Stepping Out of the Shadows

By Russ Hoyle

New witnesses cast doubt on the official version of Aquino's murder

The second commission appointed by President Ferdinand Marcos to investigate the Aug. 21 assassination of former Senator Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino was running up one blind alley after another. The five-member board had heard 43 witnesses, most of them soldiers assigned to protect Marcos' chief political rival on his ill-fated return to the Philippines from exile in the U.S. Their stories were monotonously similar: at the moment of the slaying, each had been "searching the perimeter" of the security cordon for troublemakers. On hearing the fatal gunshot, each had turned back toward the plane from which Aquino had disembarked only seconds before, just in time to see a blue-uniformed gunman behind Aquino shoot him in the back of the head at pointblank range.

The litany had become so predictable that spectators at the public hearings in Manila's steel-and-glass Social Security System building groaned at each recitation. Then last week the room began to buzz expectantly as former Appeals Court Judge and Commission Chairman Corazon Agrava announced a brief recess because of "an important development." The commission members took the elevator to the twelfth floor, then quietly descended to the parking lot and were whisked to Bangkal, a seedy area of Makati across town.

At their destination, the offices of two Manila lawyers, they listened with rapt attention to the secret testimony of Ramon Balang, 28, a Philippine Airlines ground mechanic who had been present at Manila International Airport on the day of the shooting. Balang's revelations were galvanizing: he was the first airport witness to give testimony under oath that is contrary to the military version of the event. His story raised grim new questions about the Marcos regime's contention that Aquino had been killed by Rolando Galman, a hired gun with alleged Communist ties. Said Juan David, a representative of the All-Asia Bar Association and an independent observer of the commission's proceedings: "The government story is beginning to collapse."

The events that brought Balang to the dramatic impromptu hearing had been both circuitous and frightening. On Dec. 27, he was given a hand-carried letter asking him to report for questioning at the Criminal Investigation Service (CIS). Balang refused. Then, remarkably, the armed bearer of the letter, who claimed to be a CIS officer, offered to take him to see Marcos himself. Again, Balang said no. That night another messenger arrived, saying that a Colonel Diego of the Presidential Security Command wanted to see him.

The frightened Balang sought refuge for the night at the home of his attorneys. Balang's alarm was understandable. His name had been left off the airline assignment sheet the day of the killing, and thus had not appeared on official witness lists for the investigation. Moreover, he felt conscience-bound to challenge the government's version of the murder. His lawyers, after taping his version of the shooting, set up the private commission hearing the following day.

Balang's appearance before the Agrava commission was a blow to the government. Agrava confirmed that Balang's house had been staked out by people calling themselves CIS agents, and, in an act of considerable courage, she arranged protection for the witness. In his testimony, Balang questioned that Galman could have pulled the trigger. "I heard a shot, and when I looked back, the man in white [Aquino] was falling down," Balang recounted. "At that moment, I saw [Galman] just standing there parallel to Aquino, surrounded by members of the Aviation Security Command (AVSECOM). He was smiling. He was partly hidden, but the palms of his hands were open as though he was handing something to them. Then I heard a shot and saw Galman fall down ... from what I saw, Galman had no chance to even approach Aquino."

Balang's decision to speak out was prompted, in part, by a statement four days earlier by Reuben Regalado, 25, also a mechanic at Philippine Airlines. In a television interview in Tokyo, Regalado claimed that he had seen Galman stand ing with a group of soldiers near one of two AVSECOM vehicles. Regalado said he had an unimpeded view of the stairway as Aquino debarked, flanked by two AVSECOM escorts. Regalado could recall no one directly beneath the plane's fuse lage or under the stairway.

Then he heard the shot. "The man with sunglasses to the Senator's left had turned toward him," said Regalado. "I did not notice anyone immediately behind the trio. As Aquino began to crumple, some one, I believe it was Mr. Galman, was warded off from the front of the group [as it headed toward the van] by the soldier wearing sun glasses, the left escort. Mr. Aquino had fallen forward to the pavement. Mr. Galman was standing at the rear corner of the van nearest me, his arms fully raised and holding a gun with two hands. It appeared someone was holding his wrists. The left escort fired at Galman from a squatting position near the body [of Aquino]. Galman's arms flew apart, his gun released, and he fell perhaps three yards from Aquino."

The separate -- and slightly differing -- accounts of Balang and Regalado departed dramatically from the official description. According to both versions, Galman never got within pointblank range behind Aquino as military wit nesses had claimed. Moreover, Galman had not been pushed off balance by one of Aquino's escorts and then shot -- rather, he "was knocked down by a bullet as he held a gun with two hands over his head." Though the TV report was not aired in the Philippines, and is not admissible as official testimony, it received coverage in Manila newspapers. Lawyers acting on behalf of the AVSECOM troopers involved promptly filed a $350,000 criminal libel suit against Regalado. Fearing for his life, Regalado said he would remain in hiding.

The government reacted quickly. In an interview with the Tokyo daily Mainichi Shimbun, Marcos called the airline workers' statements "altogether unfounded -- lies." Declared Rodolfo Jimenez, counsel for the AVSECOM witnesses, of Ba lang's testimony: "It amounts to nothing.

He did not say categorically that he saw a soldier fire at the late Senator." True enough, but his testimony was the commission's first break in the case. This week, Agrava and her colleagues are scheduled to go to Taiwan and Japan to interview other witnesses.

-- By Russ Hoyle.

Reported by Sandra Burton/Manila

With reporting by Sandra Burton/Manila