Relevant Facts:

- Former Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino III was assassinated in the

Manila International Airport (MIA) just as his plane landed from his
trip in the United States for a heart transplant

- Military Investigators, within a span of three hours, identified the man

who gunned down Ninoy as Rolando Galman, a communist-hired
gunman, who the military gunned down as well

- Then President Ferdinand Marcos immediately accepted the military

version of the investigation in which he played repeatedly throughout
the whole country

- Pres. Marcos created a fact finding body, know as the Agrava Board

- Two reports were published by the fact finding body, both rejecting
the military version of the investigation stating that Galman was just a
fall guy of the military and accusing Gen. Fabian Ver, along with 25
others, as the people behind the assassination of both Ninoy and
Galman

- A petition was filed by the wife of Galman along with other

outstanding members of the society against the Tanodbayan and
Sandiganbayan alleging that mistrial transpired and that they did not
represent the best interest of the people.

- Petitioners filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to

prevent Sandiganbayan in issuing a decision, which the Court initially
approved, but latter on reversed

- Sandiganbayan dimissed the case against the 26 accused marking an

unusual first and in effect convicting the very victim Galman

- Petitioners filed another motion on March 20, 1986, anchored on the

revelations made by Deputy Tanodbayan Manuel Herrera in a piece
calling the Aquino trial a ‘sham; in which the court granted
 - Herrera revealed that Sandiganbayan Justices and Tanodbayan
prosecutors were ordered by Marcos to whitewash the Aquino-
Galman case and to acquit all those accused

- Marcos summoned Justice Fernando Perez, the Tanodbayan,

Sandiganbayan Justice Manuel Pamaran, and members of the Panel to
Malacañang where they discussed on how the court proceeding should
be

- Herrera stated that Marcos told Justice Pamaran to point blank handle
the case, in which Pamaran denied

- The people summoned to Malacañang were told to take the back door
going in the room where the meeting was held

- He added details that TV monitors directly beamed to Malacañang

were installed in the Sandiganbayan so that Marcos himself can watch
over the proceeding

- Herrera also added that a ‘war room’ was installed which was
occupied by the military men

- All the accused were acquitted of both their civil and criminal
liabilities

- Respondents opposed the second motion for reconsideration on the

grounds of double jeopardy

- The Court declared that the initial trial was null and void ab inito,
hence, granting the second motion for reconsideration

Explanatory Facts:
- The Agrava Board was established for the purposes of investigation
the assassination of Ninoy

- Marcos accepted the result of the military investigation because if any

of his government officials were involved in the killing of Ninoy, her
would have known somehow, as he told David Briscoe
 - The case charged against the Tanodbayan and Sadiganbayan were
grounded on the arguments that Sandiganbayan as being biased,
prejudiced, and partial in favor of the accused

- Accused invoked that the issued have become moot and academic
because of the Sandiganbayan’s judgment of acquittal of all the 26
accused

- The people summoned were told to take the back door in order to
avoid the being seen by the guests who were waiting for the President
at that time

Irrelevant Facts:
- Ninoy’s brain was smashed by a bullet fired point blank at the back of
his head with security closed to 2,000 soldiers around him

- The ten day period of national mourning for the death of Ninoy
gathered millions in attendance

- President Marcos wrote a reply to a letter from Gen. Ver hoping for
the speedy resolution of his case as well as his best wishes for the
latter’s family

- The two Olivas sisters were abducted 2 weeks after the assassination
of Ninoy