Republic Act No. 2956, signed into law in 2004 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, declared August 21 of every year as “Ninoy Aquino Day,” a non-working holiday to commemorate the death anniversary of Benigno Simeon “Ninoy” Aquino.
Ninoy Aquino was one of the more prominent members of the opposition against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos. He was among the first of many Filipinos to be arrested and imprisoned on trumped-up charges after Martial Law was declared on September 21, 1972. Ninoy was incarcerated until he suffered a heart attack in 1980, and was allowed to go to the United States of America for treatment. After spending three years in Boston, Massachusetts, Aquino chose to return to the Philippines to face Marcos, despite the danger to his life and safety.
Aquino was shot dead as he was escorted off China Airlines Flight 811. His sacrifice awakened Filipinos who had been suffering under the heel of dictatorship for more than two decades, leading to several mass protests that forced Marcos to call the snap presidential elections of 1986 which ultimately led to the fall of the dictator.
Today, as we commemorate the heroic death of the man who was credited as saying “The Filipino is worth dying for,” let us take a long hard look at ourselves and the public officials we entrust our country and our children’s future with. Is their professed love for our country as genuine or are they all talk? Do we have the courage to do what must be done for our country even if it is uncomfortable or have we become the type of people who are afraid to face an audit report?
History has shown that there are many Filipinos who were willing to live and die for our country. We can afford to live the way we do, without the worries and struggles they had, because of the freedoms they won for our sake. Holidays like today remind us that although the bar may have sunk to embarrassing depths over the years, such Filipinos once lived and died.
The despair of the past 17 months can be overwhelming but we have to remember that we are a country of heroes. The pandemic has shown that despite the laziness, greed and apathy among our nation’s stewards, there are still Filipinos who are willing to go the extra mile for the country, especially during times of great difficulty or crisis. It is the indomitable spirit of these Filipinos that we recognize today and it is because of the unsung heroism these seemingly ordinary folk that we can be comforted that our nation can still prevail.*
