Editing Ferdinand Marcos (section)

===Aquino assassination===
{{Main|Assassination of Ninoy Aquino}}
[[File:MarcosinWashington1983.jpg|thumb|upright|President Ferdinand Marcos in Washington in 1982]]

On August 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated on the tarmac at [[Ninoy Aquino International Airport|Manila International Airport]]. He had returned to the Philippines after three years in exile in the United States, where he had a heart bypass operation after Marcos allowed him to leave the Philippines to seek medical care. Prior to his heart surgery, Ninoy, along with his two co-accused, NPA leaders Bernabe Buscayno (Commander Dante) and Lt. Victor Corpuz, were sentenced to death by a military commission on charges of murder, illegal possession of firearms and subversion.<ref name="asianjournalusa.com" />

A few months before his assassination, Ninoy had decided to return to the Philippines after his research fellowship from [[Harvard University]] ended. The opposition blamed Marcos directly for the assassination while others blamed the military and Imelda Marcos. Popular speculation pointed to three suspects; the first was Marcos himself through his military chief Fabian Ver; the second theory pointed to Imelda, who had her own designs now that her ailing husband seemed to be getting weaker, and the third was that Danding Cojuangco planned the assassination to serve his own political ambitions.<ref name="inquirerOrderedHit">{{cite news|url=http://globalnation.inquirer.net/columns/columns/view/20090819-221072/Who-ordered-the-hit-on-Ninoy-Aquino|title=Who ordered the hit on Ninoy Aquino?|last=Rodis|first=Rodel|newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer|date=August 19, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822122022/http://globalnation.inquirer.net/columns/columns/view/20090819-221072/Who-ordered-the-hit-on-Ninoy-Aquino|archive-date=August 22, 2009}}</ref> The 1985 acquittals of Ver as well as other high-ranking military officers charged with the crime were widely seen as a [[Whitewash (censorship)|whitewash]] and a miscarriage of justice.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025}}

On November 22, 2007, Pablo Martinez, one of the soldiers convicted in the Aquino assassination, alleged that [[Cronies of Ferdinand Marcos|Marcos crony]] Danding Cojuangco had ordered the assassination while Marcos was recuperating from his kidney transplant. Cojuangco was the cousin of Aquino's wife Corazon Cojuangco Aquino. Martinez alleged that only he and Galman knew of the assassination, and that Galman was the actual shooter, which is not corroborated by other evidence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archives.newsbreak-knowledge.ph/2007/11/23/transcript-of-abs-cbn-interview-with-pablo-martinez-co-accused-in-the-aquino-murder-case/|title=Transcript of ABS-CBN Interview with Pablo Martinez, co-accused in the Aquino murder case|access-date=April 19, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628232250/http://archives.newsbreak-knowledge.ph/2007/11/23/transcript-of-abs-cbn-interview-with-pablo-martinez-co-accused-in-the-aquino-murder-case/|archive-date=June 28, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After the February 1986 People Power revolution swept Aquino's widow to the presidency, the Supreme Court ordered a reinvestigation of the assassination.<ref name=":7">{{Cite web|last=Grande|first=Gigi|date=August 20, 2018|title=A tale of two triggermen|url=https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/08/21/18/a-tale-of-two-triggermen|access-date=May 6, 2021|website=ABS-CBN News|archive-date=May 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205820/https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/08/21/18/a-tale-of-two-triggermen|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Panganiban|first=Artemio V.|date=August 26, 2018|title=Who masterminded Ninoy's murder?|url=https://opinion.inquirer.net/115635/masterminded-ninoys-murder|access-date=May 6, 2021|website=Inquirer|archive-date=May 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506120041/https://opinion.inquirer.net/115635/masterminded-ninoys-murder|url-status=live}}</ref> The Sandiganbayan convicted 16 military personnel for the murder, ruling that Constable 1st Class Rogelio Moreno, one of the military escorts assigned to Aquino, "fired the fatal shot" that killed Aquino, not Galman.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gavilan|first=Jodesz|date=August 20, 2016|title=Look Back: The Aquino assassination|url=https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/look-back-ninoy-aquino-assassination|access-date=May 6, 2021|website=Rappler|archive-date=October 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030222807/https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/look-back-ninoy-aquino-assassination|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=":7" />