The memorial ceremony at the airport’s departure hall led by President Gloria Arroyo turned out to be not a celebration of the martyrdom of Aquino but a stage that unmasked the deep estrangement between the President and the senator’s widow, former president Corazon Aquino, who snubbed the commemoration.

Ms Aquino has been a leading critic of the Arroyo regime and a campaigner in civil society movements calling for the President’s resignation. This rift overshadowed the fact that the murder of Aquino 25 years ago has remained unsolved despite several judicial trials and commissions on inquiry during two administrations (those of president Ferdinand Marcos and president Aquino). None of these trials and commissions established who the mastermind was of the murder.

No one is asking this year for the reopening of the case. Nor is there any claim of discovery of fresh evidence to warrant reinvestigation.

In a startling revelation, Steve Psinakis, a leading figure of the anti-Marcos Movement for Free Philippines in the United States, released to the Philippine Daily Inquirer for the first time a transcript of a taped phone conversation he had with Aquino two days before Aquino boarded the plane in Los Angeles for his return to the Philippines. Psinakis said Aquino called him to tell him his “final goodbye.” He played the tape to me. Excerpts:

Aquino: Now this is the latest Steve that I can give you, my source is Cardinal (Jaime) Sin. Number one: Marcos checked in at the Kidney Centre... He flunked all the tests and the conclusion was, if they operate on him, it would be fatal. So he went back to the palace. He is no longer responding to medication and he will have to be hooked up on the dialysis machine now more often.

How he will last with that machine on, I don’t know. Apparently, they are now moving to put Imelda in effective control. And they are going to revamp the Cabinet, with most probably Bobby Ongpin as prime minister and finance minister; Ayala, agriculture minister; Danding Cojuangco, defence minister; O.D. Corpuz, foreign minister.

I don’t know. But there is a major shakeup. Marcos met with his generals and apparently said goodbye to them last Friday. He was on television in Manila 24 hours ago, commenting on the boxing of Navarette and Talbot to show the people he is OK.

But it’s a matter of time, so he wanted three weeks to collect his thoughts, write his memoirs, complete his book and most probably craft the final stages of his administration. He is now on terminal. He knows he’s going and that’s the background that I’m coming in.

Psinakis: If he is going and he knows it, he might show some compassion for the country, and treat your return with more pragmatic...

Aquino: Yes.

Psinakis: That’s the good part. The bad part maybe is that the hardliners like (Gen Fabian) Ver who are without any political savvy, who may think they’re next in line. Obviously such people will look at your return without too much kindness...

Aquino: Well, there are two reports I received along that line. If they pinpoint the plane I am coming in, the rumour in Manila is that I am taking the private jet of Enrique Zobel from Hong Kong, but all planes have been guarded and they may close the airport on Sunday or turn back the plane if they will be able to pinpoint on which plane I am coming in. The third one, and this is really iffy, they have two guys stationed to knock me out at the airport and they will try them for murder, they will convict them but they have assurances.

Those are the things that I have been alerted to. I don’t know what options they will do now but I am meeting with Asean leaders beginning Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday... Now, Japan has sent word that if Imelda is in place, (prime minister) Nakasone is willing to use his economic clout ... to tell Imelda that if you treat Aquino nicely, we can dialogue.

Nakasone is willing to send a private envoy... with a personal letter making a plea for, if I am still alive and in prison, that if they will treat me gently and come up with some kind of an understanding, Japanese economic assistance will continue because they are very uptight and if the woman takes over and there will be chaos, you know, that will be chaos.

Asean today is already one region and any instability in one part of Asean will scare investors. That’s why they are very uptight about the possibility of chaos and instability in the Philippines with Imelda. Now to what extent they will be able to mitigate the hardliners, I don’t know. That’s the chance we have to take. If I survive and I get to prison and I am there in a week’s time, I can start the works going.

Those are the trump card I am bringing home, which of course, can be negated if one character can blow me out. There’s no doubt now. If I get into my prison, there’s no doubt how like 100 per cent I will be brought directly to prison, I may not even get a chance to talk to anybody on the ground.

But that’s okay. As long as I am alive and in prison, I can start using my trump cards. I will try to hold out for a meeting with Marcos. Now that he is about to meet his Maker, I am almost confident that I can talk to him and sell him something, although the cardinal now tells me that if you think you can sell Marcos a bill of goods, forget it, you’re dreaming.

Psinakis: Any indication from the US side that they might be somewhat helpful or cooperative or absolutely nothing?