21st Anniversary -Ninoy and the Bug

Dear mouse,

Today is the 21st anniversary of Ninoy Aquino's death.

As a tribute, I am reproducing an excerpt of Max Soliven's column that narrates how Ninoy got back at the dictator using the "bug".

When I got to the guarded visiting room, Elizabeth sternly said: "Max, I’ve been trying to convince Andy (which is what FM was called in the family) to release you. But how can I do that? When I asked him the other day, he had replied: ‘How can I let Max go? He’s vowing to get even with me!’ He said you had declared to Aquino: ‘If I get out of here, I’ll get even with that sonofabitch!’ "

I wasn’t entirely surprised. We had, for the past few days, suspected we were being bugged. And indeed, I had uttered those words which Marcos had quoted verbatim.

So, when I got back to our quonset hut (yep, our "prison" was a converted quonset-hut office of the ISAFP), I informed Ninoy. "Sanamagan, Brod – the entire place is bugged. Macoy just quoted to Elizabeth something I’d said, word for word!"

At this, Ninoy launched an eloquent tirade, calling Marcos all sorts of vile and insulting names. "Ang sarap!" he exclaimed. "It’s even better than delivering a privilege speech in the Senate. I can now insult Marcos, direct from here to the Palace!"

Nap Rama(now Publisher of The Manila Bulletin, and aside from me the only living survivor of our Ten Most Wanted prisoners with Ninoy in maximum security jail) suggested that since we were being bugged, we ought to adopt code words. For example, we should say that Marcos’s regime was bulok or no-good by using the term, "fantastic". He would go around condemning Macoy and his totalitarian government as fantastic.

You know, I look around today, and find a lot of "fantastic" things still going on in our government.

The Ca t sez:

No wonder,Marcos hated him so much.

The Cat