Jabidah massacre
The Jabidah massacre, also known as the Corregidor massacre, refers to an incident on March 18, 1968 in which members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines(AFP) are said to have massacred a number of Moro Muslim recruits who were escaping their covert training to reclaim Sabah. Sources differ regarding the details, with the number of victims ranging from 14 to 68, and some sources asserting that the massacre is a myth. The Jabidah Massacre is widely regarded as having been the catalyst behind the modern Moro insurgencies in the Southern Philippines.
Background
In 1963, the resource-rich territory of Sabah, which had been under British control since the late nineteenth-century, formally became part of the Federation of Malaysia. The Philippines, however, protested this, claiming that Sabah had never been sold to foreign interests, and that it had only been leased (padjak) by the Sulu Sultanate and therefore remained the property of the Sultan and by extension the property of Republic of the Philippines.
Operation Merdeka
Part of North Borneo dispute
Date
1967–1968
Location
Philippines and Sabah, Malaysia
Result
Operation failed to carry out
- Jabidah massacre
- Beginning of Moro insurgency
- Malaysia temporarily suspendsdiplomatic ties with Philippines
Philippines
Malaysia
Commanders and leaders
Ferdinand Marcos
Eduardo Abdul Latif Martelino
Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah
Tunku Abdul Rahman
Mustapha Harun
This dispute is believed to have led the then-President Diosdado Macapagal, and his successor PresidentFerdinand Marcos, to establish special military units tasked with fomenting dissent amongst Sabah's non-Malay ethnic groups, namely the Tausūg and Sama, two groups closely aligned ethnically and culturally with Filipinos.
The codename for this destabilisation programme was "Operation Merdeka" (merdeka meaning "freedom" inMalay), with Manuel Syquio as project leader and then Maj. Eduardo Abdul Latif Martelino as operations officer. The object of this program was the annexation of Sabah to the Republic of the Philippines. The plan involved the recruitment of nearly 200 Tausug and Sama Muslims aged 18 to 30 from Sulu Province and Tawi-Tawi and their training in the island town of Simunul in Tawi-Tawi. Simunul is noted for being where the Arab missionary Makhdum built Taluksangay Mosque, the first mosque in the Philippines, in the 13th century.
The recruits were excited about the promise not only of a monthly allowance, but also over the prospect of eventually becoming a member of an elite unit in the armed forces. From August to December 1967, the young recruits underwent training in Simunul. The name of the commando unit was Jabidah.
On December 30, 1967, 135 to 180 recruits boarded a Philippine Navy vessel for the island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay for "specialized training."
This second phase of the training turned mutinous when the recruits discovered their true mission. It struck the recruits that the plan would mean not only fighting their brother Muslims in Sabah, but also possibly killing their own Tausūg and Sama relatives living there. Additionally, the recruits had already begun to feel disgruntled over the non-payment of the promised monthly stipend. The recruits then demanded to be returned home.
The Massacre
The alleged sole survivor of the massacre, Jibin Arula, recounted how the young Moro recruits were taken in batches of twelve to a remote airstrip where they were executed with machine guns by their military handlers. Arula, who was wounded in the left knee,[11] managed to attach himself to driftwood long enough to be rescued by fishermen from the nearby province of Cavite.
There has never been an official count, and different sources number the victims from 11 to about 200.
Aftermath
The subjective truth of the massacre took some time to emerge. In March 1968 Moro students in Manila held a week-long protest vigil over an empty coffin marked ‘Jabidah’ in front of the Malacañang Palace. They claimed “at least 28” Moro army recruits had been murdered. Court-martial proceedings were brought against twenty-three military personnel involved. There was also a firestorm in the Philippine press, attacking not so much the soldiers involved, but the culpability of a government administration that would foment such a plot, and then seek to cover it up by wholesale murder.
Insurgency
Though it has been argued that the Jabidah massacre was a myth, feelings about it in the Muslim community led to the crystallization of Moro discontent and the subsequent formation of the Moro National Liberation Front and, later, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
For years, FIlipino Muslims had been complaining of official discrimination at the hands of consecutive governments and the Catholic majority. This included discrimination in housing and education, as well as lack of government funding for the majority-Muslim south. Coupled with the official government policy of settling Filipino Christians in Mindanao, a class of radical Moro intellectuals emerged, led by student activist Nur Misuari.
The Jabidah Massacre further radicalised Filipino Muslims, leading some to take up arms in the style of the CPP. This new organization, formed in the early 1970s and led by Misuari, was named the Moro National Liberation Front. Following a split over the role of Islam in a Bangsamoro state, a new, more conservative movement emerged in 1981, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Official Acknowledgement
President Benigno Aquino III acknowledged the incident on March 18, 2013, when he leading commemorations on the 45th anniversary of the massacre. This notably marked the first time that a ruling President had acknowledged the massacre as having taken place. Aquino also directed the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to designate the Mindanao Garden of Peace on Corregidor as a historical landmark
Jabidah and Merdeka: The inside story The officers who participated in the Jabidah massacre have not fully come clean. In the end, it may have left a legacy of lying and cover-up in the military.
(Editor's note: On March 18, 1968 – exactly 45 years ago today – at least 23 Muslim trainees were shot to death on Corregidor Island in what has since been known as the Jabidah massacre. Below is a summary of "In the name of honor?," the chapter on the Philippine government's clandestine operation to invade Sabah written by Marites Dañguilan Vitug and Glenda M. Gloria in their book "Under the Crescent Moon: Rebellion in Mindanao," which was first published in 2000.)
MANILA, Philippines – As it was a special government operation, details of Oplan Merdeka were known only to a few people. But the general concept was explained to the officers who were involved in it. The Philippines was to train a special commando unit – named Jabidah – that would create havoc in Sabah. The situation would force the Philippine government to either take full control of the island or the residents would by themselves decide to secede from Malaysia. Many Filipinos from Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and parts of Mindanao had migrated to Sabah. Oplan Merdeka was banking on this large community to turn the tide in favor of secession.
About 17 men, mostly recruits from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, entered Sabah as forest rangers, mailmen, police. The Filipino agents blended into Sabah's communities. Their main task was to use psychological warfare to indoctrinate and convince the large number of Filipinos residing in Sabah to secede from Malaysia and be part of the Philippines. Part of their job was to organize communities which would support secession and be their allies when the invasion took place. They also needed to reconnoiter the area and study possible landing points for airplanes and docking sites for boats.
The project did not exactly start from ground zero. Even before then Army Maj Eduardo Martelino sent his men to Sabah, Philippine armed forces intelligence was already eavesdropping on the island. In the early 1960s, there was concern over the possibility that a Pan-Islamic movement financed by Libya's Muammar Qadaffi would reach the southern Philippines.
Martelino himself went to Sabah 3 times on secret missions as head of the Jabidah forces, he would reveal in a newspaper interview on Aug 1, 1968. The landing points he used were Tambisan Point, Lahad Datu, and Semporna. Some of his men traveled on one of the 50 or more fast-moving fishing boats owned by big-time smuggler Lino Bocalan. They frequently travelled from Cavite to Sabah, where they loaded thousands of cases of "blue-seal" cigarettes. At that time, imported cigarettes were not allowed into the Philippines.
Bocalan, only 31 then, was already a millionaire. In his coastal home in Cavite in 1998, Bocalan admitted: "Marcos told me he needed help for Sabah. My duty was to finance the operation. I spent millions (of pesos)… I fed the Filipino trainees in Sabah, paid their salaries. I sent my brother and my people to Tawi-Tawi and Corregidor to give food and money (to the recruits.)."
Malaysia seemed an easy and vulnerable target at that time. The Federation was still new and fragile, having come into being only in 1963. Ferdinand Marcos cast his covetous eyes on a country that was still on its way to political cohesion.
On the ground, though, trade relations between Mindanao and Sabah picked up. Traders made regular clandestine visits and their business was classified as "smuggling." Feeling the need to reduce smuggling in that zone, the government looked for a special operations officer to map out an anti-smuggling campaign plan.
Thus, all 3 factors converged and became the context as well as backdrop for Oplan Merdeka: the fear of a Pan-Islamic movement creeping into Mindanao, a vulnerable Federation of Malaysia, and an anti-smuggling operation.
FAILED DREAMS. This is where a Jabidah recruit, Ernesto Sambas, continues to live in Simunul, Tawi-Tawi. Photo by Karlos Manlupig
Simunul training
The training of recruits from Sulu and Tawi-Tawi was done in Simunul, a picturesque island-town of Tawi-Tawi (Read: Jabidah recruits plotted Sabah standoff). From August to December 1967, Martelino, assisted by then Lt Eduardo Batalla, set up camp and trained close to 200 men – Tausugs and Sama (the dominant ethnic tribe in Tawi-Tawi) aged 18 to about 30. A number of them had had experience in smuggling and sailing the kumpit, a wooden boat commonly used in the area. What enticed the young men to Martelino's escapade was the promise of being part of an elite unit in the Armed Forces. It was not just an ordinary job. It gave them legitimate reason to carry guns – carbines and Thompson submachine guns. It gave them a sense of power.
Camp Sophia, named after Martelino's second wife, a young, naive, and pretty Muslim, was inside a coconut plantation, fenced by barbed wire. A hut housed a powerful transceiver and served as a radio room. Bunks were made of ipil-ipil and makeshift twigs. A watchtower stood tall in the perimeter, facing the sea. It was a world of their own making, with the trainees wearing distinct badges showing crossbones and a black skull with a drip of blood on the forehead. Their rings were engraved with skull and crossbones.
Today, no trace remains of a military camp in Simunul, not a single marker. What was once Camp Sophia now looks deserted, planted to palm and coconut trees with wild grass.
Bound for Corregidor
On Dec 30, 1967, anywhere from 135 (the late Sen Ninoy Aquino's count) to 180 (former Capt Cirilo Oropesa's count) recruits boarded a Philippine Navy vessel in Simunul bound for Corregidor, a tadpole-shaped island guarding the mouth of Manila Bay. For two days and one night, the troops sailed from the southernmost tip of the Philippines to Corregidor. They spent the New Year at sea and reached the island off Cavite on Jan 3, 1968.
Corregidor was the last bastion of Filipino-American resistance against invading Japanese forces. It was the site of many deaths and some describe its history as written in blood. Today, it is a tourist destination, with the ruins of battle well preserved.
However, Jabidah is never mentioned as part of Corregidor's storied past. The hospital turned military barracks and the airstrip where the killings took place are not included in the routine tour. But graffiti of trainees' and trainers' names, places ("all from Sulu," "Siasi market site," "Tapul, Sulu") and one memorable date – "Jan. 3/68," when they arrived in Corregidor – bear witness to Corregidor's connection to another island.
Before the recruits docked in Corregidor, the old Corregidor hospital was cordoned off and declared a restricted area. It was to be the military barracks. The trainees were to stay inside the bombed-out hospital on the topside of the island, the highest point on Corregidor, surrounded by trees and bushes.
Once on the island, the trainees were ordered to cut the trees surrounding the camp. They were taught to dig foxholes and use parachutes. They kept a rigid schedule, and were up at 5 o'clock in the morning for a two-hour jog followed by drills. Lectures took place in the afternoons.
Ernesto Sambas, a recruit from Tawi-Tawi, recalls seeing many other soldiers on Corregidor, but their batch from Simunul was confined to one area on the island. It appears that there was discrimination against the Tausug trainees. Sambas said he got his pay but those from Sulu did not. As a commissioned officer, Sambas also noticed the growing restlessness among other Muslim youths. The recruits were getting impatient because they couldn't send a single centavo back home. Their promised pay of P50 a month was never given. The officers were aware of the agitation among the recruits. They knew that it was just a matter of time before mutiny erupted.
As a precautionary measure, then Lt Rolando Abadilla and the rest took shifts guarding their own barracks at night. Sambas remembers that they sent at least 16 of the Muslims back to Sulu because they were always complaining.
By the fourth week of February 1968, some of the trainees started to get restless. Since their arrival in Corregidor, they had not been paid a single centavo. Their food was miserable. They slept on ipil wood and cots. Meanwhile, their officers pampered themselves in comfortable, air-conditioned rooms at the Bayview Hotel, across the Manila Bay, a short boat trip from Corregidor.
REMEMBRANCE. Graffiti that reminds tourists of the gruesome killings in 1968. Photo by Angela Casauay
Sent packing
The trainees decided to complain and secretly wrote a petition addressed to President Marcos, signed by about 62 trainees. Others placed their thumb marks. They wanted their pay plus an improvement in their living conditions. Martelino visited the trainees and assured them of their pay. He later met with the 4 leaders of the petitioning group. To this day, 3 of them remain unaccounted for.
After this, the trainees were given fiesta food: goat, beef, and Nescafe coffee with milk. Almost every night there was music and dancing. But with the good food and entertainment came the bad news: the rest of the signatories of the petition were disarmed. Effective March 1, 1968, all 58 of them were considered resigned.
Some 60 to 70 trainees, meanwhile, were transferred to Camp Capinpin in Rizal. On March 16, another batch was taken away from Corregidor. These 24 men boarded the same boat that had brought them to Corregidor in the New year. Then Sen Ninoy Aquino, who led a Senate probe on the issue, later met this batch in Jolo when he did his own sleuthing in March.
On March 18, another 12 recruits were told to prepare for home. At 2 am, they left camp. These men, till today, are unaccounted for. Soon after, on the same day, another batch of 12 was told that they were going to leave at 4 am. Why a dozen per batch? Because the plane, they were told, could carry only 12 passengers. Jibin Arula, the most famous of the Jabidah survivors, belonged to this second batch.
Arula's memory of this day remains vivid: "We went to the airport on a weapons carrier truck, accompanied by 13 (non-Muslim) trainees armed with M-16 and carbines. When we reached the airport, our escorts alighted ahead of us. Then Lt Eduardo Nepomuceno ordered us to get down from the truck and line up [Nepomuceno was later killed in Corregidor under mysterious circumstances]. As we put down our bags, I heard a series of shots. Like dominoes, my colleagues fell. I got scared. I ran and was shot at, in my left thigh. I didn't know that I was running towards a mountain….By 8 am, I was rescued by two fishermen on Caballo Island, near Cavite."
A presidential helicopter swooped down on Corregidor shortly after the killings. Officers and men belonging to the Army Special Forces leaped out of the aircraft and engaged in a clandestine cover-up mission to erase traces of the massacre.
When they landed, the teams of soldiers found burned bodies tied to trees, near the airstrip, on the island's bottom side. The order from Army chief Gen Romeo Espino was to clean up the place and clear it of all debris. From afternoon till sunset, they collected charred flesh and bones and wrapped them in dark colored ponchos. They could not keep track of how many bodies there were. They also picked up bullet shells lying on the airstrip. The trainees had been shot dead before they were tied and burned.
At the crack of dawn the next day, they loaded the ponchos in the helicopter and flew over Manila Bay. They tied heavy stones to the ponchos before dumping them all into the sea. The remains sank, weighed down by the stones. The soldiers made sure nothing floated to the surface.
Major players died
If Marcos and his men were to be believed, the killings on Corregidor never happened. The expose on Jabidah, they said, was part of a grand plot by the opposition to discredit the Marcos regime. They said Arula, a survivor of the massacre, was an agent planted by Malaysia after it had uncovered Jabidah's purpose.
The Armed Forces top brass never ordered a search for missing persons, living and dead. No real investigation took place, except for a few Senate and Congressional hearings which yielded inconclusive findings. The young and intensely energetic opposition Sen Ninoy Aquino Jr, using his deft journalistic skills, put some of the pieces of the Jabidah puzzle together, but the picture remained incomplete.
Eight officers and 16 enlisted men were court-martialed in 1968. All of them, however, were cleared in 1971. The major actors are by now all dead.
After Jabidah, Abadilla gained notoriety as head of the Military Intelligence Security Group that arrested and killed political activists. In 1996, communist guerrillas shot him dead while his car was held by traffic at a busy intersection along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City.
Abadilla's immediate commander in Oplan Merdeka, Eduardo Battalla, had been killed much earlier, in 1989, when he bungled a hostage incident involving a bandit, Rizal Alih. Batalla, then a general, was the regional Constabulary commander in Western Mindanao. (Editor's note: We earlier said Battala was commander of the military's Southern Command then. We regret the error.)
Martelino, who executed Merdeka, was reported to have been imprisoned in Sabah in 1973. Martelino returned to Sabah after his acquittal, his daughter Pat Martelino Lon recalls. They believe he is dead, but a few of his former colleagues think he may still be languishing in a Malaysian prison.
Some senior military officers and men talked to us in 1997 and 1998 to fill in the gaps of this story. A number of them participated in the operation as leaders who gave orders or followers who implemented such orders. Others knew or were close to the people who were recruited to Jabidah.
For many soldiers involved in Operation Merdeka, there was nothing wrong with a plot to take back a territory they believe the Philippines owned. Looking back, they say that if not for the bungled training, the killings would not have ensued and Oplan Merdeka would have pushed through.
But the Jabidah massacre tainted the reputation of the military. Those who participated, either in actual training or in the clean-up operations, have not fully come clean. In the end, it may have left a legacy of lying and cover-up. –
NINOY's OPERATION MERDEKA & JABIDAH MASSACRE January 3, 2015 at 10:51am
Q: Did Marcos sanction Operation Merdeka / Jabidah?
A: In my analysis, I would say NO. Marcos was known to be very generous in his special Military operations. If it was sanctioned by Marcos, a highly patriotic covert military operation like Operation Merdeka should have been sufficiently funded.
We are newly inclined to believing that Operation merdeka and Jabidah massacre was a covert plan initiated by a mid-level Military officer in connivance with Senator Ninoy Aquino and Malaysia, without the knowledge of Marcos. One survivor who ended up revealing secrets in the office of Ninoy was not a random event - it appears it was all planned. Marcos never knew about it until Senator Ninoy Aquino exposed the revelation of the one and only survivor. It was Ninoy who used those Tausugs killed in Jabidah Massacre for his personal political mileage against Marcos; and Ninoy also used his bloodied hands to show proof that he will do anything to please the interest of his partner (Malaysia).
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Q: Sir John, the MNLF celebrates its anniversary during 28th of March which coincides with Jabidah Massacre. Was MNLF established in March 28, 1968?
A: The date 28 March 1968 is the date Sen. Ninoy Aquino delivered a speech in Senate about his expose on the Jabidah Massacre. Jabidah Massacre, if it really happened, probably took place around within one year before 28 March 1968. Actually, nobody knows the date of the Jabidah Massacre, not even the witnesses could tell the exact date, a strange anomaly that put cloud on the existence of that massacre. MNLF was not established in 28 March 1968. After Ninoy delivered the Jabidah Expose in 28 of March 1968, he recruited (financially backed up by Malaysia) young professional activists in U.P. (Misuari and Joma Sison) to establish and start operating the two insurgency fronts (CPP/NPA and MNLF). At time when Ninoy recruited them, Sison and Misuari were both leaders of an activist group called "Makabayan".
1965 una naging President si Marcos. 1968 yung Jabidah expose speech ni Senator Ninoy Aquino, so barely three years pa lang si Marcos naka-upo Presidente. Martial Law was Sept 1972. Even before Martial Law, Ninoy was already a prominent anti-Marcos Senator. Ninoy was the primary agent of the creation of CPP-NPA and MNLF. The havoc of the two insurgency movements caused the government to react appropriately, leading to the declaration of Martial Law. So, in my opinion, if you say Martial Law is evil, I think it would be fair to say that the CPP and MNLF, which has cause of martial law, is also evil. Ninoy was the one who created CPP-NPA and MNLF. Kung walang CPP-NPA and MNLF, most probably walang Martial Law. So it has to be Ninoy who is to be blamed for the Martial Law.
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Ang existence and date ng Jabidah Massacre ay hindi na debatehan at naimbistigahan ng maayos. Ako lang, personally, ang question ko dyan eh ang survivor ay nabaril sa tuhod, sugatan, tapos walang ten days ay nag speech na agad si Ninoy sa Senate? So lumalabas na fresh na fresh pa ang wound niya eh naka-connect na agad siya kay Ninoy? Rationally, pag naka-takas at naka survive ka sa ganyang trauma, normally magtatago ka muna, magpagaling, and it will take sufficient time kung kanino ka lalapit for help. At sa lahat na lalapitan ng Muslim na survivor ay politiko pa na Christian, wierd. Nakuhanan ba ng statement yung fisherman na nakasungkit sa survivor sa dagat? May medical record ba kung saan dinala ng fisherman ang survivor? Ang daming lapses sa investigation kasi wala sa custody ng gobyerno ang witness survivor.
2008 yata namatay yung survivor. Hindi man lang nakunan ng statement. Hindi na-interview thoroughly. Walang corroborating statement yung story ng survivor kasi non-existing yung fisherman na nakapulot sa kanya, walang hospital or doctor na maka testify na dinala sa kanila ang nabaril na patient. Hindi na cross examine ang survivor dahil itinago ng mga Aquino.
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Maas was duped by the Aquinos many times, you know that. Kasama talaga si Maas sa anomaly na yan, pero his participation was more on an innocent participant, niloko siya si Ninoy, pinaglaruan ni Ninoy emotion ng 29 year old Nur Misuari by deceiving him about Jabidah Massacre.
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Not a single one next of kin of the alleged 200 victims of Jabidah Massacre got any just compensation from the billions of pesos the Aquino-Malaysia Regime recently paid out to human rights victims during the Marcos presidency. Why? 200 is a lot of people, it may be easy to hide their dead bodies, but it is impossible to hide their identities, families, and other proof of their existence. But why don't they have names, no family, no claim filed? Do they really exist? Misuari has answer to this mystery that may cause the revelation of the true color of Ninoy.
A corruptible mainstream mass media companies/journalists that is fed with a huge amount of money by a conspiracy of a foreign nation and local politician have created havoc against this nation.
Ninoy's manipulation will not excuse Marcos for committing government atrocities in reaction to Ninoy's atrocities. They are both liable, but Ninoy and Malaysia, being the originator of the inappropriate cause, has heavier liability.
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The Military is a long chain of command, simula sa Commander-in-Chief (the President) pababa sa 2nd Lt sa platoon level. Napaka-dami ring units ang Military. Kahit sino pa Presidente, meron talagang officer dyan na somewhere in the middle of the chain of command na mag traydor, gagawa ng operations na walang sanction ng Presidente. 1968 yung Jabidah massacre, wala pang martial law noong panahong yun. Sa pag-aaral ko sa military record ng Jabidah, lumalabas na walang direct link si Major Abdul Latif Martelino and si Ferdinand Marcos. although merong resources na nagagamit si Martelino para sa Opn Merdeka, hindi sapat ang resources para ma conclude na merong hand si Marcos sa pag plano ng operation. Walang kamalay-malay si marcos sa operation Merdeka ni Martelino. Si Ninoy, isang Senador, ang may hand sa pag plano ng whose set-up ng Opn Merdeka.
Yong si Major Martelino, before pa naging President si Marcos, siya na supplier ng information sa mga kalaban ni Marcos. Anti-Marcos yan si Martelino na opisyan ng military. Bagong upo pa lang si marcos 1965, hindi agad natanggal yang si Martelino, so noong shaky na position niya, nangyari na ang merdeka sometime before March 1968. Eto quote ko words ni Ninoy about Martelino:
" He was a top man of Defense Secretary Macario Peralta, supplying the Liberals with supposedly “damaging” items against then presidential challenger Ferdinand E. Marcos as Mr. Marcos and Mr. Macapagal battled for the people’s will and votes in the 1965 elections. When it was all over, with Mr. Marcos the victor and Mr. Macapagal toppled, Major Martelino surfaced as Mr. Marcos’ top political double agent. " (Sen Ninoy Aquino, speech in Senate March 28, 1968)
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Wala pa po Martial Law in 1968. Atsaka hindi intelligence officer yung si Major Martelino na ulo ng Operation Merdeka. Si Major Martelino ay anti-Marcos and he sells military information to the enemies of Marcos even before the 1965 elections. In 1965, Marcos first became President, barely 3 years in office, he was not able to detect yet the activities of Martelino. So, etong si Martelino, alam niya na matatanggal siya sa position, gumawa na ng paraan at nakipag kontsaba kay Ninoy-malaysia para gumawa ng scenario para sa ikasisira ni Marcos.
Si Marcos ay merong ibang legit na operation to recover Sabah na kompleto ang pondo, pero hindi etong Operation merdeka/Jabidah.
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QUESTION #1: Sir John, in your statement that Marcos was innocent of OPN Merdeka/Jabidah, do you negate the fact that Marcos was planning to invade Sabah?
ANSWER: No, I don't negate the fact that Marcos was planning to militarily recover Sabah. Marcos policy to militarily recover Sabah was not a secret, it was known to the general public via Marcos' pronouncement even before OPN Jabiddah happened. What I am saying is Marcos had his own OPN that is not the OPN merdeka. In my analysis, there were two Sabah Recovery OPNs that existed in 1968. Marcos had his own OPN (we didn't know the name of the OPN). Another OPN is the Merdeka/Jabidah of Ninoy.
I am the Special Operations Director in this Sabah Recovery Project of the MNLF, so I am trying to explain a very deep tactical aspect and you have to listen to me very carefully. Let me tell you, we cannot use Muslims in any PH armed operation to invade and recover Sabah because Muslims don't kill fellow Muslims (Malaysians). Following this same logic, I don't think Marcos's OPN would have used any Muslim or Tausug.
To demonstrate it even further, let me put you at present perspective about the dichotomy of operations, one being the original and the other being the fake. Similar to the OPN Merdeka/Jabidah is the the Lahad Datu Incursion (remember in March 2013 by the Kirams), it is the fake Sabah Recovery Project, and it was launched by Malaysia in cooperation with the Kirams to show that any move of the PH to recover Sabah would be very ugly and successful, and the PNoy administration also cooperated by making a policy that the incursionists must surrender to the Malaysians without condition.
In the past, Marcos' Sabah Recovery Project existed, and it's fake ugly version is the OPN Merdeca/Jabidah of Ninoy. At present, Misuari's Sabah Recovery Project exists, and its fake ugly version is the Kiram's Lahad Datu Incursion of March 2013. The tactical objective of the fake is to make things ugly, to depopularize, and to discourage the original operation.
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QUESTION #2: Sir John, as Special Operations Director of MNLF's Sabah Recovery Project, what would you do if your covert operatives will write a complaint letter to Misuari alleging that they are not fed well, not compensated well, maltreated, and that they have changed their mind about their enthusiasm in the mission? Would you kill them? Do you think Misuari will ask you to kill them like what Marcos did to Jabidah Massacre?
ANSWER: if that happens, I will simply ask the complaining operatives to resign. There is no logical reason to hurt them. I think Marcos is similarly logical as I am, so I would not believe if you tell me that Marcos would order the killing of any whining operative, there is no reason to do so. If you tell me that Marcos ordered the killing to cover up a secret operation, I would laugh to my heart's maximum content because it was not a secret that Marcos wants to militarily invade Sabah.
In sanctioned operations, the lead operative must always inform the boss of any relevant occurrence in the planning stage. If Marcos sanctioned Opn Merdeka, Major Martelino should have informed Marcos about the complaint of the operatives. In the case at hand, it appears to me that Major Martelino has a rogue covert operation that has no imprimatur of Marcos.
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BOMBING OF LIBERAL PARTY IN 1971
QUESTION: Sir John, on 21st August 21, 1971, the Liberal Party of Ninoy Aquino had their grand launching of political campaign kick-off rally. There were two huge two huge explosions rocked the rally as fragmentation grenades were hurled into the crowd by unknown assailants which killed eight and injured 120. In your opinion, who do you think did the acts of terror?
ANSWER: Always observe the ends if you want to determine the means. Given the fact that Ninoy Aquino himself was not in attendance and that the end was Ninoy immediately accused Marcos's Nacionalistas Party of being behind the attack, I think it was Ninoy who did it.
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We have hated Ferdinand Marcos because Ninoy deceived us into believing his imaginary Jabidah massacre. The hate has pushed us to rebellion and in response has forced Marcos to declare Martial law, that caused the deaths of over 200,000 Filipinos, over a million wounded, and over 5 million displaced. These suffering happened because we lacked due-diligence in validating the Jabidah Massacre story of Ninoy. We MNLF owe Bongbong Marcos and his family an apology and we promise, we will carry the coffin of President Ferdinand Marcos and bury him in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
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WHY PH GOVT DIDN'T ISSUE PH PASSPORT TO NINOY AQUINO?
Q: Sir John, did Ninoy Aquino left PH on exile to USA and returned to PH using different name with "counterfeit" Passport? Why did he pass through Kuala Lumpur from Boston to PH in 1983.
A: PH Govt revokes and cannot issue PH Passport to persons convicted of TREASON, like for example Ninoy Aquino. The passport he used to enter PH under the name Marcial Bonifacio was not the counterfeit PH Passport (the one fabricated by someone with a Muslim-sounding name I forgot the name), but a genuine Malaysian Passport. From US, he smoothly entered Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, of course with a genuine Malaysian Passport, not with a counterfeit PH Passport (it would have been repeatedly risky for a counterfeit PH passport to be used in entering these several nations). The story about Ninoy's counterfeit PH Passport was highlighted to cover-up the existence of his Malaysian Passport.
Noong araw, wala pang Dual Citizen sa Pilipinas. 2003 lang nagsimula ang Dual Citizenship Act of the PH. In the practice of due-diligence, Passport is the standard universal documentary proof of citizenship.
Ninoy Aquino was not a Filipino citizen when he died; he was a Malaysian citizen. His passport and other personal belongings disappeared when he died (personal items of the deceased are usually in the hands of the family).
He had to pass through KL Malaysia before returning to PH to make Last Will and Testament with his bank account in KL Malaysia. That bank account was how Malaysia pays Ninoy his Treason Fee and also his under-the-table collection for Malaysia's stealing of Sabah. The same bank account, that I call the TREASON FUND, funded the formation of MNLF-MIM and CPP-NPA in 1969, funded EDSA-1, even EDSA-2, and in building the Aquino-Cojuanco political and business empire in the PH.
Hanggang ngayon, ang kamandag nyang Ninoy Treason Fund ay patuloy na ginagamit at pumipinsala sa Pilipinas. Kayang bilhin nyan ang mga high-powered AK47 sa Crame para i-issue sa mga NPA. Kayang pondohan ang gun factory ng MILF. Kayang pondohan ang bilyones na kailangan for national campaign ng partido.
Kaya yang slogan ni Ninoy na "The Filipino is worth dying for", putol yan, dapat yan ay "The Filipino is worth dying for MONEY".
Atsaka, with this revelation, hindi na kayo magtataka kung bakit hindi mabuwag-buwag ang RECTO and QUIAPO as fabrication center of counterfeit documents -- si Ninoy ay isa sa pinaka unang customer dyan -- protektado yang lugar na yan ng Malaysia-Aquino gang. Election fraud? Chicken lang yang election fraud sa kanila -- Maguindanao and Lanao ay sentro ng counterfits -- kaya gusto nilang kontrolin yang area na yan with BBL.
xxxxx
IT IS TIME FOR THE NATION TO BE AWARE OF WHAT TREASON IS ALL ABOUT.
GRANDFATHER. Benigno "Igno" Aquino Sr. Charged of TREASON by the Ph Govt in 1946, died of heart attack in 1947 while awaiting trial.
FATHER. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was convicted of TREASON by PH Govt in 25 Nov 1977, but exiled in 1980 out of pity by his fraternity fellow Pres Marcos. Gunned down upon return to PH in 1983.
DID YOU KNOW?
Not a single one next of kin of the alleged 200 victims of Jabidah Massacre got any just compensation from the billions of pesos the Aquino-Malaysia Regime recently paid out to human rights victims during the Marcos presidency. Why? 200 is a lot of people, it may be easy to hide their dead bodies, but it is impossible to hide their identities, families, and other proof of their existence. But why don't they have names, no family, no claim filed? Do they really exist? Misuari has answer to this mystery that may cause the revelation of the true color of Ninoy.
Source: MNLF
The big mystery behind Jabidah massacre. When did the massacre happened?
The MNLF celebrates its anniversary during 28th of March which coincides with Jabidah Massacre. Was MNLF established in March 28, 1968?
The date 28 March 1968 is the date Sen. Ninoy Aquino delivered a speech in Senate about his expose on the Jabidah Massacre. Jabidah Massacre, if it really happened, probably took place around within one year before 28 March 1968. Actually, nobody knows the date of the Jabidah Massacre, not even the witnesses could tell the exact date, a strange anomaly that put cloud on the existence of that massacre. MNLF was not established in 28 March 1968. After Ninoy delivered the Jabidah Expose in 28 of March 1968, he recruited (financially backed up by Malaysia) young professional activists in U.P. (Misuari and Joma Sison) to establish and start operating the two insurgency fronts (CPP/NPA and MNLF). At time when Ninoy recruited them, Sison and Misuari were both leaders of an activist group called "Makabayan".
Source: MNLF