The World - News from July 19, 1988

A former soldier testified that a Philippine military commander in 1982 ordered him to kill opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr. and to make it look like an accident. Jose Fronda Santos told a Manila court that Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio--one of 34 soldiers on trial with three civilians for Aquino’s killing--gave the order but that he did not have the heart to obey. Benigno Aquino--the husband of President Corazon Aquino--was slain at Manila’s airport in 1983; at the time, Custodio was in charge of airport security. The prosecution presented Santos to back its contention that Aquino’s murder was part of a military conspiracy.