FROM THE LIPS OF A DYING PRESIDENT

By Salvador H. Laurel

Former Vice President of the Philippines

Chairman, National Centennial Commission

Manila Bulletin

Tues., Oct. 21, 1997

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the House Committee on Good Government are now

conducting separate investigations on “Operation Big Bird,” a cloak and dagger operation undertaken

eleven years ago to bring back the alleged “hidden wealth” of Ferdinand Marcos. The investigations

were called in response to President Ramos’ request for specific congressional authority to settle the

Marcos issue once and for all.

Mr. Ramos was quick to add that the hidden wealth issue could have been resolved earlier by the Cory

administration.

I can attest to that. Weak and already on his deathbed when I visited him in Hawaii on February 3, 1989,

Marcos personally asked me to convey to Cory Aquino his offer to give up 90% of his earthly possessions

to the Filipino people, through a Foundation which he had set up, but Cory only would allow him to die

in his own country and be buried beside his mother.

I related this incident in a book “Neither Trumpets Nor Drums,” published in 1992 right after I ended my

term as Vice President of the Philippines.

Pertinent portions that book I now quote for the benefit of those who have not read it.

“One of the most unforgettable trips I took as Vice President was my visit to Honolulu on February 3 and

4 1989.

“On February 2nd, at about 5 p.m., I received an urgent call from Mrs. Imelda Romualdez Marcos in

Honolulu. She was sobbing on the phone. “ Doy, pwede ka bang maka-punta rito? Masama na ang tayo

ni Ferdinand. Gusto kang kausapin. Baka hindi na siya magtagal Please, please come,’ she pleaded.

“I’ll have to cancel my appointments. Maybe I can go in few days?” I asked.

“She interrupted me, ‘Baka hindi mo na siya abutin. Please come as soon as possible!”

“I thought about it. The cases filed against the Marcoses had been pending for three years, yet nothing

had happened. And the nation remained fragmented. Perhaps, if I tried the Lincolnian approach – ‘With

malice toward none, with charity for all’ – we might be able to settle the issue and unite the nation.

“Then I remembered Imelda’s plea: ‘Gusto kang kausapin.’ Maybe there is a chance – maybe he is ready

to settle?

“She first briefed me about President Marcos’ condition – that he was very weak. The doctors who were

attending to him told me he had a less than 50 percent chance of surviving, that he might not even last

three months.

“Then they took me to the Intensive Care Unit.

“I could not recognize Ferdinand Marcos when I saw him. The Marcos I knew was athletic, active, and

articulate. The man I saw was skin and bones. About eighty-five pounds. Imelda announced cheerfully:

‘Andy, Andy, narito na ang Batangueño, narito na si Doy.’

“His eyes opened. He recognized me. He tried to talk. But only his lips moved. There was no sound.

“He signaled the nurse to remove the tube imbedded in his throat.

“The Nurse pulled out the long tube and asked me to bend closer so I could hear. Finally I heard his

voice, very faint, almost a whisper. “Salamat, brod, nakarating ka. I have something to tell you.’

“I interrupted him: ‘Before you start, Mr. President, may I ask just one question?

“He nodded.

“Why did you call me, Mr. President? Why me of all people? I vehemently oppose you. I was probably

one of those responsible for your ouster Why Me?’

“He signaled me to stop.

“Say no more, brod,’ he said. ‘I never held that against you. You did what you had to do as leader of the

opposition for many years. You opposed me on principle, never on personality. You were against martial

law but you were noble about it, unlike some people. Besides, I cannot forget your father. I owe him my

life, not once but thrice. Let me talk now. I have very little time.’

*** “Please tell Mrs. Aquino to stop sending me her relatives. They are proposing and asking so many

things. All I want is to die in my country…I will run over 90 percent of all my worldly possessions to our

conversation to our people. I ask only 10 percent for my family.’

“Just let me die in my own country. I want to be buried beside my mother.’

“His breathing had become more labored. The nurse stopped our conversation. ‘He has to rest not,’ she

said.

“Before leaving I told him: ‘Mr. President, I do now know if Mrs. Aquino will listen to me, but I will try.’

“I hurried back to Manila to transmit Marcos’ message to President Aquino. I asked for an appointment

but Cory would not see me. Here I was, her own Vice-President, asking only for three minutes of her

time to convey an important message from her predecessor, and she would not see me. I was told by

her Executive Secretary (Catalino Macaraig) she was busy. I learned later that she had allocated an hour

to Tom Cruise, an American movie star.

“In view of her repeated refusal to see me and hear what I had to say, I wrote her a letter dated

February 5, 1989: “Since my arrival yesterday, I have been trying to get an appointment with you…

*** “I hope you will find time to listen to the highly confidential message of Mr. Marcos considering its

serious import and far- reaching consequences upon your administration and the nation as a whole.”

The next day, Cory replied:

“As to the highly confidential message from former President Ferdinand E. Marcos, I feel that in the light

of your representation of its ‘serious import and far-reaching consequences upon your (my)

administration and the nation as a whole,’ such message should be disclosed to the public rather than

kept confidential. This is in accordance with my announced policy of utmost transparency in the

management of the affairs of the country.”

On the same day I wrote back: “ I am still hoping that you will change your mind and receive the

message in a private, non-political, direct, and unfiltered manner, beyond any personal and partisan

consideration.

“As to your published suggestion that I share with the public the highly confidential information, I am

afraid I am not yet at liberty to do so considering that the message was entrusted to me in confidence to

be delivered to you personally. Only you and former President Marcos can declassify or disclose this

message.

“Let us give national reconciliation and national stability every chance to succeed for the sake of our

fragmented people..” (Neither Trumpets Nor Drums, at pp 104-111, 1986 ed, Second printing)

I never received any further reply from Cory.

Cory’s refusal to receive Marcos’ message was perhaps her biggest mistake. Had she studied it carefully,

she could have settled the Marcos wealth issue eight years ago. Perhaps we could have paid off our

foreign debt!

=================================

Read and learn how the saint, Cory, absolutely assumed power and how "saintly" she conducted her

presidential powers.

(culled from a Palace-insider blogger during Cory's time)

(1) Thus did Madam Corazon Cojuangco Aquino Cory become president by default since according to the

US government, Enrile and Ramos, leaders of the putsch cannot become RP’s national leaders, without

courting charges of unconstitutional accession to power.

Supposedly, the excesses of the Marcos minions who went wayward and no longer wanted to toe the

line of ideology of the New Society: Revolution from the Center, written by Blas F. Ople, Adrian

Cristobal, Jose Crisol, then Capt. or Maj. Jose T. Almonte, and many other brainthrusts of Marcos, were

to be cured and addressed during the new revolutionary government under the aegis of Enrile, Ramos,

Cory and her Vice President, Salvador Laurel.

(2) Cory with her dyslexia, her hungry hangers-on, her rapacious relatives and “classmates” in her

frequent mahjong sessions all over town, or in her own house in Times St., or even now in plush settings

after becoming president, drove Enrile, Ramos and Laurel away almost with a single sweep of her hand.

She proceeded to undertake the sale of the country’s patrimony, starting with the sale of Fort Bonifacio,

to the private sector at the promise of a windfall of skim money for her and her close ones. The sale of

many other portions of the country little by little was also made by the Cory regime.

She signed with Swiss authorities the transfer of the Marcos wealth to the Philippines but inserted riders

that she herself, her family and her quislings will get fat commissions from the Marcos so-called “stolen,

hidden gold.” Madre di Dios!!!

(3) She allowed the destruction of records of millions of chinese nationals opening the country to a

literal silent invasion of illegals from China who are now occupying stalls in fast-rising buildings as sellers

of dirt cheap items and posh subdivision houses manufacturing shabu. Many or most of them have even

mastered some Tagalog words coming from their Filipina wife or set of wives or their own handlers in

the country that take care of their billeting and the learning of a few functional terms in Filipino dialects.

When they make it big, they transfer to the exclusive villages scattered all over Metro Manila.

Certainly, China is not only Cory’s clientele. Many nationals from other countries benefited from her

regime, thanks to the close connections her so-called allies in the vaunted National Union of Christian

Democrats (NUCD) had with the European mafia that opened the floodgates for European criminals to

launder their money in the Philippines during the Aquino presidency or else ply their illegal / criminal

trade in or through the country.

(4) In the time of Cory up to the time of Erap, drug trafficking syndicates started to flood the country

with dangerous drugs, beginning with transshipment by the LIM clan that according to a government

informant, was using the front of a shipping company or group of companies, that later became share

holders of the defunct URBAN BANK -- now renamed to Import and Export Bank.

Not surprisingly, Sergio “Serge” Osmeña and possibly the other Osmeñas are joining the campaign for

the son of Cory.

Serge and son, are one of the protectors of local lords of transnational drug trafficking syndicates in the

country.

One of Serge’s wards is now in prison but continues to ply his illegal trade with the able runner

capabilities of Serge’s son and girl friend, a high society party goer and all time punk girl. You see them

trek to their base of operations in the heart of Makati City, just behind the RCBC Plaza, the bailiwick of

the Yellow Army commanded by its Lord Mayor, Jesus Jose Maria! Cabauatan Binay popularly known as

Jejomar or Jojo, also very, very big in protecting drug trafficking syndicates providing illicit services to

the rich in the exclusive enclaves of Makati and the poor in the decrepit areas of his Lordship.

(5) Noynoy

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Cojuangco Aquino III who also fondly known as Noy, the only male child of Sen.

Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. Ninoy and Cory some say, is not really all that “well.”

According to the irritated group of the deposed president Joseph Estrada (terribly annoyed because

possibly the late FPJ’s supporter Linggoy Alcuaz and his companions in the FPJ movement will now

support Noynoy and leave Erap behind), aspirant future President of the Republic of the Philippines

Noynoy Aquino was born an autistic child. If this is indeed true, Noynoy must probably have been

treated as a special child in his youth by doctors expert in autism. Noynoy, as those in the same age

bracket with him in the late 40s and 50s, was observed to be one of the least exposed children of the

couple Ninoy and Cory.

(6) (We asked the Erap boys and girls why they say that Noynoy is an autistic. They could not provide

proof but in their faces, you could see they were mightily convinced Noynoy is a mongoloid. “It’s in the

family, they say.” Is it really true? Who knows, it might just be.)

The son of Ma. Kristine Bernadette “Kris” Cojuangco Aquino with motion pictures actor Phillip Salvador,

Joshua fondly known as “Josh,” is a mongoloid or special child and he possibly has the same genes of

Noynoy. As the Erap boys and girls are saying.

The mother of Noynoy and Josh’ grandmother, the late Cory, on the other hand, actually was diagnosed

and was being treated for a non-contaminable but highly dangerous disease called dyslexia. Cory would

suffer bouts of mental paralysis due to the collapse of one or both of her lungs causing the ill stricken

subject to lose control while involuntarily able to make extremity motions (hand, feet, minor ear, eye,

nose movements, etc