“His love of country, patriotism, selflessness, bravery and forbearance are his enduring legacy.”
On August 21, 1983 Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., the leader of the opposition and Marcos’ nemesis, returned to the Philippines after three years of self-imposed exile in the United States. He spent seven years before that in a Philippine prison, mostly in solitary confinement. He returned to Manila despite warnings that he was putting his life at risk.
As soon as he stepped out of the plane, he was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet, fulfilling his premonition he said to a reporter in an interview an hour earlier that he could be a target of an assassination attempt.
To this day, Ninoy’s death remains a mystery. After 38 years, the real identity of the gunman and more importantly, the brains behind the dastardly act remain an open-ended question. His wife Corazon C. Aquino and his only son Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, who became leaders of the country, failed to unmask the true identity of the culprit/s. I believe it is now safe to assume that the circumstances surrounding Ninoy’s death will remain wrapped in mystery and the perpetrators will never be brought to justice.
An implacable critic of the Marcos iron rule, Aquino fiercely exposed the excesses and human rights abuses of the dictatorship in every forum he could find. He was relentless in his pursuit to fight tyranny; once saying—“The moment you say no to tyranny, you are beginning the struggle, the long lonely road to freedom. And so I ask this afternoon, please say no and learn to say no. No to tyranny! No to corruption! No to all this degradation of human dignity! Because then, I feel the true air of your fathers who before you have shed their blood for our freedoms.”
Attempts by the dictator to placate him and offers for an easy life in exchange for him to compromise were flatly rejected even as he endured long years of detention in solitary confinement and the torture of prolonged separation from his family. Ninoy was uncompromising in his convictions. He knew fully well the dangers of returning from exile to challenge Marcos in an electoral contest, yet he was determined to challenge the dictatorship. His love of country is evident in his words and deeds. In a press interview in 1980, he said— “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’s love of country, patriotism, selflessness, bravery, and forbearance are his enduring legacy. A hero, a martyr, Ninoy epitomizes the virtues that every good Filipino should embody. For sure, Ninoy was no saint. In the early years as a career politico he did not stand out as a man who would sacrifice himself for the country; in short, most perceived him to be another “trapo,” an old-school politician who ran for office to line his pocket, amass power and indulge in the perks and privileges that go with it, public service being only an incidental appendage of being elected to a public post. In a 1981 interview in Boston he admitted ties with a group that bombed tourism hotels in Manila. While professing to be a man of the people, he revealed himself as a coldly vindictive and profane politician.
The ordeals that he went through—physical and mental exhaustion and other life-threatening experiences—may have brought out his better nature, a sort of epiphany that reawakened the latent goodness in Ninoy, as in every man. While in prison, he became deeply religious. He preached non-violence and social reforms to rectify the prevailing iniquitous social order every opportunity he could.
Adversity brings out the best and the worst in people. Heroes and martyrs as well as villains and opportunists are produced when people are immersed in difficult situations. For some, it is an opportunity to do good; for others, it is a time to take advantage of others’ vulnerabilities.
The COVID-19 pandemic is one such moment. We see health care workers and front-liners putting their lives on the line every day for the sake of their fellowmen. For others, sadly, this is a time for self-aggrandizement. Like his ordeals were for Ninoy, this pandemic is a unique occasion to muster the courage to allow goodness to prevail over our baser instincts and impulses.
As Ninoy once said: “We must transcend our petty selves, forget our hurts and bitterness, cast aside thoughts of revenge, and let sanity, reason, and above all, love of country prevail during our gravest hour.”
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