Former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. was not the founding leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), contrary to a claim revived by senatorial aspirant and suspended lawyer Larry Gadon.
In a one-on-one interview with Apollo Quiboloy on April 16, which aired on Sonshine Media Network Inc.'s (SMNI) YouTube channel, Gadon said at the 18:11 mark:
(Si Aquino) ang pinuno at isa sa mga founder ng NPA at tsaka ng Communist Party of the Philippines (Aquino is a leader and one of the founders of the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines.)
Gadon repeated the wrong claim – again, with no basis – in the same interview at the 1:15:50 mark.
The CPP was founded by Jose Maria Sison on Dec. 26, 1968 and the NPA, its armed wing, was established by Sison and Bernabé Buscayno on March 29, 1969.
Sison said in his 2010 interview with historian Lisandro Claudio there was no formal alliance between Aquino and the CPP-NPA. He added they were “informal and practical cooperators against the Marcos regime from late 1968 onwards up to his assassination.”
Sison also noted Aquino maintained good relations with Buscayno-led army units in Tarlac in a GMA News article published Aug. 18, 2010.
This was not the first time Gadon made his false claim against Aquino on SMNI. On the Quiboloy-owned network’s show “Usaping Bayan” on Sept. 27, 2021, he also tagged Aquino as a founder of the CPP-NPA, which garnered 81,000 views and 6,300 reactions. This was later reposted on Facebook page Atty. Larry Gadon 2022, generating 53,000 views and 5,700 reactions.
Gadon hurled a similar false claim in his Facebook live video posted on last year’s commemoration of Ninoy Aquino Day.
The SMNI interview has generated over 214,394 views on YouTube as of writing. It has been reposted on Facebook page Atty. Larry Gadon 2022 and Quiboloy’s YouTube channel, generating over 35,000 and 17,947 views, respectively.
This claim was also previously debunked by Vera Files in July 2021. (JC)