"Bayan Ko" by Lea Salonga

Birthday wishes go out today to Lea Salonga, the Filipina actress and singer best known for creating the role of Kim in Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil's* musical Miss Saigon**, for which she won a Tony Award; she was also the singing voice of Princess Jasmine in the 1992 film Aladdin and sang for Mulan in both Mulan (1998) and Mulan II (2004).

On a more sombre note, she is shown here singing Bayan Ko at the funeral of former Philippine president Corazon Aquino at Manila Cathedral in August 2009. The patriotic hymn was very much a feature of the days surrounding Aquino's death, and surely there was no one better to sing it here than Salonga.

*Music by Schönberg, lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.
**Already well-known for their adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables, Schönberg and Boublil relocated the story of Giacomo Puccini's 1904 opera Madame Butterfly to the Vietnam War in the 1970s.
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Who Killed Benigno Aquino?

More than a quarter of a century has passed since Benigno Aquino Jr. (known as Ninoy) was assassinated, on this day in 1983... In the years since then his widow, Corazon Aquino, has come and gone from the Malacañang Palace*, plagued while in office not only by the usual politics but also by natural disasters, such as the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, which devastated the Luzon region.

Fourteen soldiers have been detained since 1983 for their role in the assassination; while Mrs. Aquino had said that she forgave them she also made it clear that she would never appeal for either clemency or their release.

It is suspected that the trigger was pulled by Rolando Galman, who was himself fatally shot by airport security, but to this day there is no concrete evidence who killed Aquino; even less is known about who ordered it, although naturally people have their theories.

As to the mastermind of the operation, the chief suspect, Ferdinand Marcos, was recovering from a kidney transplant that day, although he certainly could have given the order, even from a hospital bed. The other main suspect is Fabian Ver, Marcos' first cousin, who at the time was head of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, or AFP. Marcos himself blamed Rodolfo Salas, head of the Philippine Communist Party, who was his favourite scapegoat following the various atrocities he ordered committed (such as the Plaza Miranda bombing, twelve years to the day earlier, which dealt a major blow to Aquino's Liberal Party.

The Agrava Commission, which Marcos promptly struck in the days following the crime to investigate them, was controversial from the start; for one thing, it cleared Rolando Galman of the crime, as it did for Marcos, Ver, and Salas. After a year of meetings and investigation, it issued a report claiming a military conspiracy but refused to point fingers or assign blame.

Ten days after his murder as many as 2 million people attended the funeral of Ninoy Aquino, which lasted from 9am to 9pm; his death polarized opposition to the Marcos regime, in a way that mere speeches and political campaigning could not have done. Today the Monday nearest August 21st is a public holiday in his homeland, his face appears on the 500-peso note, and there are statues and memorials to him around the country.

'...the Filipino is worth dying for...' he said, in an interview just prior to his fateful return. Presumably he meant it, but until his killers are identified, justice cannot be served.

*Indeed, she's come and gone from this life as well...
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