Noynoy marks pa's death in private MANILA – Twenty-seven years after the assassination of former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., his family Saturday said they still seek the truth about his death but that they have already forgiven his killers. The killing sparked the first People's Power revolt in the Philippines in 1986 that led to the fall of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power and the installation of Aquino's wife, Corazon, to the presidency. On May 10 this year, the couple's son, Benigno Aquino III was also elected president to replace Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. At a wreath-laying ceremony to mark the 27th death anniversary of Aquino, Ballsy Aquino-Cruz – President Benigno Aquino III's eldest sister – said. like their mother, the siblings have forgiven their father's killers. “Every time we commemorate his death anniversary, we are asked, ‘How are you? Do you still feel anger against those who killed your father?' Like our mother, we have already forgiven them,” said Aquino-Cruz. She said the Aquino family still hopes that one of the soldiers convicted for the crime but pardoned by Arroyo last year would someday speak out to tell the truth about what really happened and who were the brains behind the assassination. Marcos and the military said Aquino was killed by a man named Rolando Galman who had allegedly slipped into the tight military cordon at the airport tarmac. Galman was shot dead by soldiers. A fact-finding committee that investigated the 1983 killing convicted more than a score of soldiers for the assassination but fall short of naming the brains behind the double murder. “We hope that one of those pardoned by President Arroyo last year would be able to reveal what really happened that day,” she said. Earlier, President Aquino said he will mark his father's death anniversary for the first time as the country's chief executive “solemnly and privately.” He said he would visit his father's grave at the Manila Memorial Park where his mother, popularly known by his nickname Cory, was buried beside her husband when she died of colon cancer on Aug. 1 last year. “Hopefully, I will be given some opportunity to pray for him in peace rather than to have a circus there,” he said, referring to previous visits to his parents' grave that media turned into political events. Under instruction from the president, Malacanang officials kept Aquino's schedule of activities Saturday away from the media. On Thursday, the president said he could not help a feeling of resentment every time he remembers his father's assassination. In a press conference Friday, Aquino said he still found it difficult to look at the van where his father was dumped by soliders allegedy to be carried to the hospital. The van is now rotting at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City. “Looking at the van does not bring any good memories to me and, in fact, it might induce a lot of anger that, of course, I cannot allow to fester nor to express, being the president of the republic. I have to divorce the personal side from my public obligations,” he said. He noted that court records on the murder of his father and his alleged assassin contain a portion that says the military van took a “tour” instead of bringing his father immediately to a hospital. He said a military general “stopped the van ostensibly on their way to the medical facility to inquire as to whether or not my father had already died” which suggested that the general wanted to ensure that his father was dead. Aquino said the court noted that his father's head was “hit by the rifle of one of the people inside the van to ensure that he died.” Thousands of Filipinos trooped to the People Power Monument in Quezon City and other sites across the country to commemorate Ninoy's 27th death anniversary, waving flags with the image of the man who became an icon of Philippine democracy. Government leaders, including Vice President Jejomar Binay and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, joined the celebration. In Ninoy's home province of Tarlac, local officials offered flowers and lighted candles at his monument. They released balloons and doves to symbolize freedom and democracy.
