Tarlac museum offers view into Ninoy’s life
By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
First Posted 01:03:00 08/22/2008
LUISITA INDUSTRIAL PARK, Tarlac City – There’s so much of Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. around – two airports named after him, his image on P500 bills, statues and streets.
But a museum in this industrial park beats all in giving an authentic and intimate view into the life of the icon of democracy whose murder 25 years ago inspired Filipinos to oust dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
The museum, which is the centerpiece of the Aquino Center, is easily accessible from Metro Manila. From the Manila-North Road (MacArthur Highway), it is only 30 meters from the entrance of the Luisita Industrial Park in Tarlac City.
Opened daily since its inauguration on Aug. 21, 2001, the 18th anniversary of Ninoy’s assassination, public viewing has been scaled down recently on a special appointment basis.
Guest book
But the guest book showed it is a favorite destination, with many guests, mostly students from various parts of the country, including foreigners, trooping here.
Architect Dan Lichauco, a nephew of Ninoy’s widow, former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, designed the building and the museum.
More than an assembly of personal memorabilia, the museum helps the visitor discover the real Ninoy.
The museum’s door opens to a corner with old photographs of the families of Ninoy and Cory, who were both born into wealthy families.
The next section focuses on Ninoy’s life during the pre-martial law years, from 1950 to 1971. Only 17 but already a journalist, he displayed courage by covering the war in Korea for the Manila Times in 1950.
A set of black and white photographs showed him negotiating the surrender of Huk leader Luis Taruc in the hinterlands of Mt. Pinatubo in 1954, doing that task as assistant to President Ramon Magsaysay and getting two medals for brokering peace.
The year 1955 saw his political star starting to shine, when he became the youngest mayor of his hometown Concepcion at 22. He became vice governor at 26 and governor of Tarlac at 30. As a politician, he was hands-on, always mingling with his constituents. The Ten Outstanding Young Men Award in 1960 confirmed his work in public service.
By 1967, Ninoy was already a senator but not after hurdling efforts to ban him from the race due to his age. He did not only win a seat but also rose to become secretary general of the Liberal Party.
He was saved when he arrived late in Plaza Miranda where a bomb exploded in the middle of an opposition rally on Aug. 21, 1971.
Oplan Sagittarius
Days after he exposed the “Oplan Sagittarius,” a plan by then President Ferdinand Marcos to stay longer in power and two days after Marcos declared martial rule on Sept. 21, 1972, Ninoy was arrested.
He spoke of that episode through his letter, dated Nov. 6, 1972, and written from his cell in Fort Bonifacio. His arrest in Suite 1707 at Hilton Hotel in Manila a few minutes after midnight “while in the actual performance of duties as senator of the Republic,” was, he said, on the orders of then defense secretary Juan Ponce Enrile.
The other letters revealed his anguish and unvanquished hope during solitary confinement.
That he underwent religious conversion while jailed in what is now Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija was expressed in a letter on June 19, 1973, and which he typed starting at 10 p.m.
When he was sentenced to die by firing squad, he wrote to lawyer Sedfrey Ordoñez on April 7, 1975, at 6:45 a.m.: “Death after all is not a calamity to the one who dies. It is a calamity only to those who he leaves behind, for death is a deliverance, joy, eternal peace and bliss.”
Hunger strike
Ninoy fought within the confines of his cell, launching a 40-day hunger strike from April 4 to May 13 in 1975 to protest the kangaroo court trying him for subversion and other crimes.
Sounding prophetic on Oct. 11, 1979, he wrote Jaime Cardinal Sin, who officiated his 25th wedding anniversary with Cory: “Your Eminence, only you can lead our exodus through the desert.”
It was Sin who called for People Power when troops loyal to Marcos began attacking troops who sided with Enrile and Philippine Constabulary chief Fidel Ramos in February 1986.
A section of the museum features a replica of Ninoy’s three meters by three meters cell in Fort Bonifacio.
“Living tomb” is how he called this space in a poem written on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1973. Home to him from 1972 to 1980, it contained basic amenities given him after the release of Sen. Jose W. Diokno in 1974.
How a man, so bright and with a great political career ahead of him, survived being confined in this little space invites pity and awe.
A piece of a wall panel in the original cell, scratched by Ninoy through a nail to keep track of the days, is hung in the replica cell. Writing, apparently, kept him sane throughout the ordeal. His Torpedo typewriter sat on the kitchen table-cum-office.
From jail, Ninoy led the Lakas ng Bayan (Laban) ticket in Metro Manila for the Batasang Pambansa elections in 1978. He made only one request to Marcos in a letter Feb. 16, 1978: That his freedom of speech be not impaired.
The life in exile from 1980 to 1983 proved to be a short, sweet time for his family in Boston. In between, he refused to be silenced, leading the anti-Marcos dictatorship campaign overseas. His return on Aug. 21, 1983, as “Marcial Bonifacio,” ended with a single fatal shot to the head.
The brutality of his enemies is kept intact in Ninoy’s bloodied jacket and undershirt. These were in the custody of Dr. and Mrs. Fer Bague in their house in Boston from 1983 until these were brought to the museum in 2001.
His undelivered homecoming speech went: “I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer – faith in our people and faith in God.”
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