Bam Aquino: ‘Is the Filipino still worth dying for?’

A sign put up  by the Federation of Urban in Negros Occidental at the monument of former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. on Araneta Street in Bacolod City in February 2018. (Photo courtesy of JOY JARABELLO)

“Is the Filipino STILL worth dying for?”

For opposition Senator Bam Aquino, the answer was a resounding yes even if many seemed “disillusioned and despondent” with the current state of the country.

“I get asked this question a lot these days from friends and relatives as if to say that these immortalized words from Tito Ninoy are no longer true,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

The senator was referring to his uncle, Senator Benigno “Ninoy’ Aquino Jr, who was assassinated exactly 35 years ago today.

“Many of them are disillusioned and despondent with the state of our nation and the seeming lack of courage from the public and from public officials,” Bam went on.

“Where is the anger at the thousands of deaths and the everyday violence in our streets? Where are the leaders of the country who vowed to speak for the poor, but are now so silent and even complicit to the worsening situation of our people?” he further asked.

The senator recalled how his uncle went from being 1971’s Man of the Year and a promising ‘presidentiable’ to being martial law’s Prisoner No. 1 and “largely being forgotten by a once-supportive public.”

“He was 39 years old when they jailed him and 50 when they shot him,”Bam said of his uncle.

“But in his last decade filled with loneliness, abandonment, disappointment and betrayal, it was in those times that he wrote, ‘The Filipino is worth dying for.’”

If someone like Ninoy managed to keep his hope in the Filipino alive even at the darkest of times in his life and in our history, then the senator saw no reason why Filipinos should lose hope today.

“Clearly the answer to the question, ‘Is the Filipino STILL worth dying for?’ is Yes! Yes!” Bam said.

“Yes, we are still worth dying for, we are worth the trouble and the struggle. No matter how difficult or dangerous times may get, let’s take the lead from Ninoy’s life,” he added.
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