To Yumul, Ninoy’s charisma was best illustrated when cousins Jose “Peping” Cojuangco Jr. and Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. had a one-on-one fight for the province’s first congressional district.
Ninoy, then Tarlac governor (he served in 1961-1965 and 1965-1967), supported Peping, elder brother of his wife Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco-Aquino.
Yumul said whenever Danding’s political leaders would visit the provincial capitol to see the governor they would be told to support Peping instead. This angered Danding, he added.
Yumul said Peping won because of Ninoy. “Kaya natalo si Danding kay Peping, hindi dahil kay Peping, kundi dahil kay Ninoy (Danding lost to Peping not because of Peping but because of Ninoy),” he explained.
It is said that this political showdown between the two Cojuangco cousins aggravated the rift between them created by Ninoy’s marriage into the Cojuangco family. The tension would lead to a decades-long feud between the two factions of the Cojuangcos, climaxing in the 1983 assassination of Ninoy and easing only a few years back upon Danding’s return from exile.
In 1980, Yumul said he accompanied Doña Aurora Aquino in visiting Ninoy in his prison cell at Fort Bonifacio. There he realized how Ninoy was willing to die to bring down strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
Quoting Ninoy, Yumul said: “Kung ako, pinsan, hindi ako mamatay, meron pa bang mananalo kay Marcos (If I don’t die, cousin, is there anyone out there who can win against Marcos)?”
Although they weren’t cousins, Ninoy often called him “pinsan,” Yumul explained.
“Nangilabot ako (I felt fear),” he said. But then he forced himself to continue to listen to Ninoy, who answered his own question by trying to explain to them how the opposition could use him to topple the Marcos regime.
“Wala, walang mananalo kay Marcos kapag hindi ako mamatay. Ako ang magiging dahilan sa pagbagsak niya (No one, no one will win against Marcos if I don’t die. My death will become the reason for his downfall),” Yumul said, again quoting Ninoy.
Yumul said Ninoy was so serious and sincere when he said those words that, when Cory asked him if he believed him, he said yes.
He said that at that moment he felt Ninoy wasn’t just talking.
