Key players brought their secrets to the grave - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

(Last of a series)

(Editor’s Note: This final part of the series is based on interviews with lawyer Virgilio Pablico, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detective Group (CIDG) legal division; ex-Col. Irwin Ver, former commander of the Presidential Guards, the uniformed component of the Presidential Security Command (PSC); retired Col. Nicetas Katigbak, former chief of the Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police (PC-INP) component attached to the Aviation Security Command (Avsecom); retired M/Sgt. Ruben Cantimbuhan, the driver of the SWAT van; and the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) chaplain, Msgr. Roberto Olaguer. This series is based on a forthcoming Philippine Daily Inquirer book on the Aug. 21, 1983, assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr.)

When Msgr. Roberto Olaguer was first assigned as chaplain at the New Bilibid Prison in 1990, he had one “mission” from Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin: Find the truth about the Aquino assassination from the 16 soldiers convicted of the crime.

Olaguer did as he was told.

A licensed pilot and Air Force reservist, Olaguer had always wanted to learn sky diving. He found a trainor in ex-Sgt. Ernesto Mateo, who was a former member of the national skydiving team. Mateo gave him the “ground training” required before the actual jump.

The other inmates who were airborne-trained also gave tips. Between training sessions, they confided to Olaguer problems about their wives who had left them and their children who had been left to fend for themselves.

They were bitter. They were blaming each other, especially ex-MSgt. Pablo Martinez.

Martinez broke down sometime in 1992. He finally admitted that he sneaked into the tarmac of the Manila International Airport with the supposed triggerman, Rolando Galman. Galman had received final instructions to shoot Aquino—or else Martinez would shoot him—from retired Brig. Gen. Romeo Gatan and Col. Romeo Ochoco during a meeting at the Carlston Hotel.

At first, Olaguer was skeptical. He had rallied against the Marcos dictatorship. Like the majority of Filipinos, he believed one of the soldiers pulled the trigger on Aquino. Galman was just a fall guy.

Still, the chaplain pursued the story. He noticed that the individual accounts did not contradict each other. The stories seemed to fit like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

Secrets entombed

When Olaguer reported to Sin what the soldiers had told him, the archbishop of Manila was aghast. He could not believe it. He rejected it outright. Galman did not shoot Aquino; a soldier did it.

Sin died on June 21, 2005. He died clinging to the belief that a soldier shot Aquino.

The other principals also brought their secrets to the grave: Ferdinand Marcos, Gen. Fabian Ver, Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, Brigadier General Gatan and businessman Hermilo Gosuico, the lone civilian accused of the Aquino-Galman murders in the first Sandiganbayan trial of the Aquino case.

All eyes on Luther

Twenty-five years ago, most of the key players were present at a closed-door meeting that capped that highly charged and incredible afternoon of Aug. 21 when Aquino was shot.

Held in one of the conference rooms at Camp Aguinaldo, the meeting was presided by the Armed Forces chief of staff, General Ver. It was the first conference among police and military units directed by Marcos to look into the case.

Constabulary chief Lt. Gen. Fidel V. Ramos, Metrocom chief Maj. Gen. Prospero Olivas and Criminal Investigation Service (CIS) chief Brig. Gen. Hermogenes Peralta were among the generals present at the meeting.

But all eyes were on Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio of the Avsecom, the unit tasked to secure Aquino upon his return from a three-year US exile. The assassination of Aquino was a black eye to the Avsecom, an elite unit reputed to be among the best-prepared on airport security in Asia.

Soldiers ready to die

Aquino was being escorted to a vehicle that would have taken him back to his detention cell in Fort Bonifacio when he was shot supposedly by a lone assassin who had breached a 2,000-man security force deployed at the airport that day.

“Gentlemen,” Ver said in his opening statement, “this is a very tense moment for all of us.”

Ver gave a summary of what had transpired at the airport earlier in the day.

“If we are to put the soldiers in front of the firing squad to save the day for the President and the Republic, we will do that,” Ver said.

A hushed silence enveloped the hall.

Custodio’s burden

Custodio spoke. “P ... naman, Sir, bakit pag naggipit, sundalo na ang may kasalanan? (Why blame the soldiers when in a fix?)”

Custodio was on edge. He had been up since sunrise. The burden of explaining the Avsecom’s failure to protect Aquino had taken its toll on him.

Ver assured Custodio that every step would be taken to ensure that the soldiers’ rights were protected.

In September 1984, four members of the Agrava Fact-Finding Board, which Marcos had created to investigate the double murder, indicted Ver, Custodio, 23 other military men, and one civilian, Gosuico, for the “premeditated killing” of Aquino and Galman.

Acquittal and downfall

Agrava Board Chair Corazon Agrava, in a separate report, indicted only Custodio and the soldiers.

The two reports were consolidated and charges were filed in the Sandiganbayan against Ver, Custodio, 23 other military men, and Gosuico.

Ver went on leave while the trial was going on. Marcos reinstated him in November 1985 after the Sandiganbayan found all the accused “not guilty” of the charges.

In 1986, the Marcos dictatorship was toppled in the Edsa People Power Revolution that swept Aquino’s widow into power. Later that year, the Vasquez Commission—a new fact-finding panel created by the Supreme Court to look into alleged irregularities in the first Sandiganbayan trial—recommended a reopening of the Aquino-Galman case on the grounds that Marcos had “pressured” the Sandiganbayan into acquitting Ver and the other accused.

To his last breath

In 1990, the Sandiganbayan sentenced Custodio and 15 military men to double life terms for the killing of Aquino and his supposed assailant, Galman.

Custodio, who was afflicted with liver cancer while undergoing trial, died soon after the verdict was handed down.

To his last breath, Custodio maintained his innocence.

A native of Silay City, Negros Occidental, Custodio joined the Philippine Air Force Flying School in 1957. He took special pilot courses in England and Ireland, and trained on air intelligence analysis and intelligence photo analysis in the United States. He was promoted to star rank in December 1982.

He was never a pilot of Marcos, as was widely believed.

Special skills

Custodio was among select Filipino pilots with specialized training in flight operations. These special skills made him handy during Marcos’ state visits when the pilots needed to coordinate with the host countries.

He was also qualified to check out pilots of the Philippine Air Lines, who were assigned to Marcos when the dictator took commercial flights.

Custodio served as National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) director for Western Visayas, then deputy chief for intelligence at the PSC before Marcos named him Avsecom commander in May, 1982.

Custodio’s deputy, Ochoco, left the country even before the case was reopened. He was not indicted, though. There were reports he was in Australia, while other reports placed him in the United States and Canada. A 1959 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy, Ochoco will turn 73 next month.

Won’t be caught alive

Capt. Felipe Valerio, the commanding officer of the Avsecom’s special operations squadron, also insisted on his innocence among friends in the military.

Just before he left surreptitiously for the United States, Valerio told a friend that he would never allow himself to be caught alive.

A 1974 graduate of the PMA, Valerio was married to a nurse from Bulacan.

Suspected but never indicted, Gatan made no secret that he worked for businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco’s farm in Australia. He was handling mostly security matters.

He died in 2003 from a lingering illness. He was 78 years old.

His son-in-law, Gosuico, also passed away years ago.

Of the group that met at the Carlston Hotel, only Ochoco and Martinez, who is now known as Brother Paul of God’s Victorious Army, are alive.

A second Custodio

Gosuico’s companion in fetching Galman from Bulacan before Aquino was assassinated, Air Force Col. Arthur Custodio, (no relation to Luther Custodio), was elected mayor of Zaragosa, Nueva Ecija, in 1998.

Arthur Custodio was in the middle of an electoral protest in 2004 when he fell ill. In one of his trips for medical treatment abroad, he was seen at the airport by a former Avsecom member. The soldier introduced himself to Custodio, who was already in a wheelchair.

Arthur Custodio recalled the events in August 1983 that changed his life and that of his friends. He advised the soldier never to involve himself in the efforts of the Public Attorney’s Office to petition the Supreme Court to have the Aquino-Galman case reopened.

“Magugulo lang ang buhay mo (You will just complicate your life),” Custodio told the soldier.

Custodio died even before the Comelec released its decision declaring him the duly elected mayor of Zaragosa in 2004.

No memoirs, no diary

To his dying day, Ver was silent about the Aquino assassination.

Early on, he made it clear to his son that “it’s not us, there were others. But we cannot prove that.”

Ver left the country with the Marcoses at the height of the Edsa Revolution in February 1986. But he kept himself informed about the Aquino case.

When then Sen. Blas Ople announced plans to reopen the case in 1993, Ver flew to Hong Kong, ready to take the first flight to Manila to testify if called. The case was not reopened again.

In his latter years, Ver’s children awaited their father’s final words that could settle lingering doubts about his role in the Aquino assassination. The words never came.

Ver did not write his memoirs. He did not even leave a diary.

Like his Commander in Chief, Ver took his secrets to his grave.