Word: aquinos
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...never once lost his composure. Under persistent questioning from Andres Narvasa, the commission's general counsel, he said that the government in February 1983 first learned from unnamed informants of a purported plot to assassinate Aquino. At that time he launched an intelligence operation dubbed Four Flowers, to "collate" information about the plot. In August, a few days before Aquino's return, Ver said, the chief government informant had unaccountably disappeared, not to resurface until well after Aquino's death. Ver testified that despite his orders to "locate the person behind the plot," by the day Aquino...
...that time, however, the government was nonetheless convinced that Aquino risked death if he returned to the Philippines. Accordingly, the opposition leader was warned by the government not to return. Two days before Aquino's arrival, Ver said, he ordered his men to launch Operation Homecoming, an elaborate plan to protect Aquino and deliver him to the proper authorities. Under that arrangement, if the politician arrived in Manila without a valid passport and visa, he would be denied entry. If Aquino did have the proper documents (an impossibility since the Philippine government had refused them to him), then...
...last minute, however, the plan was changed. Said Ver: "Early in the morning of Aug. 21, we realized that we could no longer discourage him from coming." Thereupon a decision was made to arrest Aquino on the basis of a 1977 death sentence for murder and subversion. To facilitate that move, Ver said, he turned over documents to General Luther Custodio, commander of Aviation Security Command (AVSECOM), that "affirmed" Aquino's death sentence...
...then told the commission he was at his office on the grounds of the presidential palace, six miles from the airport, when Custodio informed him that Aquino had been killed by an unknown assailant. Ver said he quickly broke the news to Marcos. "The President was shocked," he reported. "He expressed a feeling of disbelief for this tragic incident." Under questioning, Ver denied he had informed Marcos that the killer was a Communist. Yet Marcos made just that assertion the next day in a television address...
...testimony left some questions unanswered. How could he claim that Aquino faced a death sentence, when the matter was still under appeal? How could military officials not have known which plane Aquino would be on? How could the nation's top military officer be so astonishingly ill informed about the entire affair? The Philippine public, which after five months of testimony before the commission has grown increasingly skeptical of government witnesses, will have another chance to hear this one. Ver is scheduled to return to the stand this week...