MICHAEL Chua in his column in this paper Monday wrote: 'It is said that Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines to grab power from President Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1983. But the primary sources, which include his statements, are very clear that he wanted to talk to the president to negotiate a peaceful transition to democracy by holding honest-to-goodness elections where the opposition could participate.'

I would not have bothered at all to respond to Chua's fawning claims regarding Aquino's' motivations. But he is a professional academic (an assistant professor in history with a PhD in anthropology), which means that he'll be spreading his erroneous awe of the opposition leader in the academe to be imbibed by young minds.