The Philippines is remembering the dubbed “greatest president they never had” on his 33rd death anniversary.
The Filipino nation is remembering the 33rd death anniversary of the dubbed, “greatest president they never had”, Senator Benigno Simeon Aquino Jr, and to his friends, he was Ninoy.
The husband of the late former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino and father and name-sake of former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, was gunned-down before he settled toes on Philippine grounds, as he was walking down the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport (now the Ninoy Aquino International Airport or NAIA) on August 21, 1983.
His assassination galvanized the opposition even more and drew wide-spread support for their cause, culminating in a People Power revolt in 1986, which put an end to the 20-year rule of then-President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos.
A native of Tarlac, Aquino served as senator under the 7th Congress, and was known as then-President Marcos’ political rival. Aquino was among the first to be arrested upon the abolition of Congress and Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law in 1972.
Aquino was one of the first individuals arrested following Marcos’ Martial Law proclamation. The former senator was placed under military trial after he was accused of murder, illegal possession of firearms, and subversion.
To protest the “trumped up charges” against him, Aquino went on a hunger strike for 40 days from April 4 to May 13, 1975. Two years later, in 1977, the military tribunal sentenced him to die. The execution, however, was never carried out.
In 1980, after seven years in prison, Marcos allowed Aquino to have bypass surgery in the United States after a heart attack. After his operation in Texas, the Aquino family settled in Boston, Massachusetts. However, the family patriarch continued being critical of the Marcos administration.
During an interview before he flew back to the country using a passport with the name “Marcial Bonifacio”, Aquino was quoted as saying, “I cannot allow myself to be petrified by the fear of assassination and spend my life in a corner.”
Trying to be as discreet as possible, Aquino’s journey back to Manila had many detours. According to a New York Times piece which detailed the circuitous tour, Aquino first set foot in various countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan before boarding China Airlines Flight 811 which took him to Manila.
More than his face on the 500-peso bill, there appears his famous statement, “The Filipino people is worth dying for”.
Here is an excerpt of Ninoy’s speech before the Asia Society on August 4, 1980 in New York City from where the quote was culled from.
“I have asked myself many times: Is the Filipino worth suffering, or even dying, for? Is he not a coward who would readily yield to any colonizer, be he foreign or homegrown? Is a Filipino more comfortable under an authoritarian leader because he does not want to be burdened with the freedom of choice? Is he unprepared, or worse, ill-suited for presidential or parliamentary democracy?
I have carefully weighed the virtues and the faults of the Filipino and I have come to the conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation’s greatest untapped resource.”
Ninoy Aquino’s grave is laid at Manila Memorial Park where his wife, Cory, was also laid when she died on August 1, 2009.
