Ex-President Aquino recalls events leading to People Power with poignant video

Former President Benigno Aquino III on Sunday posted a poignant video of the crucial events that led to the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos as his way of joining the nation in commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolt.

With the instrumental version of “Bayan Ko” as background music, the grainy video of the political events that transpired in the 1980s included a brief clip showing his father, opposition leader Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., about to disembark from the plane moments before he was assassinated.

The video ended with his father’s famous quote: “I have weighed all the virtues and faults of the Filipinos, and I have come to the conclusion that the Filipino is worth dying for.”

The murder of Ninoy Aquino precipitated the Filipino people’s angry protests that culminated in the bloodless revolution that forced Marcos and his family to abandon Malacañang. The people installed his widow, Corazon, as the new president.

Accompanying the video was a paragraph from the former president’s Feb. 25, 2016 speech commemorating the 30th anniversary of Edsa:

“Maraming mukha ang diktadurya. May iba pang personalidad na nais magbalik nito – ang ipagkait ang tamang proseso at ilagay sa kamay ng iisang tao ang pagsasabi kung ano ang nararapat o hindi, at kung sino ang inosente o maysala. Ang sabi nga ng manunulat na si George Santayana: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it’.”

[Dictatorship has many faces. Some other personality would like to bring it back – to deny the right process and to put in the hands of just one person the responsibility of saying what should or should not be done and who is innocent or who is guilty. As George Santayana said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”]

Former President Benigno Aquino III (Photo from his Facebook page)

Aquino’s Facebook page has one more Edsa post with another of his father’s famous quotes: “There is no greater nation on Earth than our motherland. No greater people than our own. Serve them with all your heart, with all your might, and with all your strength.”

As of Monday afternoon, Aquino’s video post had 10,000 reactions, more than 8,000 of which were liked by Facebook users. Around 1,300 “laughed” at the post. With 227,000 views, the post had nearly 1,400 shares.

The post quoting his father had 11,000 likes, 1,200 hearts, 835 laughs, and 146 angry reactions.

Both posts attracted supportive comments as well as bashers.

Aquino was not at any public gathering commemorating Edsa.

The head of the People Power Commission under the Office of the President was uncertain whether or not Aquino, only son of democracy icons, Ninoy and Cory Aquino, was invited to the Edsa Revolt commemoration organized by the government at the People Power Monument on Sunday morning.

Aquino’s allies and opposition lawmakers like Sens. Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, and Antonio Trillanes IV; and Reps. Teddy Baguilat, Edgar Erice, and Bolet Banal joined the anti-administration Edsa rally also held at the People Power Monument on Sunday afternoon.

A message from detained Liberal Party Sen. Leila de Lima was read by a party ally, former Rep. Erin Tañada. De Lima, the first political prisoner under the Duterte administration, said that 32 years after Edsa, the dictatorship is making its presence felt again.

“Are we going to let the democracy fought for by millions of Filipinos and admired by the world go to waste? Are we going to keep silent while the people are openly being fooled?” De Lima said.

She urged the people to continue with their protest actions that would show the truth to the Filipinos and for justice to return in the country. /atm