The Plaza Miranda bombing syndrome
“When a syndrome is paired with a definite cause, this becomes a disease.” -Wikipedia
THE Plaza Miranda bombing syndrome has been my private reckoning of how a big political lie is promoted to achieve massive wide poisoning of the people’s minds in order to bring about desired social upheaval.
On Aug. 21, 1971, a big political rally of the Liberal Party (LP) at the Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila was rocked by grenade blasts that killed two girl vendors and injured more than a hundred people, topped by the local Manila candidates and the entire LP senatorial ticket in that year’s midterm elections, except just a single one — Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. Why despite his being the top LP man, Ninoy was absent from the event had not been a big deal at the time, as the spontaneous reaction of the public to the incident was intense rage against President Ferdinand E. Marcos whom Ninoy had successfully played up in the media as the perpetrator of the bombing.
Such precisely is the similar situation suspended Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Gen. Gerald Bantag is finding himself in now. The slaying of broadcast journalist Percival Mabasa, aka Percy Lapid, and Bilibid Prison inmate Jun Villamor, the identified middleman who gave the order to Joel Escorial to kill Lapid, are being imputed to him.
But just as Marcos Sr. would never be expected to even think at all of bombing the Plaza Miranda rally because it would surely be attributed to him, so General Bantag would not do the killings he is being accused of precisely for that reason.
In his commentary program, former Palace spokesman Harry Roque opined that having widely exposed himself as interested in seeking redress from a broadcast by Lapid picturing him as a corrupt government official enriching himself in office, General Bantag is not likely to commit the murder of Lapid, knowing that it would definitely be imputed to him. According to Roque, this is one big factor which the court will consider in deciding whether General Bantag would be judged guilty of the crime “beyond reasonable doubt,” a condition for conviction.
On Lapid’s criticism of the “Cinderella Man” whom he accused of enriching himself in office, General
Bantag had realized this was really no big deal, and so he decided to let the issue pass just like that.
On Villamor’s case, any untoward incident happening to him — most especially after he had been identified as the middleman who could tell who the mastermind is — would definitely be blamed on General Bantag. All the more reason, therefore, that the general would not wish to kill the inmate, knowing that the blame for the murder would fall on him.
One very noticeable phenomenon at the time of the killing of Percy Lapid was the resurgence of the illegal drugs trade. Here and there in the National Capital Region were occasions of seizure by authorities of huge volumes of illegal drugs. This was the time, remember, when Juanito Jose Diaz Remulla 3rd, the son of Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, was appre
hended by the PDEA in possession of high grade marijuana worth P1.5 million. The killing of Percy Lapid has completely buried the issue of Secretary Remulla’s son’s arrest, including the sacking of longtime PDEA chief Wilkins Villanueva — which hardly got played up in the media — just days after the apprehension.
Now, by crushing the illegal drugs syndicate inside the New Bilibid Prison, had not General Bantag actually struck at the root of the illegal drugs trade in the country? If so, then he had to go. Here surfaced Percy Lapid’s sole usefulness: as a media man, his death effectively served as a trigger for setting in motion the mechanism for the demolition of General Bantag in the eyes of the public. But then again, whoever killed Lapid must be the one who would benefit from his death. As the evidence attests, General Bantag is getting all the flak from Lapid’s killing, including his being sacked from his post as BuCor chief. So, why is he being accused of a crime he could not have even thought of committing at all?
The general particularly decries Secretary Remulla zeroing in on him. There is no direct link whatsoever connecting him to the deaths of Lapid and Villamor. Why not focus on the Remulla son whose importation and possession of high-grade marijuana have been clearly established?
“I-press con mo rin ang anak mo. Sabi ng taumbayan baka may middleman din dito. At kung may middleman, baka may mastermind din. Baka ang mastermind ay si Secretary Remulla,”
General Bantag conjectured in an interview, recalling that once upon a time, the secretary went on vacation in the Cordilleras and it became public knowledge that he was a heavy marijuana user. “Pa-drug test ka,” the general challenged Remulla. On Secretary Remulla’s challenge for him to surrender, General Bantag snaps peskily: “Surrender? Ang bugok. Bakit, may warrant of arrest ba ako? Abogado pa namang naturingan. Saan ba ito nag-aral?”
In one interview, General Bantag explodes in veritable aria, his words, repeatedly addressed to the highest official of the Department of Justice, splashing with the color, tang and timber of lingua franca which the multitudes of ordinary masses never tire of doting on for being truly expressive of their own individual struggles for justice.
“Step down, Secretary Boying. Wala kang credibility. Wala ka nang moral ascendancy sa puwesto mo sa DoJ. Hindi ganyan ang character ng isang secretary. Dalawang PDL na mga drug lord sa Witness Protection Program, pina-process niya para i-release niya. Samantalang sa akin, galit na galit ako sa mga putxxxxxx kung kumbinsihin ang mga tao ko, tapos ngayon, irerelease niya. Ano kang puxxxxxxx mo?... Sa kanila na ang BuCor. Wag lang nila akong ganituhin. Proteksyunan ‘nyo ang drug lord kung gusto nyo. Gawin nyo ang gusto nyo. Nakita nyo ‘yung ginagawa ni Boying. [Inilabas] niya ang dalawang nasa Witness Protection... Mga drug lord ‘yun. Tama bang ginagawa ng isang secretary ‘yan? Ba’t niya papanigan ‘yung mga nasa WPP? Nasaan ngayon si German Agojo? ‘Yung gunman na si Escorial at ‘yung Villamor na namatay, tauhan ng nasa Witness Protection Program na si German Agojo, kinuha ng NBI sa utos ni Boying... Boying nawalang totally ang respeto ko sayo... Sa susunod kitang makita, hindi lang naninindig ang balahibo ko sayo. Bwisit ka.”
“I will never surrender unless Boying Remulla steps down as DoJ secretary,” goes General Bantag’s ultimate defiance.
The sentiment of many is that Remulla will not resign. In such a circumstance, the one remaining option is removal. That is why as early as the arrest of the Remulla son, I threw the issue to President Bongbong Marcos: the choice is his on what to do with the father Remulla. And what he will do actually will spell the difference between his own personal rise or fall. Bongbong has one unmistakable guide after all in making a choice. In 1989, in a joint hearing by the Senate blue ribbon committee and the justice committee, Ruben Guevarra, former secretary general or the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), revealed that the Plaza Miranda bombing was the handiwork of the CPP as hatched by Jose Maria Sison in connivance with a big political figure. The revelation — definitely the triumph of good over evil — was what ultimately exonerated President Ferdinand E. Marcos of the crime of the Plaza Miranda bombing.
Will Bongbong learn from this historical lesson from his father who, armed with nothing but an unflinching conviction of his innocence, had years earlier dared to use his martial law powers to put Sison and Ninoy Aquino behind bars, or will he choose to ignore the Plaza Miranda bombing syndrome and let the disease take its logical course? A civil strife? For without him intending it, General Bantag has risen to the ranks of folk heroes whom the masses are now rallying around, resolved to take up his just cause. Will Bongbong accept the reality that unlike his father who was consistent in his fight on the side of good, this time he will be fighting for evil?
As I said it then, I say it again: Bongbong, your choice.