MANILA, Philippines—A new breed of orchid with yellow flowers has been named after the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.—a refreshing addition to his growing number of busts and statues mounted in parks and on street corners.

“Here is something very simple, very real that will remind us of Ninoy Aquino,” Environment Secretary Lito Atienza Thursday said at the unveiling of the orchid in a Quezon City park named after Aquino.

“In a way, we’re making Ninoy a part of nature so we can forever remember him. Nature will always be with us, unlike statues that melt away, and rot away.”

Orchid breeder Rolita Spowart presented the orchid, Dendrobium Ninoy Aquino, to Atienza inside the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Center as the country marked Aquino’s 25th death anniversary.

The 8-year-old, long-stemmed orchid was abloom with yellow flowers.

The Philippine Orchid Society Inc. has been exporting it to Hawaii, South America, and the rest of Asia since Spowart started breeding the orchid in 2000 at the group’s laboratory in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan.

“It’s everywhere. So anyone who has it should henceforth call it Ninoy Aquino,” Spowart, the society’s vice president, told reporters.

Aquino, an opposition leader and critic of the Marcos dictatorship, was assassinated after stepping off a plane on Aug. 21, 1983 at the Manila airport after a self-imposed exile in the United States.

Atienza, who requested Spowart to name the new breed of orchid after Aquino, said the plant was a “small tribute” to the senator for his lifelong struggle for freedom.

Aquino’s killing in 1983, he said, further galvanized the Filipinos to step up protests against the abuses of the Marcos regime.

“He inspired the nation to rise up as one,” he said, referring to the people power revolt in February 1986 that toppled Marcos, and drove him into exile in Hawaii. “He came home so we will unite against a dictatorship.”

Aquino and Atienza were party-mates at the Liberal Party.