The family of the late democracy icon and former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino III said there’s a world of difference between what happened to their patriarch and what is happening to former president Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently detained in The Hague while awaiting trial for his crimes against humanity charges before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Vice President Sara Duterte meets with various overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) groups at Het Malieveld Park in The Hague, where she likens her father, ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, to democracy icon Ninoy Aquino Jr. on Sunday, March 23, 2025. (Photo courtesy of BH via Keith Bacongco/MANILA BULLETIN)
The statement, published on the Ninoy Aquino Facebook page and also posted by Francis Aquino Dee, one of the grandsons of the former senator, on Monday, March 24, was a reaction to Vice President Sara Duterte’s remark that likened what happened to Aquino to what could happen to her father if he returns home from The Hague.
“Kung pag-aaralan natin ang kasaysayan, makikita natin na ibang iba ang ginawa kay Ninoy sa pinagdadaanan ngayon ni dating pangulong Duterte (If we will study history, we will see that what was done to Ninoy was very different to what is happening to former president Duterte),” the statement read.
During a meet-and-greet event with Duterte supporters in The Hague on Sunday, March 23, the Vice President said that her father wanted to return home to the Philippines.
“Sinabi ko din sa kanya yon, ‘Pa, sabi ko ‘yung kagustuhan mo na umuwi, ‘yan din yung katapusan ng buhay mo. Magiging Ninoy Aquino Jr. ka (I told him, ‘Pa, if you go home, that will be the end of your life. You’ll be like Ninoy Aquino Jr.),” she shared.
For democracy
Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Partylist first nominee and staunch Duterte critic former senator Leila de Lima refuted Duterte’s statement.
“Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines knowing it could cost him his life. His courage was for the nation, for democracy, for the Filipino people,” she wrote on her social media pages.
“Duterte’s drama today is nothing but a desperate attempt to escape accountability. Justice isn’t swayed by melodrama, only by truth. And history will always know the difference,” the former senator, who was detained for nearly seven years on trumped-up charges by the Duterte administration, added.
ML Partylist nominee Erin Tañada, grandson of the late former senator and Marcos Sr. critic Lorenzo Tañada, also underscored the stark difference between Aquino and the elder Duterte.
“Ninoy Aquino returned to the Philippines ready to die for democracy. Rodrigo Duterte can’t come home. He has to face justice. One sacrificed everything for the Filipino people. The other sacrifices the truth to save himself,” he wrote.
It can be recalled that Aquino returned to the Philippines in 1983 after a three-year exile in the United States as he hopes to fight the Marcos dictatorship and restore democracy in the country.
He was gunned down upon landing at the then Manila International Airport, but his death is largely credited for sparking the EDSA People Power Revolt three years later that toppled the Marcos Sr. regime.
On the other hand, while his camp plans to seek legal remedies to allow the elder Duterte to be released from detention while awaiting the confirmation of charges hearing scheduled on Sept. 23, legal experts doubt that this would be approved or that the former president could even return home.
The ICC, experts opined, would no longer relinquish its jurisdiction over an individual facing charges there until the trial is completed.