On the 38th death anniversary of the late Senator Benigno S. Aquino, Jr., it is well to recall the circumstances of his death that led to national recognition of his heroism. When he was assassinated on August 21, 1983, there were only 51.4 million Filipinos; presently, our population is estimated at more than 111 million. Hence, around 60 million Filipinos could rely only on historical accounts as they seek to know more about him today.
It is fitting that the country’s principal gateway to international travellers has been named after him. He was shot and killed on the tarmac of the Manila International Airport. The name on his passport was Marcial Bonifacio, denoting that he had been a political prisoner in the Philippine Army camp, Fort Bonifacio, during the martial law regime.
Ninoy Aquino was known as the leading politician from the opposition. His arrest on the evening of September 22, 1972 signaled the implementation of then President Ferdinand Marcos’ Proclamation Number 1081 that placed the Philippines under martial law.
In November 1977, a military court convicted him of murder and subversion charges and sentenced him to death. He went on a 40-day hunger strike to profess his innocence. In 1980, he suffered a heart attack and was brought to the hospital. In a surprise visit, then First Lady Imelda Marcos told him he could seek treatment in the United States.
While in Boston, Massachusetts with his family for three years, he delivered lectures that focused on his advocacy for the Philippines’ return to democracy. The text of the statement he had prepared to deliver upon his return to the Philippines later became available.
He dared Marcos to “order my immediate execution or set me free.” He said, “national reconciliation and unity can be achieved but only with justice, including justice for our Muslim and Ifugao brothers.” He proposed that “the workingman must be given his just and rightful share of his labor, and to the owners and managers must be restored the hope where there is so much uncertainty if not despair.” He said that subversion could not be stopped with repression but with “a more equitable distribution of wealth, more democracy and more freedom.”
Thousands paid him their last respects during an eight-day wake in Quezon City and Tarlac. Around two million people lined up the streets for a 12-hour funeral procession. His death galvanized the political opposition and led to the EDSA People Power uprising in 1986.
His widow Corazon became the 11th President of the Republic. The Filipino people ratified a new Constitution in 1987 to enshrine the restoration of democracy. In 2010, his son Benigno Simeon Aquino III (who preferred to be called PNoy) was elected as the 15th President on a groundswell of public sentiment after his widow’s death in 2009. When PNoy passed away recently, he was praised for presiding over the country's emergence as “Asia’s rising star” and for instituting good governance.
Such is the enduring legacy of Ninoy Aquino who is now remembered for saying, “The Filipino is worth dying for.”