THE Plaza Miranda bombing of Aug. 21, 1971 concerns the deadly attack on the Liberal Party proclamation rally in the city of Manila for its senatorial and local candidates, which left nine people dead and 95 others injured. Since the LP was the opposition to the ruling Nacionalista Party of President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., it was natural that some people would blame Marcos. Marcos then shifted the blame to his LP rival, Ninoy Aquino, who was absent at the rally, and to the communist guerrillas called the Huks. Both sides at the time did not present credible evidence of their allegations, but both parties used the event to their advantage. The Liberal Party framed it as an attack on democracy itself, Plaza Miranda being a symbol of free speech. President Magsaysay was wont to ask about any policy his government was contemplating: “Can we defend it at Plaza Miranda?” Six of the eight Senate seats in that year’s election were won by the slate whose candidates were injured in the bombing. Marcos suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus which was said to be the dry run for his proclamation of martial law the following year.

The breakthrough in the case occurred when Ariel Almendral, a former New People’s Army (NPA) cadre, and Victor Corpus, an instructor at the Philippine Military Academy who defected to the NPA, confided in the 1980s to Sen. Jovito Salonga, one of those who were wounded in the bombing, that they were witnesses to the NPA trial of a certain Danny Cordero whom they heard to have claimed that he had been the one who carried out the Plaza Miranda bombing on orders from the higherups in their movement. Cordero was convicted and was executed in July 1972 by a cadre named Ruben Guevarra. Guevarra and Corpus’ claims have been extensively written about and in the interest of saving space, I will cite their works so people can consult them. Salonga summarized his findings on the Plaza Miranda bombing based on the transcript of an unfinished Senate investigation post-EDSA in his book The Task of Building a Better Nation, Corpus in his memoir The Silent War, and Guevarra wrote a monograph The Story Behind the Plaza Miranda Bombing, published in 1998 by the Katotohanan at Katarungan Foundation Inc., a known publisher of authors who defended the Marcos legacy. Salonga publicly gave interviews about it in TV documentaries in 2002 (“Lakas Sambayanan”) and 2008 (“Newsmakers”). I have mentioned the claims based on these sources in many lectures and discussions.

Add American journalist Gregg Jones, who, as early as 1989, published these claims in Red Revolution: Inside the Philippine Guerrilla Movement. Historian Joseph Scalice literally leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the primary sources and wrote a chapter about it in his thesis, “Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1957-1974.” The whole work is accessible online. It is not true that no credible journalist and historian has ever dealt with this issue.

Ever since this claim surfaced the leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has denied responsibility. The famed “Kumander Dante” (Bernabe Buscayno), claimed in a 1997 interview, “Noong panahon na iyon lahat yata ng nangyayari ay bine-blame sa amin. Noong panahon na iyon nagagalit kami at nag-iisip sino kaya itong gumagawa ng ganitong intriga, iniisip namin mayroong nagpapaaway ano. Marami kaming pinaghihinalaan, pinakamalapit na maituturo mo ang mga grupo ni Marcos.”

Of course, as Ninotchka Rosca asked as early as Sept. 3, 1971, “… Where in God’s name is Benigno Aquino Jr. the so-called Wonder Boy?” He was not running, but he sure should have attended to support them.

The assumption of the alleged complicity of Ninoy Aquino in the Plaza Miranda bombing is based on the fact that Aquino and the CPP leadership were really close at that time. As I have written before, the pre-martial law Ninoy (before his transformation in prison) was a ruthless traditional politician who used the communists for his own political advantage. But apparently, as Scalice established, most everyone was doing it, including members of the Liberal Party and Marcos Sr. himself who used the commanders from the older Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas. This is not enough evidence.

But there is also a claim that Ninoy warned two party mates not to go to Plaza Miranda, and said he might not go himself but if he did, he would just make a “dramatic entrance.” He was always the last speaker anyway so the crowd would wait for him. Could he have been informed beforehand at least?

Apparently, he was attending the “despedida de soltera” of Doy Laurel’s daughter Suzie at the Jai Alai Skyroom, which is just a few minutes’ drive to Plaza Miranda. It was said that Ninoy decided to stop by his house first to put on his bulletproof vest before going to the rally.

The sources mentioned apparently produced more questions about the matter than a final verdict. More next week.

To be continued on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022.