Thread by @ProjectGunitaPH

Patulan natin ang tanong ng @onenewsph. Pero hindi tayo babatay sa kwento ng matatanda. Babatay tayo sa tunay na ebidensya. May isang kwento mula sa pagkakakulong ni Ninoy Aquino na dapat niyong malaman:

Ang kwento ni Ninoy sa Laur, Nueva Ecija.
[THREAD]
#DefendHistoricalTruth

Here it from the man himself. What Ninoy Aquino said about his tragic experience in Laur in an exclusive interview from his prison cell in Fort Bonifacio in 1979:

#DefendHistoricalTruth

In February 1981, during his historic speech in a Movement for Free Philippines (MFP) caucus rally at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, Ninoy described what Laur was and felt like for him:

#DefendHistoricalTruth

Nagbago ang buhay ni Ninoy sa Laur.

Hirit palagi ng mga loyalista: Ninoy was an ambitious politician. Totoo naman, lalo na pre-1972. Pero ang ayaw nilang aminin: Ang pagdurusa na hinarap ni Ninoy sa Fort Magsaysay, Laur, Nueva Ecija, ang nagbago sa kanya.
#DefendHistoricalTruth

Dahil ipinuslit ni Ninoy ang isang artikulong bumabatikos sa rehimeng Marcos kahit nakakulong na siya sa Fort Bonifacio, at inilathala ito ng Bangkok Post, pinarusahan siya (kasama si Sen. Jose W. Diokno) ng diktador at ipinatapon sa Laur. Incommunicado.
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Within 43 days (March-April 1973), Aquino and Diokno were held under solitary confinement. Their families were kept in the dark; Sen. Lorenzo Tañada himself had wept in the Supreme Court. After weeks, their families were allowed to visit them for one hour.
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*Hear

In a letter to Francisco “Soc” Rodrigo on June 25, 1973, Ninoy recounted the horrors he underwent in Laur. He questioned God: “I felt, at that moment, he was having a very good sound siesta and I was afraid when he finally woke up, I would have been gone!”
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Ninoy also questioned the justice of God:
“What terrible crimes have I committed to deserve this fate? The magnanakaws are living it up and I who tried to walk the narrow path of public service with integrity (and I) am now about to meet an uncertain fate?”
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The once ambitious and egregious Ninoy begged on his knees and prayed, in his words, as he never did before. He later confided in his letter to Soc Rodrigo: “In Laur, I gave up my life and offered it to Him . . . picked up my cross and followed Him.”
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March 12, 1973: Ninoy Aquino and Pepe Diokno were flown out of their prison cells in Fort Bonifacio, blindfolded and handcuffed in a presidential helicopter, and slipped into Fort Magsaysay, Laur, Nueva Ecija to be held in solitary confinement for a month.
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Ninoy was stripped naked. His eyeglasses, watch, belt, personal effects were taken away from him. They had to ask permission to go to the CR. They were given one set of sando and shorts which they need to wash every day. The aim was to make them despondent.
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More military indignities were heaped upon Ninoy. Quoting from his Rodrigo letter: “I even suspected they were putting drugs in my meager ration. So I refused to eat. Later, the guards gave me six crackers a day. I subsisted on six crackers and water.”
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Alpha (Aquino) and Delta (Diokno) were their Laur codenames. They were also barred from talking to each other. To ascertain if the other was still alive, Ninoy would sing a few lines of Bayan Ko. Ka Pepe would respond with a few lines from Lupang Hinirang.
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When the Aquinos were finally allowed to visit him, all of them cried—except for Cory (who took tranquilizers). It was a heartbreaking scene. Despite this, a military agent still snapped photos of them for profiling. So much for military emotional torture.
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Ninoy’s experience in Laur was harrowing. At one time, he was almostdriving mad. Then he heard a voice telling him: “I have given you a full life, a great wife and beautiful lovable children. Now that I visit you with a slight desolation, you cry and whimper like a spoiled brat!”

Ninoy’s spiritual transformation started in Laur. He discarded political ambition. Until today, the Aquinos still consider Laur to be their lowest point in life—all because a dictator was irked by what his most prized political prisoner wrote against him.
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Today, in the former sweatbox prison cells of Ninoy and Ka Pepe in Laur now stand the Aquino-Diokno Memorial in Nueva Ecija. It is a continuous reminder of the unspeakable horrors and tragedies inflicted upon the Filipino people by the Marcos dictatorship.
#DefendHistoricalTruth

ARCHIVAL SOURCES:
1. “Ninoy Aquino: The Willing Martyr.” Alfonso Policarpio, 1986. Link: drive.google.com/file/d/14K5FoB…
2. “ninoy’s letter to soc rodrigo, june 1973.” @stuartsantiago, 2008. Link: stuartsantiago.com/ninoys-letter-…
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3. “#EDSA30: Remembering Alpha and Delta.” @beacupin, 2016. Link: rappler.com/nation/123637-…
4. “Mapanuring Pagsasaling Bayan ng The Aquino Papers na Unang Inilathala sa The Bangkok Post.” Atoy M. Navarro & Alvin Campomanes,2018. Link: ejournals.ph/article.php?id…
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5. “Ninoy: The Heart and The Soul.” RTV-Malacañang, 1988. Link:
6. “Letters: Prison and Exile.” 1983.
7. Mr & Ms Special Edition, Sept. 16, 1983.
8. “Ako si Ninoy.” GMA News TV, 2013. Link:
#FromTheArchives
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