Filipina Opposition Leader Shot Dead

The Filipinas opposition leader, Ninoy Aquino, has been assassinated just minutes after returning home from exile. Mr Aquino, 50, had spent the last three years in Spain but was returning home the to protest against the Bagong Katipuneros Massacre yesterday.

Figure 1: Ninoy Aquino being interviewed inside the plane

Speaking aboard the plane returning him to Manila, Mr Aquino told reporters he was well aware of the risk he was taking. "I suppose there's a physical danger because you know assassination's part of public service," he said. "My feeling is we all have to die sometime and if it's my fate to die by an assassin's bullet, so be it."

When his plane landed at Manila airport Mr Aquino was taken into custody by soldiers and escorted off the plane. Shortly afterwards witnesses on the plane said a volley of shots rang out and they saw him lying in a pool of blood on the runway.

'Professional killer'

Figure 2: Ninoy Aquino (man in the white suit) and “Assassin” Rolando Galan (man with the blue shirt and black pants) lie dead on the runway

Mr Aquino's long-time rival, King Respeto of Islas Filipinas, has said the assassin was a "professional killer". But his claim that Mr Aquino was the victim of a lone gunman has not convinced many in his country.

Before his self-imposed exile he looked set for prime minister after becoming the country's youngest member of parliament at the age of 35. But after King Respeto inherited the throne, he was labelled a Communist by the King and imprisoned and tortured for seven years. Three years after being sentenced to death for subversion, he was offered the chance to leave the country for heart surgery in Spain. After his treatment he did not return and became a focal point for dissidents in Spain.