaguer how Galman had dashed from under the aircraft stairs and fired a gun at Aquino’s head. De Guzman, his foot on the bumper of the van, aimed at Galman’s head and face.
Olaguer understood De Guzman’s predicament. “I think he’s suffering from bad conscience,” he said.
De Guzman was also suffering from hypertension, diabetes and assorted complications resulting from two strokes that left half of his body paralyzed.
When the Inquirer saw him in February, De Guzman could hardly talk. His speech was slurred, his eyes often out of focus. Saliva dribbled from his mouth.
He was fast losing control of his body, which had become bloated with fat. He had also become emotional.
“Ang laki ng katawan, iyakin naman (He’s a big man but a crybaby). I can’t bear to see him,” Olaguer said. He felt De Guzman knew more than what he said was bothering him.
The suspicion had been there long before Olaguer came into the picture.
‘Why are you here?’
For Team Alpha, Martinez topped the list of “suspects” who “knew” the real story behind the Aquino assassination.
Martinez had no assignment in Oplan Balikbayan. Neither was he at Valerio’s briefing that morning in the squadron’s office in the Quick Reaction Center.
Yet, when Aquino’s body was loaded onto the van, Martinez quickly followed.
“Why are you here? You were not at the briefing? Get out, get out!” the troops shouted.
Amid the shouts, one soldier pointed his Armalite at Martinez.
Hovering chopper
Hovering over the SWAT van was a Volko 105 helicopter, fueling more tension among the Team Alpha members. Friend or foe? They did not know who were in the Volko. The smell of gunpowder and blood reeked in the van.
“That’s enough. Stop it,” Captain Valerio barked from the front seat. “Leave him alone.”
The van sped to the Army counterintelligence unit in Fort Bonifacio. Valerio showed the senator’s bloodied body to an officer in barong tagalog. After 20 minutes, the driver proceeded to the Army hospital, where Aquino was pronounced dead on arrival.
Martinez never explained to Team Alpha why he was on the tarmac that day.
Never told Agrava Board
Neither did Martinez reveal to the Criminal Investigation Service and the Agrava Board created by President Ferdinand Marcos to investigate the Aquino slaying, that he had escorted Galman to the tarmac, where he could carry out his mission of shooting the returning senator.
Martinez was introduced to Galman by Ochoco at the Carlston Hotel on Aug. 19. With Ochoco and Galman were retired Brig. Gen. Romeo Gatan, former chief of the Northern Luzon Command, and his in-law, millionaire businessman Hermilo Gosuico.
Galman was released on bail from the Camp Olivas stockade in December 1982. Four months later, he was the subject of a new warrant issued for the holdup of a Fortune Tobacco delivery van in Nueva Ecija.
Martinez was told that Aquino would be shot upon arrival at the airport and that Galman was the designated triggerman.
In their final briefing on the morning of Aug. 21, Gatan instructed Martinez to shoot Galman if Galman failed to shoot the former senator. Galman was also given the impression that the soldiers assigned to secure Aquino knew about his role in the plot.
Secretive sergeants
Martinez kept the secret to himself.
Indicted by the Agrava Board, Martinez and the Team Alpha members were ordered confined to barracks at Villamor Air Base while undergoing trial before the Sandiganbayan.
The special court acquitted them in late 1985. The Edsa People Power Revolution in February 1986 ended the Marcos dictatorship. Months later, the Supreme Court had the case reopened, ordering Martinez and company back to the stockade at Villamor.
The confinement served to revive old doubts and suspicions.
The accused soldiers were particularly watchful of Martinez and his buddy, De Guzman, because of their suspicious outings from the Villamor stockade.
A very suspicious co-accused once tailed the “secretive sergeants.”
When the two took off on a military jeep, he followed on his bicycle. He trailed them to the house of Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, their former chief at Avsecom and one of the principal accused, who was then under house arrest.
The suspicions got worse when the accused were moved from Villamor to Muntinlupa to begin their double-life sentences in September 1990.
Blame game
When Olaguer first met the convicts in December that year, the chaplain recalled harsh words flying across the room, like: “Yong may mga alam dyan, magsalita na. Iba na ito, nasa Bilibid na tayo (Those who are in the know should start talking. Things have changed, we are already in Bilibid).”
“They were blaming each other, they were bitter,” Olaguer said.
Those who were too shy to speak out scrawled to-whom-it-may-concern graffiti on the walls of the prison dormitory and toilet rooms.
One graffiti said: “Walang lihim na hindi nabubunyag. Walang baho na hindi sisingaw. (Nothing remains a secret. Everything that rots will reek).”
The intention was to pry open the consciences of the soldiers who may have known about the plan.
Among themselves, the convicts worked to strip away the layers of compartmentalization ingrained in their military training.
The targets of their “conscientization” included De Guzman, because he seemed to know there was going to be a “shooting” that day; ex-Sgt. Claro Lat, one of Aquino’s escorts, who urged the senator to hurry down the stairs seconds before he was shot; and Martinez, the odd man who showed up on the tarmac even though he had no assignment with Oplan Balikbayan.
If he were around, Captain Valerio would have been a target too, for ordering the troops to “ignore Martinez,” the most suspicious soldier on the tarmac.
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