Defense strategy
After the opposition leader was assassinated in 1983, Alvarez organized and headed the Ninoy Aquino Movement.
Psinakis’ trial brought focus to the allegations against the three members of Congress. In Manila, Congressman Daza laughed off the charges, saying US prosecutors had no evidence to sustain the indictment.
Senator Alvarez voluntarily flew to the United States to attend the October 1988 hearing, testifying he had no knowledge or training with explosives.
“That’s not true at all,” Alvarez said of the bomb-making allegations. “I’m scared of bombs.”
Alvarez’s testimony, part of a defense strategy to show Psinakis was unconstitutionally singled out for prosecution while others were ignored, helped led to Psinakis’ acquittal.
In June 1989, the Philippine government, deeply interested in the fate of Psinakis, sent Foreign Secretary Raul Manglapus to the United States.
Manglapus, who also spent the Marcos years in US exile, told a jury that Psinakis was a “hero” in the revolution that overthrew Marcos.
Alvarez is philosophical about the contradictory roles that freedom fighters must often assume. “Fortunately,” he muses, “we were never indicted.
Charging the winners
According to The New York Times, “the US prosecution filed charges after the revolution had won. The accused had assumed the leadership with the installed democratic government.”