ILOILO City – Thankfully, not all millennials are unfamiliar with the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., according to a faculty member of West Visayas State University (WVSU) in La Paz district.
Dr. Julie Gay Quidato, who teaches the Filipino subject, has made it a point to remind her students of Aquino, a critic of the Marcos dictatorship whose assassination 35 years ago, on Aug. 21, 1983, galvanized Filipinos into toppling then President Ferdinand Marcos three years later through the peaceful EDSA People Power Revolution.
“Para sa akin bilang isang guro, kinakailangan na pahalagahan ang pagkakaroon natin ng isang Ninoy Aquino sa panahong tayo ay nasa ilalim ng isang diktador at nabalot ng kadiliman,” said Quidato, also an extension coordinator of the WVSU College and Arts and Sciences.
According to Quidato, “Ang pagkamatay ni Aquino ang nagsilbing daan upang mamulat ang mga Pilipino sa isang mapayapang pagbabago.”
The 22-year-old student Sherlyn Joy Melendez, taking up Diploma in Teaching (DIT) at WVSU, was not born yet when Aquino fell victim to an assassin’s bullet at the tarmac of the then Manila International Airport. But she said she had studied the senator’s contributions to the country’s quest for freedom.
“He fought the Marcos dictatorship and championed the rights of Filipinos,” said Melendez.
It was good, she said, that the government made the date of Aquino’s death a national holiday so people are reminded of the country’s history under a dictatorship and the spark that led to the People Power Revolution.
It was only in 2004 when Aug. 21 was made a holiday. It was during the term of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, 21 years after Aquino was assassinated.
According to 18-year-old Kristine Cabasag of Arevalo district, she was taught about Aquino since her elementary school days.
A “staunch advocate of democracy” was how she described Aquino.
According to Quidato, the death of Aquino “naging mitsa upang magkaroon ng pagbabagong hindi sa marahas na paraan.”
Aquino was one of the leaders of the opposition. After President Marcos declared martial law in September 1972 he was arrested.
He was permitted by Marcos to travel to US for medical treatment after a heart attack. He was assassinated upon returning from the US.
The People Power Revolution three years after his death catapulted his window, Corazon to the presidency. In 2010, their son Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino III was also elected President./PN
” . . . . . Three long years had passed and due to controlled military, suppressed media plus inherent “Bahala Na” attitude of Filipinos, the sentimental massive outburst and public outrage of Ninoy’s brutal slaying obviously simmered down, his martyrdom relegated to the dustbin of history.
Then on February 11,1986, the incumbent Governor of Antique was assassinated outside the Provincial Capitol in San Jose. The impunity with which opposition Gov. Evelio Javier’s public execution was carried out in broad daylight, in plain view of his constituents by the butchers in the military establishment was too much to bear. The Filipino people’s cry “Tama Na! Sobra Na!” was heard loud and clear from Aparri to Tawi-Tawi. A few idealistic officers in the AFP could no longer swallow series of abusive acts and wanted reform with concrete radical action. The Reform the AFP Movement (RAM) led by Jose Almonte with Rex Robles and Billy Bebit of Iloilo, Gringo Honasan of Sorsogon, Red Kapunan of Capiz, Victor Batac of Bohol, and other RAM boys planned to attack and takeover Malacañang.
However, another Ilonggo, a Major in the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) in Baguio, loyal to his Commander-in-Chief revealed the brewing coupe d’etat to the Presidential Security Group (PSG), who lost no time arresting suspected members involved……”
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