In his Ralph Lauren shirt and corduroy jeans, Mr Aquino talks of terrorist bombs the size of a cigarette carton, blackmailing Chinese merchants and body counts of 4000 to 6000.


The phone rings constantly. New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Washington, Manila. “How is the money going?” “Have you talked to the operative?” He breaks into Filipino occasionally.


He says he is buying arms from Nicaragua at five times their cost if he wins, nothing if he loses. He flies to Damascus to talk to radical Moslems. He talks of helping to raise money -- which he says now totals $100 million -- through kidnappings, bank robberies and threats.


Can this be real?


A State Department official says: “There’s no doubt that he’s a prominent force in the Philippines, but how much of those reports are true, we don’t know. It’s hard to understand, if it is true, why he talks so openly about it, but the Filipinos are very talkative people.”


Talkative Mr. Aquino is. He gives long dissertations to short questions in colorful, dramatic language.


Mr Aquino, 47, often uses the lingo of a 1920s Chicago mobster, talking about the “bossman”, “the joint” and “the cover”. But he is not a musical comedy revolutionary.


Both his grandfather and father were in politics and well-respected in the Philippines. Mr Aquino was a senator and had planned to run against Mr Marcos for President when Mr Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and put him in jail.


Mr Aquino is well read and as he talks he weaves in stories about the history and politics of the Philippines and the world, placing everything in an historical context.


His wife, Cory, studied in New York and was his spokesman during the almost eight years he was in jail. She says she would like to to settle down and live a peaceful life with their servants and luxury.


“My wife tells me to forget all this about the revolution. She says I belong in a psychopathic hospital. But it’s something I have to do,” Mr Aquino said.


“I know that after the revolution, times will not be easy. Probably the first two Governments will fail. But the Filipinos must show Marcos and other would-be dictators that they will not stand for oppression.”


In December [1979], he was released from jail on a 14-day Christmas leave. It was the first since he was imprisoned.


He returned to jail, only to suffer heart problems, and asked to come to Dallas for surgery. He promised the Supreme Court and Mr Marcos’s wife, Imelda, that he would return. When he arrived in the United States, Mr Aquino continually insisted that he would go back, but the story changed as do many of his stories.


The phone rings. It is a friend from San Francisco. Mr Aquino asks if the “rakes, hoes and mowers” are ready. He explains these are code words for guns and ammunition. “You know, I think my phone is bugged. I have to be careful,” he said.


A few moments later Mr Aquino receives a call from the US State Department, warning him that it is against the law to raise money or buy arms for a revolution. The conversation continues: the State Department official says he understands Mr Aquino is most interested in a peaceful transition of government in the Philippines.


“Oh, yes,” Mr Aquino says, but he adds that he is a realist and believes that to convince a dictator like Mr Marcos to step down there must be might behind the negotiations.


Although Mr Aquino constantly talks of toppling Mr Marcos, he acknowledges some of his changes have been good for the Philippines. He describes Mrs Marcos as a “beautiful, highly ambitious woman.”


Before he left the Philippines he met the president’s wife, gave her a necklace, and promised that he would not talk about Philippine affairs while out of the country and that he would return within a month.


Even though Mr Aquino has not kept either promise, his one-year visa has not been revoked. Now he says he will go to New York for a month and then to Harvard University for a year as a fellow. “That’s my cover,” he whispers. 






Source: 
Los Angeles Times - Washington Post news service via Wiki.Iraia.net

Ninoy Aquino uses his freedom to a plot revolution 19,000 kilometres away