Jack Ruby at the jueteng rubout

                                                                       

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO                                                               

March L. Fianza

 Weeks ago, a letter appeared in one of the local papers stating that some P90 million was sourced out by Mr. Ben Ladilad, newly-appointed Benguet State University. The letter was sent by one Jones Feliciano, an apparent follower of the president who, according to many BSU officials, has always been visibly seen around the school head even before the latter’s controversial “voting.”

Last week, we received news that Ladilad’s alleged act to have sourced P90 million for the school is being refuted. In a letter sent through email, it said that “government budget process which includes the State Colleges and Universities (SUCs) takes two years. Hence, budget allocations released in 2012 were proposed in 2010, deliberated and allocated in the succeeding year, 2011, then released in 2012.

The P90 million was the effort of the previous administration. Further, the budget for State Colleges and Universities was increased tremendously under President PNoy, including the MOOE, by 70%.” I am inclined to believe the letter refuting Ladilad’s alleged sourcing of money and Feliciano’s “papogi” letter because I had information about the P90M fund request that was done during the incumbency of BSU president Rogelio Colting.

In so short a time after his appointment, Ladilad could not have immediately solicited such an amount. The money, according to people connected to Colting then, was earmarked for facility upgrading and organic agriculture projects that were proposed and already allocated during Colting’s time. Credit should be attributed to whom credit is due. And credit-grabbing should be allotted to whom the grabbed credit is due.

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The Atimonan, Quezon rubout that police authorities there described and insisted as a shootout reminds me of the story about Rolando Galman, the alleged assassin of Senator Ninoy Aquino; and stories I read about the cover-up on the assassination of 35th US President John F. Kennedy.

Ninoy’s plane had just landed at the Manila airport after a 3-year self exile in the US and he was being escorted out from the aircraft by government soldiers on the airplane’s staircase when he was shot at the back of his head. Galman who was later implicated in Ninoy’s murder was also killed in the incident. Hours after the shooting, the government declared that Galman, allegedly a Communist hired-killer, was the one who shot the senator. It has been reported repeatedly in the news that Galman hid under the service staircase and emerged to shoot Aquino at the back of the head. In turn, Ninoy’s “uninvited” security detail fired several shots at Galman, killing him instantly.

Contradictions in several versions were told, one of which was how Galman could have penetrated more than a thousand soldiers scattered at the airport without the assistance of somebody. Marcos’ critics, politicians and officials from other countries found inconsistencies between the report and photo-video footages taken before and after the shooting. Years later, the official investigation report for the assassination concluded that Galman was a fall guy in a larger plot to kill Ninoy. Despite that, the police and the military still believed that Galman was the assassin.

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In a motorcade on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas; at thirty minutes past noon, three gunshots fired from a building seriously wounded the 46-year old John F. Kennedy who was pronounced dead at around 1 o’clock pm.  Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US marine who was initially arrested for the murder of a cop in the vicinity, minutes after the President was shot, was suspected to have killed JFK too. Oswald denied involvement in either of the killings. Two days later, in full view of news reporters and television cameras broadcasting live, Oswald was shot dead by nightclub operator Jacob Rubenstein a.k.a. Jack Ruby, while being transferred from police headquarters to the county jail. Jack Ruby comes in prominently in many JFK assassination stories as the one that many believe to be the killer of Oswald to “keep the latter from revealing a larger conspiracy.”

Jack Ruby denied the charge and pleaded innocent, but the jury found him guilty. A few years later, the court reversed the decision but he died of lung cancer pending a new trial. An official Warren Commission report a year later concluded that neither Oswald nor Ruby were part of a larger conspiracy to assassinate JFK. But despite the commission’s conclusions, it failed to silence conspiracy theories. In 1978, the US Congress concluded in a committee report that JFK was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy that may have involved more than one assassin and crime syndicates.

 These findings, however, continue to be disputed widely by at least 77 percent of Americans.The Village Voice, a free weekly newspaper in New York City that features controversial investigative articles has reviewed hundreds of documents related to JFK’s assassination and has written articles about them. In one article, there was a part which said about JFK’s assassination as a “Vietnam all over again: the war was good for the country, so don't report how badly it was going; a conspiracy to kill the president would be demoralizing at home and humiliating abroad, so sweep under the rug any evidence pointing in that direction. And then of course there was the national security issue.”

Rolando Galman, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby were all fall guys that represented the 13 police and civilians killed in the Atimonan rubout. The police and soldiers alleged to have “massacred” their colleagues who were in two SUVs did not want to cooperate with the NBI investigators at first but had to give in finally after a re-enactment that was staged forced them to submit written statements.

Apparently, the initial investigation of the bloodbath is leading to a conspiracy to hide people involved in jueteng operations in Southern Tagalog. In a related incident, the alleged former administrator of one of the known gambling lords that was killed at the Atimonan illegal checkpoint was forcibly brought out from his house in Batangas by policemen and was summarily executed in the presence of his family.

Reports said, Fernando “Pandoy” Morales has a “blue book” in his possession that contained the names of government and police officials who were on the take from jueteng in Southern Tagalog. Like Galman, Oswald, Jack Ruby and the 13 men composed of police officials and gambling lords riding together in two vehicles, Morales knew too much about the operations of the illegal numbers game that was why he had to be killed to stop him from exposing the gambling payoffs to national and local government officials.

In Baguio, Benguet, the Cordillera, Ilocos and Cagayan regions, I am sure someone also acts like Galman, Oswald, Jack Ruby and Morales, and who knows too much about jueteng and the mayors, governors and police heads who benefit from its operations. I would advise him to run for dear life too.  – marchfianza777@yahoo.com