Bloody Welcome

Aquino's exile ends in death

Former Senator Benigno ("Ninoy") Aquino smelled trouble. After nearly eight years in Philippine prisons and three of more or less voluntary exile in the U.S., he was returning home in hopes of resuming his opposition to the autocratic regime of President Ferdinand Marcos. But Aquino, 51, feared that he would be turned back or arrested--or worse. So, as his China Airlines Boeing 767 from Taipei approached Manila International Airport, he ducked into a washroom and slipped a bullet-proof vest under the same white safari suit he wore when he left three years earlier. "I'm O.K., I'm protected here," he said as he patted his torso. "But if they hit me in the head, I'm a goner."

As the plane taxied to its gate and three uniformed policemen stomped aboard, passengers heading for the exit were ordered back to their seats by the crew. One of the passengers was TIME Hong Kong Bureau Chief Sandra Burton, who had just finished reporting a story in the Indonesian archipelago and then, by prearrangement, had detoured to Taipei to accompany Aquino on the final leg of his homecoming flight. As Burton recounted it in a file to TIME this Sunday:

"The policemen almost passed by the calm, bespectacled figure sitting in the economy section. But when one of them recognized him, Aquino rose from his seat and went willingly. The police led Aquino down a stairway from the passenger tube to the pavement, where an unmarked military van was waiting. Suddenly, the pop of a revolver was heard. Seconds later two other revolver shots rang out. Horrified passengers crouched on the floor of the plane.

"The body of Aquino was lying face down on the pavement, blood spurting from a large wound in the back of his neck. Another body, dressed in a blue mechanic's uniform, lay face up a few feet away as a soldier pumped 16 rounds into his stomach at close range. Two other soldiers picked up the limp body of Aquino, loaded it into the van and sped away. Aquino was pronounced dead on arrival at Ft. Bonifacio Army Hospital."

Reacting with unusual toughness, the U.S. State Department called the murder "a cowardly and despicable act" and exhorted the Philippine government to track down and punish those responsible "swiftly and vigorously." For his part, Marcos immediately condemned the killing as "heinous and outrageous" and announced that unspecified "precautionary steps" were being taken to maintain order. But the killing is bound to have serious repercussions. Aquino, the youngest governor and then the youngest senator in Philippine history, was thrown into prison under sentence of death for "subversion" in 1972, shortly after mounting a strong bid for the presidency against Marcos. Released in 1980 to undergo heart bypass surgery in the U.S., he later held fellowships at Harvard and M.I.T. before deciding to return this summer.

A Liberal, Aquino was thinking of running against Marcos in 1987, and had been working with opposition leaders against the President's heavyhanded rule. One of those leaders, Assemblyman Salvador Laurel, was at the airport along with thousands of Aquino followers when the assassination occurred. As word of the shooting rippled through the anguished crowd, Laurel glumly urged, "Be cool, be cool."

When he died, Aquino was carrying a statement he had intended to read at the airport: "It is now time for the regime to decide. Order my immediate execution or set me free." While there is no evidence that the Marcos government was involved in the death, neither is there any doubt that many of Aquino's followers will see it as an execution, possibly by the President's loyalists in the armed forces. And that could doom any hope that the Philippines will "be cool." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.