The yellow ribbons tied on the trees and lamp posts from the airport to his modest home in Times Street, Quezon City were long gone almost four decades ago but people still remember the tragic drama that unfurled on August 21, 1983. Everyone can recall where he or she was and what he or she was doing when news first broke out that former Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino was shot while disembarking from his plane at the Manila International Airport. I was tending to my small patch of garden in my yard when my activist friend drove in front of my house to break the sad news. He was at the MIA earlier that day to welcome the arrival of Ninoy, together with a large throng of Ninoy supporters organized by the opposition elements led by former Senator Doy Laurel. They were the first to know about the assassination of Ninoy at the tarmac.
The news spread like wildfire and the entire nation was in grief. And the people were seething with anger over the dastardly and treacherous act, which marked the darkest hour in our history. People poured into the streets to protest and demonstrate against the despotic rule. They demanded “Justice for Aquino; Justice for All.”
Ninoy may not be a saint but he is definitely a hero. His martyrdom united our nation and drove our people to defy and fight the totalitarian regime. When he was alive, his indomitable courage despite grave personal risk had sustained the political opposition and the democratic forces in our country. In death, he became the rallying point of the opposition, which inevitably culminated in the People Power Revolution occurring 2 ½ years following his execution.
While a senator, Ninoy was the main fiscalizer and critic of the Marcos 1.0 administration. He denounced the excesses of the despotic regime and the abuses of the military. While in prison after he was sentenced by the Military Commission No. 2 to death by musketry, he organized the “Lakas ng Bayan ‘’ or “Laban” and ran against the powerhouse administration ticket in the 1978 Interim Batasang Pambansa elections. He and the entire opposition slate lost but the Filipinos saw during the one TV interview given to him inside his prison cell that his sharp mind and unsurpassed courage have not been dulled by his long period of incarceration. The ruthlessness of Martial Law had not tamed nor fettered his spirit. This had given hope to the silent majority who had quietly suffered with reticence and forbearance.
Ninoy was imprisoned for 7 years and 7 months while facing charges for subversion, murder and illegal possession of firearms before a military tribunal. He refused to participate in the proceedings, honestly believing that the trial was a farce. He declared: “I will not participate. You can dispose of my flesh, but I cannot yield to you my spirit and my conscience.” But after some delay and suspension of trial, the military court brushed aside his objections and proceeded to hear his case. At some point, he was bodily carried to the court after he went on a hunger strike, which rendered him weak and physically disabled.
On November 25, 1977, the court found him guilty and sentenced him to death by firing squad. In no uncertain terms, Ninoy labeled the decision an “indecent and immoral rush to judgment but a time comes in a man’s life when he must take a stand to make a painful decision, to willingly die for his principles or surrender. I have opted to die for my principles because my cause transcends my individual self and freedom.” Instead of pleading for clemency, Ninoy remained uncompromising and defiant. Courage and integrity had been his article of faith.
Ninoy suffered a second heart attack while under confinement at the Philippine Heart Center. First Lady Imelda Marcos visited him, and asked Ninoy if he would like to leave for the US to undertake a heart surgery at the Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. That same day, he and his family were rushed to the US for his medical operation. He had a successful surgery and recovered quickly. Malacañang advised him that he could extend his stay in the US and likewise he renounced his covenants with the Palace as a condition for his medical exile, to wit: that he would return after he regained his health and that he would not speak ill of the Marcos government while abroad. Ninoy disowned the agreement claiming that “a pact with the devil is no pact at all.”
While in the US, the Aquinos set up residence in Newton near Boston, Massachusetts where he earned fellowship grants from both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He remained a harsh critic of the Marcos administration, and the Philippine government connected him to the series of bombings in Metro Manila in 1981 and 1982. Ninoy denied that he was advocating violence but declared that he was ready to lay down his life to restore democracy in our country. It was then revealed that he planned to return home to continue the Filipino struggle for freedom. The government discouraged him from returning home. It claimed that the people Ninoy had wronged would try to kill him and heap the blame on Marcos. The First Lady even met him in the US and dissuaded him from coming back.
In an interview with the Associated Press a couple of weeks before Ninoy landed in Manila, the First Lady said that “the whole Philippine military cannot keep him from being killed.” And Ninoy himself had a premonition that a fatal end awaited him when he will set foot on his native soil. He was wearing a bulletproof vest as his plane began its descent. He told his brother-in-law, journalist Ken Kashiwahara, who joined him in his flight, “I’m okay, but if they hit me in the head, I’m a goner.” His shooters seemed to know exactly where to hit him. And the final thing he did before he was fetched from the plane by the soldiers was pray. According to ABC’s Chief Asia correspondent, Jim Laurie, who was seated near him, Ninoy took out his rosary and prayed. He became prayerful and Godly during his long years of incarceration. If his will remained intact and his spirit stayed unbroken despite his solitary confinement, Ninoy attributed it to prayers and constant communication with God.
In his letter to former Senator Soc Rodrigo who was his co-prisoner after Martial Law was declared, Ninoy confessed “that prison gave me time to think, to read, to formulate an ideology—to find God. What is ambition? It’s nothing. I have put all ambition away. I don’t want to be President anymore—all we must fight for is for our people to be happy and to be free.” It was his epiphany.
August 21 was an unheralded date in our calendar this year. No mention at all about the 39th death anniversary of our National Hero, Ninoy Aquino. This may be the case for the next five years. It was a quiet Sunday except for the First Family and close relatives and friends who threw a surprise birthday party for First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos. The highlight of the party was when President BBM sang her a song, “Never Let Her Slip Away.” Likewise, the countless Filipinos who love Ninoy will never let Ninoy slip away from their memory and Ninoy’s legacy shall stay whether there’s an official proclamation to commemorate his martyrdom or none. The government may forget but our grateful hearts shall remember.