The forgotten carnage

NOW fully conscious I realized what had really happened. I turned around to look for my wife Sylvi and saw her being dragged to safety farther back over a rubble of chairs with the other women on the stage. I shall never forget the expression on the face of Manila Times photographer Ben Roxas when he looked at me, blood gushing from his neck. Only a few minutes earlier, I had been shouting to him over the noisy crowd: “Ben! ‘Yung kopya ko, ipadala mo na lang sa opisina, okey?” To which he shouted back: “Areglado Ed, basta ikaw!” Crawling on the floor with much difficulty I heard the painful moan of Sonny Osmeña sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood; to his left was Jovy Salonga lying still, moaning faintly in utter pain. In a few seconds my men carried me away to my car which sped away toward Singian Clinic which my brother Romy said in his meeting with my security men earlier that day was the nearest hospital from Plaza Miranda, “in case any untoward incident happened.”

It was almost daybreak the next day when I was wheeled out of the operating room. Four fragments were extracted from my side a few millimeters from my right kidney; at least 12 other pieces came out of my right leg just above the ankle, the bones shattered to pieces and held in place later with metal wires and screws. Dr. Antonio Caniza, one of the country’s best orthopedic surgeons had saved my leg – saved my life.

There were nine reported dead and scores wounded. At least 34 of those wounded were on the stage, including all eight senatorial candidates, some of the local candidates for Manila, their wives, and top political leaders. Very little has been written about those wounded among the audience on the ground some due to grenade fragments, but mostly due to horrifying stampede that ensued after the blasts. Succeeding reports were focused mainly on the candidates, hardly about the nonentities in the audience. There were many other victims who were not reported to the media or to the police. We found out that at least five more died later; it was hard to trace them as their bodies have been brought home while others were buried in unknown cemeteries.

When Corazon Aquino was installed as president after the EDSA People Power uprising, the “steak commandos” (as dubbed by some columnists) who escaped to the US returned to our country, including Jovito Salonga who eventually became senate president. He reopened an investigation of that carnage and said that it was Jose Maria Sison, the top Communist who masterminded the bombing; some of the cadre members under him similarly testified under oath in that Senate investigation. When interviewed by media after the bombing, all the Liberal Party candidates said that it was Marcos who masterminded the bombing; we said that we don’t believe it was Marcos but the “the ideologues of the left” who did it to the consternation of our partymates. Salonga’s investigation vindicated us. But Sison, who was jailed by Marcos years earlier, and set free by Pres. Cory Aquino, had already flown to Europe.

Ninoy had visited us in our house at 5 a.m. that day. He sat with us for just a few minutes and asked us if we were ready with the subject matter assigned to us for our speech that night; as he was leaving, by the door he turned around and told us in confidence that he would be away for a couple of days to raise funds for the party.

If Mario Aldeguer, my security, had obeyed us to go back to my house for the kaldereta to delay our arrival at Plaza Miranda, we would not have been there like Ninoy when the two grenade exploded.) Was the person who positioned the spotlights in front of the stage a part of the crime? Why did not the authorities under Pres. Cory Aquino arrest the persons who confessed to have been co-conspirators of Joma Sison? Who else will come out into the open and confess the truth? There are many little-known stories of courage, compassion, and generosity amidst that horrible incident; stories which will never be forgotten and will remain in the hearts of those who know. It was a dark page in our political history, it was also the shining hour of the Filipino. To express sympathy and show its outrage, the whole country did not sleep that night. Many people brought out guns long hidden in their homes and unable to control their rage, fired discriminately in the air, some built bonfires in the middle of the streets, others just stayed awake and prayed. It is worth to note that those who were lucky to escape unscathed returned to the scene to help carry the wounded to the nearest hospital.

What will remain vivid in the mind of those who were there and are still alive are the courage and loyalty of those who risked personal safety to help the victims specially the doctors and nurses who sympathized and went out of their way and gave their services to the wounded for free; others gave financial assistance to those who are too poor to pay hospital bills. Forty six years have passed in a country replete with memorable and painful events. The Plaza Miranda carnage, now forgotten by an insensitive government grown callous by so much political violence in its history, sadly shall be one of the unsolved – ignored – crimes of the century. Will the criminals be brought to justice or escape retribution and remain free? Be aware – Judicium Dei, the judgment of God is nigh!