The Legacy of Ninoy Aquino Jr.

e August 21 1983 a day forever etched in the memory of Filipinos the Noonday Sun beats down on a prostrate blood spattered figure in Safari white the name benno Akino Jr Nino for short his age 50 clutched in his right hand a broken Rosary his mission reconcile the Philipino people and restore democracy his assassin or assassins still legally unknown the government in power at the time the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos earlier on Mr Marcus had proclaimed martial law then locked him up 7 years and 7 months in Fort bonasio the name on Nino's passport martial bonasio Nino no name in Philippine history has ever held the nation in such a grip except that of Jose there was another riveting similarity the fusel that brought Ral down at the lunetta triggered the Philippine Revolution against Spain the bullet that snuffed out Nino's life spawned the bloodless EDSA Revolution on February 22 to 25 1986 each man dying almost a century apart brought out the best in the Filipino each had the same attributes a superbly gifted mind a bottomless passion for Liberty but most of all courage courage to look the enemy in the eye courage to Brave every Battlefield courage to die for one's convictions but while ral's life had been minutely and thoroughly researched by historians what was Ninoy really like who was he what made him tick behind the boyish beatific smile the Assassin's bullet could not a face what forces drove noinoi everybody marveled at his courage his heart where did he get it what spiritual Wells nourished his soul what was his magic why did 2 million mourners attend this funeral the bigger such turnout in contemporary history tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands poured out into the streets in post funeral rallies and demonstrations almost everything he touched was instant drum why there are many answers like cross Karen's in a raging River for Nino was not a simple person but the first solid clue to his extraordinary courage his burning desire to excel in everything he did was the death of his father Don Beno aino on December 20 1947 the young noinoi idolized his father eyes twinkling with pride at every step as he carried his Papa's portfolio as a boy after the second world war the Japanese Occupation they accused Bondo of being a collaborator a traitor the charges seared like hot iron Nino himself was taunted in the streets in public plazas in school what really hurt was when an atano high school teacher branded him the son of a traitor the young noinoi held his tears but he swore silently he swore his day would come then he would show the world what a aino really was courage is not for the asking Nino once said the heart lifts and the body throbs only when somebody else has the courage to die for his principles and convictions death was still far away when Nino did two things not long after his father's death but they were to chart his Destiny Nino became a journalist and covered the Korean War age 17 to 18 then he married coric kwano age 21 journalism for noinoi was like nectar from the gods of Fate as a reporter for the Manila Times he learned how to write how to capture the essence of life life in print as he later did in jail that was another similarity between him and Rizal both were prodigious letter writers each paragraph an exciting pulse beat in the historic drama each played out to the very end coverage of the war in Korea brought the teenage Nino to the charnal house of what was outrageous in Civilization war war among ations death was an everyday occurrence as lenoi covered the exploits of the 10th BCT as guns stacked artillery roed bombs exploded Nino of comrades disembodied limbs Fly Away heads blown off he was too young to be transfixed with horror but the smell the sight and the experience of death would stand Nino well in the years ahead marriage to Cory kwano was a godsend Highly Educated herself Cory had the intellect patience and understanding noinoi needed Cory and the five children were his Haven his Sanctuary from countless battles he fought outside and it came as no surprise that when the Thunder broke into a tempest after Nino's death Cori picked up Nino's torch and strowed forth to battle there was just one more step to take after the marriage to Cory enter politics there was this burning desire in noinoi to compensate compensate for what they did to his father a politician himself compensate for every insult every taunt to the aino name when the issue of Japanese collaboration was raised after the second World War Nino was also out to prove that public service was a public trust that the name Benigno aino would be synonymous with achievement with Sterling public performance and integrity in politics nenoi would Dazzle everybody he was Primus interpares first among equals here was Nino going faster higher stronger than everybody else on his level youngest mayor at 23 youngest provincial Vice Governor at 27 youngest provincial Governor at 28 youngest senator of the rim at 35 only the presidency remained looming over Ninoy was the formidable figure of President Ferdinand Marcos Marcos was the politician par excelon Marcos was cunning a Ute clever power political power was Marcus's Fort and he wielded it with a virtuos skill of a master magician and a tartar Overlord 15 years older than Ninoy Marcos spotted his political Quarry early on when noinoi was the political Kingpin of talak as fate with haveit tlak became the first dueling round between the two what what was it about talak talak was hook or communist territory talak was where Lis taruk commanders alibas Bas and sumulong cast their spell on the large slice of the peasantry Nino needed provincial peace and to get it he struck some sort of a truce with a hook leadership there was something about Nino inlock that caught the eye of Marcos n nooi fascinated him lenoi was a young political kugar who Moved with almost effortless ease in the jungle of politics in that jungle Marcos was King but he probably saw noinoi as a terrific Comer at this early stage noinoi had to be won over but or stopped and thus began the political duel that would eventually convulse the Philippines lead to to martial law and Nino's arrest and PVE the way for the eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the man in the palace and the man in prison in the first stages noinoi loved it from a relative unknown nationally he stroe into the Limelight as Marcos branded him a communist if not a card carrying communist a communist cuddler as Nino himself said much later on he had never been a communist was not a communist and never would be but he relished those communist lightning bolts from Marcos why not here was the president the great one taking notice of him and when the massacre at Plaza Miranda occurred on August 21 1971 the minions of Marcos snidle suggested that Nino and the Communists could have been behind it Ford Marcos it was uncanny instead of weakening noinoi with charges that he was a communist Nino's star continued to soar Nino added insult to injury when he was the Lone LP senatorial candidate to win the 1967 senatorial elections the awards came the honors Nino was a virtuosa performance for a political Benjamin such as the Philippines had never seen for four consecutive years 1968 to 1971 he was voted outstanding Senator by the Senate Press Club for three consecutive years he was voted outstanding Senator by the Philippines Free Press in 1971 he was chosen Man of the Year by the Philippines Free Press Nino reaped headlines with the greatest of ease often at marcos's and imelda's Pense the young Senator drew blood with the jaida Expos brought down the house with Revelations that maros own a cluster of luxurious manions the hoing man with his Wy s on the cultural center got back to maros by claiming the president had itchy Vagabond fingers that juggled items in the National budget obviously Nino had his eye set on the presidency as the leading aspirant of the liberal party not very obviously maros set about to foil Nino's bid by preparing secretly to declare martial law since the Constitution forbat him from running for a third term Marcos must have realized he could feel nobody not even his glamorous wife to square off successfully against n if the 1973 presidential elections were held nobody doubted Nino win and so on September 21 1972 Marcos proclaimed martial law and another battle was joined between maros and Ninoy to all intents and purposes noinoi looked like the loser Marcos the winner as the political wings of maros and his generals spread eagle the country noinoi was shunted into a 4x5 meter prison cell in the Grim Fortress that was bonifas the fates then appeared to have willed that nino be consigned to the Book of Job the triumphant maros to the book of Jupiter the greatest punishment fate could inflict on linoy was to subject him to solitary confinement in this tiny prison cell outside the whole wide world was Nino's stage for nooi was larger than life and his every move every word his every gesture held everyone inth I have been in solitary for 5 and a half years and you don't know Mr nabal what is to be alone 24 hours a day it is not true what secretary and really said that I am free to roam around you that's not true I am brought out 1 hour a day to exercise and I am brought back to my room and I'm locked up for the last 5 and A2 years I've been locked up alone in my room alone in his cramped cell unable in 7 years and 7 months to see the moon and the stars Nino gradually realized he was in for keeps his close prison mates were gradually released munching Mitra Gino roses so Rodrigo theodoro loin maxen pepeo Na and myself only Pepe dioko remained to eventually share with noinoi the ter terrible torment of Laur but dnou was subsequently freed after 2 years in Fort bonasio what has uh imprisonment taught me well I think it has tested the limits of my capacity which is uh to me a uh a tremendous uh benefit before being in prison I did not know the limits of my capacity I either overestimated myself or underestimated myself in many instances I think after 7 years now I have a better measure of myself I know the limits of my patience the limits of my tolerance the limits of my endurance the limits of my intelligence of my comprehension of my analysis this is the thing that has given me here that's why so there's really no sense in getting sore I can look at uh at problems more objectively I I could be free when I saw maros brother yeah I'll release you tomorrow Mr President I want to tell you that uh if you're doing good and the people say you're okay so unless you're ready to leave martial law I want to be with my children my family and so the prison Vis grew Tighter and Tighter the man in the palace presumably felt power would eventually break the man in prison Nino was made to understand that all he needed to be free was to do one thing scribble a message to Marcos that he was ready for a deal a deal to cooperate with to serve if he wished under the Marcos dictatorship noinoi refused and thus Laur up on Hills in Fort magai in an even tinier cell awaited Nino La was psychological torture of the worst kind not a hand was laid on him in physical Punishment No pistol was thrust against his Temple no electrode was stra on his nipples or testicles to make him scream for Mercy La was else Laur was complete isolation from the world not even Cory or any member of the family nor Senators Lorenzo Tanada or hito Salonga Nino's top two Boyers knew of Laur for that matter neither Nino nor beo knew they were in Laur except afterwards in La they stripped noinoi of his eyeglasses is watch his wedding ring his belt his cone his shoes each day he had to ask for water toothpaste toothbrush permission to go to the toilet from his guards Laur was the agony of a man in the darkness not knowing whether the morrow would mean death before a firing squad Laur was a Perpetual blindfold on what the next moment would bring Laur was the fear that every putrid meal was poisoned Laur was noinoi subsisting on soda crackers or biscuits Laur was where Nino cursed the Filipino people the leaders of the country and even God Laur was where noinoi had no pencil pen or paper where he could write his thought that spread like jungle fever in his tortured mind he was later to write all these in a post Laur diary what terrible crimes have I committed to deserve this fate the maganos are living it up and I who tried to walk the narrow path of public service with Integrity am now about to meet an uncertain fate is this justice but when I was placed in deep solitary confinement nobody to talk to I became desperate and here I started to question the fundamentals of my belief firstly is there really a god La was where noinoi himself said he cried like a baby where he was sitting in a corner on the floor telling himself now I'm going to die without talking to Corey I won't see my children anymore Laur was Nino losing so much weight he had to hold up his beltless pants lest they slip to the ground and yes Laur was where noinoi fought with all his might against going insane they brought me to a mountain hideout in the sherad and plac me in a box I had only my brief and my t-shirt I refused to eat because I thought they were poisoning me there was nothing in the room barely nothing and I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumb and for the first time in my life I heard the ticking of every second and I was counting every second into minutes and as the minutes March into hours and the hours into days and days into weeks I knew what loneliness meant in a later letter Nino wrote that to fight off the shadows of madness he would walk daily around his cot Barefoot and he would go back in memory as far as he could back to his childhood days and the remembrances would come in little Ripples and finally the remembrances rolled into a big wave over to the present on Nino alone Forsaken and forgotten in Laur Nino came close to the point of breaking but he did not break when I was brought to Laur where I had my real great uh spiritual crisis in I started from the beginning and I disown God the terror that was Laur finally met its match on the 14th day he was then squatting on the floor when he saw or thought he saw the image of the virgin mother on the blank wall he was later to tell a journalist in Boston Arnold zetlin I don't know whether the Virgin Mary was trying to tell me now look you're just going through the faces of my son Jesus first you were joyful you were born you became a senator you had pump and Glory why are you complaining you already had pump and Glory now it's the sorrowful who knows if you survive the sorrowful thing there's the glory again just go on with it and so NE o returned to the rosary for 9 days he said the rosary almost all day long and he prayed as he had never prayed before dear Lord I just want to see my wife and children for 30 minutes after that I can die on the ninth day Cory and the five aino children came and the captain of the Guard said sir you have 30 minutes by some freak accident of fight the young lieutenant in charge of Laur was Vol gazmin now Colonel voler gazmin had a president kono's Elite presidential security group noinoi was his Godfather in marriage the ninth day was April 8 1973 43 days after Cory saw noinoi last in Fort bonasio Cory related to Nino how Senator Tada wept publicly for the first time in his appearance before The Supreme Court this was after noinoi and pepe diokno disappeared from Fort bonifasi T begged to know where Nino and pepe were were they still alive was noinoi already dead if he was still alive somewhere could Cory and the children visit him the April 8 randevu in Laur was a page torn from Gulag archipelago noinoi could not contain his tears he later wrote in his diary I felt a shame that Cory was the stronger one and she kept telling me you can do it Cory recalls that Ninoy looked awful his hair dis heaved his pants baggy his T-shirt grimy Nino told gy that he felt death was just around the corner he gave Cory instructions that almost amounted to his last will and destinate what to do with their properties it was a strange and Eerie spectacle two rolls of chicken chicken Coupe stood between Nino and Cory and the kids Behind noinoi was an Army photographer also clicking away Cory gritted her teeth and Fred up her resolve baly Akino the eldest child told Ninoy dad our luck will change so did nooi so did VL and Pinky it was a family cheering Squad da lose and unafraid telling Nino not to lose hope that despite all the sad things befalling the family there was hope Chris then only 2 years old would recall she saw her dad like an animal in a cage the key word was hope and with hope also faith and prayer as military cameras continued to click away as military personnel close by glared at the proceedings Nino and Cory agreed that no matter how often they braid the Rosary every evening at 800 they would clutch the rosary beads in communion with each other but Nino had no watch how was he to know it was 8:00 p.m. this did not present the problem all day in Laur he was praying the rosary at 8:00 p.m. he was sure to be praying the rosary I now agree that man's reason has a limit that's why he's man that's why he's finite and if he's man then how can he comprehend which is not man which is infinite so that if you are finite and limited you cannot possibly Encompass what is unlimited man will have to go as far as reason will bring him but at that point at that abys you take a leap in the dark in a it's a matter of faith in other words where reason ends Faith begins in prayer and in faith Nino's tremendous vitality and energy turned inward in Laur where before he was a Ling political dervish with the world as is strage in Laur the Turning inward swept nooi into another world the world of the spirit the world of God Laur was meant to break noinoi bring him to his knees bring him with head bowed to the portals of malagan the opposite happened but in the depths of my desolation I discovered my faith in my God and it was only then that I realized I'm nothing I realized that all the pump the glory of the Senate were Emeral that wealth that clothing keeping up with the Joneses was not of this world really and having discovered that I have lost my appetite for power after Laur Nino no longer relished political power as the end game of his life the man in the palace would still shoot his last bolt with the forthcoming court trial of noinoi but by this time the man in prison had crossed his Rubicon nothing terrestrial held any Terror for him anymore for 7 years I was not allowed to see the moon and the stars there were days where they left me all alone by myself I had no reading material I had nothing I was twiddling my thumb I Would Walk and Walk and walk across my room just a room of about 4 M by 5 m hoping that I I'll get tired and then when I get tired I will fall asleep knowing that tomorrow will be the same and I often ask myself in 73 a high official of the government asked meet when I refused they aded me ask for his forgiveness my friends I cannot understand the tarity in the gull of these people I would like to tell you that I was tempted in my 7,000 almost 7,285 days in prison to do just that I am only human when my wife and children would visit me and they would leave me at desk after 1 hour I also would like to enjoy the Embrace of my children and the Peace of my home but if I gave faith in that conviction if I refuse to accept the jurisdiction of a military court and because I refuse to defend myself they will give me the death sentence I I vowed to myself that because you have elected me to the Senate and I gloried in its pump therefore it is now time that that's my I that I must suffer the consequences of my act and because I knew I knew early on and I discovered that there is a God who is just it is because of that faith in my Divine creator that sustain me all these years 4 months after La the martial law government of Ferdinand Marcos filed formal charges of subversion murder and illegal possession of firearms against noinoi if Nino could not be br broken in Laur and had to be brought back to Fort bonasio then the trial and the eventual sentence of death would finish him off the trial was what Nino and his legal council predicted it would be a kangaroo court a mockery of Justice a travesty of due process where noinoi was depicted as a killer communist many witnesses was were paraded before me I never saw them in my life and yet they were pointing fingers at me accusing me of crimes I never committed they admitted to crimes they said they were communist they said they were number three in the Communist hierarchy and yet the government set them free and I was in jail lenoi was no more a communist than Ferdinand Marcos was but communism was a dirty word a swear word like gbls the government repeated the charge of Communism against noinoi until it grew like a genie billowing out of the bottle lies repeated a million times became truth according to Devils but I knew that somehow I will regain my freedom maybe not in this world but elsewhere and I knew that sometime somewhere Mr Marcos and I will meet and in that meeting I will have my satisfaction in his opening statement before military commission number two Nino announced he would boycott the trial he said my Act of nonparticipation is therefore an act of protest against the structures of Injustice that brought is here it is also an Act of Faith in the ultimate victory of right over wrong of good over evil in all humility I say it is a rare privilege to share with motherland her bondage her anguish and every pain and suffering and as the barrel chested General Jose cuko and his commission members glowed at the defendant noinoi said s I know you to be Honorable Men but the one undesirable fact is that you are subordinates of the president you may decide to preserve my life but he can choose to send me to death some people suggest that I beg for mercy but this I cannot in conscience do I would rather die on my feet in honor than Live On Bended Knees in shame it was during the trial that nino stage a hunger strike nobody could stop noinoi it was Nino's way of protesting the unfairness of it all Nino was told that hunger strikes could only attract attention if the Press was free if there was no dictatorship if the weakening throb of his heart and the ravages rot on his one's robust body could be communicated to the world outside Mahatma Gandhi fast succeeded in arousing India and the world the World Press was right there at his bedside for Nino there was no press or hardly any what existed was the noinoi of Laur a shaft of spiritual steel determined to look at death in the eye in his April 6 1975 letter to Sock Rodrigo Nino wrote I have decided to challenge death I do not believe I am sinning against my Creator because in the end I'm not really my own executioner by my example I hope I can Inspire others like The Dominoes want us to fall to create the Chain Reaction unfortunately it is my sad fate to depart before the Deluge and to Cory his mother and his family he wrote on April 14 1975 there Comes A Time in a man's life when he must prefer a meaningful death to a meaningless life let Mr Marcos realize there are still Filipinos who are prepared to suffer and lay down their lives for a cause bigger than their own physical survival during Nino's hunger strike Cory failed the role of PETA she had to be Fearless as Nino was Fearless persevering as Nino was persevering Resolute as Nino was Resolute no tears rolled from her eyes as she nurse Nino day after day until his weight fell from 160 to 123 lb getting Nino to the bathroom was an ordeal Cory placed three folding chairs between Bed and bathroom like Way St at each folding chair noinoi would sit down to rest crank up enough strength from his already frail and faltering body then he would lean on Cory again go through the same process like two desert stranglers holding on to each other for dear life lest separately they fall and be devoured by the swirling Sands at night Cory would wake up could check if noinoi was still alive the situation was already hellish as it was but the tormentors of Ninoy had something more up their sleeve they would barbecue chicken or pork near his cell the aroma wafted into his room but Nino could no longer be broken the body had shrunk to a pitiful shell but the heart was there big as ever cast into a spiritual Iron by Laur and Nino's Soul was absolutely immune to the smell of chicken and pork barbecue on the 30th day Hae cardinal sin came to administer the final rights on the 32nd day the military rushed noinoi to the Veterans Memorial Hospital at the hospital they force fed him with dextr as his blood pressure dangerously dipped to 60 over 40 on the 40th Day realizing that he had been force-fed noinoi broke his fast the question is uh I am in good physical health and when I went to hunger strike what made me cause to stop after 40 days was it because I was afraid to die I would like to be very candid this afternoon I went to the hunger strike as a protest to what they did to me in the military commission but more than a symbolic protest I must admit I had a death wish I wanted to die and so I went on until I lost about 40 lbs from 163 I dropped to about 127 and then I was rushed to the hospital my mother cried and my wife naturally and my children but I was determined I felt that uh I've served the full life and it was time to go but somehow on the 40th Day I was struck by that letter of Father De La Costa to me and he said do you think by trying to die you are being courageous he said you're not being courageous you're recovered it is more courageous to go on living you're opting out you're escaping and it's an act of cardless to continue living and to continue fighting he said it's more courageous and ultimately he said if you believe in the Divine will do not interfere with his will let his will be done n by then had received information that Malak kanyang would stop his fast at the point when he was already a vegetable to keep him alive to renew the fast would have been very dangerous after 7 years I've lost my dogmatism away I was so sure you know of things but after 7 years you know of contemplation uh there is really nothing sure in this world except death after Laur after the hunger strike death and nenoi had looked each other squarely in the face neither blinked on the contrary they parted like comrades in arms and agreed to another wandu this time for always Beno s aino JR this Commission in close session and upon secret written ballot five of the members present at the time the vote was taken conquering sentences each one of you to suffer the penalty of death by firing squad on November 25 1977 the military commission sentenced Ninoy to death by musketry Marcos musab finally decided death was the most convenient way to settle the simmering yearslong duel with Ninoy why not by this time who cared for Nino anyway many of his friends and followers had deserted him other rare parties to which the ainos were still invited Cory and her in-laws found themselves alone at the table the men and the women who prior to martial law had high praises for nooi had long joined the queue to malakyan Crest Fallen Cori and the rest of the ainos visited noinoi at Fort bonasio after the death verdict to their surprise Nino was in High Spirits he assured them that Marcos would not make a Marty out of him not yet if he was going to die at the hands of his enemies noinoi said it would be done in another way true enough Marco suspended the execution and called for a reinvestigation of the case in the Philippines there was little reaction but abroad particularly in the US and the West the outrage against Nino's death sentence sped out like Angry lava noinoi had become an excruciating dilemma for the dictatorship alive Nino was still a problem dead Nino would also pose a problem all right then let Nino rot here in Fort bonasio the stay of Nino's execution by firing squad was to be perceived as an act of presidential magnanimity What mattered was power and the marcoses were then firmly and solidly in power across two oceans the US government generously gave its blessings to the Marcos dictatorship Richard Nixon Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan successfully backed him up so nooi again lapsed into Oblivion but not long afterwards fate quickened the 1978 Bas bansa elections against an earlier decision of the political opposition to boycott Nino decided to participate thus was born Laban a ragtag group of 21 opposition candidates with nothing but patriotism in their minds audacity in their hearts and fire in their bellies th was born the Laban sign of extended forefinger and thumb it looked like El ludicrous futile effort with lenoi campaigning from jail in the beginning very few attended Laban rallies the people were still scared stiff that's something happened Marcos instructed then defense minister Juan Bon enri to Smite Ninoy on Nationwide TV as a CIA agent the charge was shocking considering that noinoi had earlier been convicted as a communist subversive Nino asked for equal opportunity for rebuttal also on TV surprisingly Marcos granted the request if you will recall secretary en was the one who linked me to the CIA but how can secretary link me when he already has in his possession a letter saying that I've never been with the CIA now that is the contradiction in his part not on my part he claimed that there were monitored conversations here while in my room I was talking to a colonel and I claimed now these were bug conversations on the basis of that he now went to the press and says Akino claimed he's a CIA agent but if he already has a document saying that I have never been a CIA agent by the CIA itself why did he ever bring it out to embarrass me to say that I'm a liar in other words I will no longer go into the hassle of all of the CIA business I stand by the record of that CIA clearing me that I have never been a CIA agent or never been trained by them so let it be noo on TV was a revelation traffic in almost all of Metro Manila came to a dead stop as the citizenry stormed their TV sets to watch Nino you are a candidate of the yes and according to Senator former Senator roas uh you're not supposed to run and they might uh well not impeach you but uh take you out of the party I am very glad that you finally brought the needed commercial because I was afraid you know I will miss this chance oh you got 1 hour and 30 minutes no uh I would like to say that I was the one who originally proposed the national boycott In fairness to secretary to Senator roas and and Salonga that Friday morning at the batas and Bayan when they were meeting and Governor s Lis of Laguna proposed black voting I was so stunned that when Joy visited me at noon I said Joy please issue a joint statement in our name asking and urging our people for a national boycott because this is just too much the government already has all the forces in its command they have the entire Machinery of politics which we do not have so this was the situation JY took my word for it and he reported to Jerry about my reaction and they issued subsequently the Press statement later on I had to rethink the intellect was there right Nim luminous the W was there and they wereing ricking and pungent why do you refuse to present evidence in the Beautiful you know Mr Marcos is the commander-in Chief of the Armed Force of the Philippines all of these generals are Military Officers Mr Marcos said I'm guilty by overwhelming evidence he ordered me to jail for 5 years if this officers will say I am innocent it's just like saying Mr Marcos is a liar and they will never do that all I ask Mr Marcos is send me before an impartial tribunal not a military officer but uh you're prejudging all this milit if you attend that Doon Mission we stand up for but sir would you wouldn't you think that by making a statement such as that you're really questioning the Integrity of all these men no it is the circumstance most of all the heart was there as a result the lman rally started to pick up like swollen water breaking the dkes the ever bulging laan Crow fored into the April 6 noise barrage it was a sight to see a sound to hear that noise barrage it was one huge electrifying di of church bells ringing kettles pounding cars honking pans tossing and empty gasoline cans rattling tens of thousands wasted all over the city shouting the name of nemoi Flash in the Laban side the Jubilation was shortlived on Election Day April 7 Marcos pulled out all the stops the Communists he said orchestrated the noise barrage the nation had to be saved and so it was Marcos fashion not one Lan candidate made it in the counting despite several surveys that showed Nino as a top notcher Marco pulled out the most potent weapon from his political Arsenal fear fear and the Communist bogy fear of arrest fear of harassment intimidation persecution Laban campaign manager Lorenzo Tanada led a death of democracy March from kazon City to the Manila Cathedral April 9 1978 the March expected to pull in thousands of supporters along the way this time nobody dared to join the Marchers who numbered about 500 fear gripped Manila an new when Tanada and the Marchers were arrested along espa and shunted into buses hardly anybody bothered to look their way the man in the palace had won his bet whoever said the Philippines was a nation of cowards must have been right so Nino was forgotten again but not before he demonstrated that Filipinos could be roused that their hearts could be touched if only for an instant there was something else about noinoi somewhere in his psyche he had a soft spot for Ferdinand Marcos Nino believed that whatever Marcos had done to him and to his family Marcos had a sense of history that Marcos cared for whatever history and posterity would say about him that Marcos could be talked to that presumably Marcos could link hands with him and together they could restore democracy this struggle can only mean victory for all of us it will mean Victory because we are different from those that we oppose those that we oppose are happy with the material wealth but for how long I have written Mr Marcos letters upon letters and I told him read your history my friend I have no hatred for you I only have pity because if you do not see and you do not remove the calluses from your eyes if you do not remove your blinders you will meet the same fate of all the dictators of History what happened to ma chetong his wife is now in jail what happened to piron is ailita is now in jail what happened to Franco he's now forgotten what happened to the Sha for all of the things that he did The Monuments to his greatness have already been torn down there has never been a single dictator in history that has lived forever and so I tell Mr Marcos Mr Marcos study the lessons of History before it is too late and so when the dictator allowed me out on a Furlow October 11 1979 for his and Cory's 25th wedding anniversary Nino developed his rendevu with history formula as visitors once again streamed to his keson City residents Nino openly advocated the formation of the Council of Elders the council would overhang the Marcos government as a supreme advisory body a coalition government including the opposition would follow national elections would be held so noinoi waited for Marcus's call they were to Rendevous at a neutral sight two political Giants joining hands the historic rendevu never materialized it was an Impossible Dream Nino returned to Fort bonasia an important man came to call General Fabian ver ver told Nino he was wrong about the president having lupus ver said the president was as strong as ever ver gently told noinoi that Marcos was not buying his historic Revo idea and so the cobwebs of Oblivion gathered a new around Lino's Fort bonifas yourell there were talks even negotiations about a possible exile to the US but they petered out some close advisers of Marcos feared that nino in America would be a political bullet on the loose a Mischief maker who would use the CIA to Stage Bop pigs assault on the Philippines that was the tragedy of the Marcos philosophy the man in the palace could never believe that nino had changed that noinoi really wanted to help him the tragedy of Nino's spiritual philosophy was his insistence that Christ existed in every man that given a chance he noinoi could bring out the son of Nazarene in Ferdinand Marcos Mr Marcos is a human being and Mr Marcos has a conscience I may even ConEd that in his own fashion he thinks he's doing right it is therefore our duty and Our obligation to Enlighten him it is our duty and Our obligation to tell Mr Marcos that maybe he is wrong but definitely Mr Marcos is a human being and I have not lost hope that we can still reach him in the recesses of his conscience the truth was that for Marcos power was the ultimate fix power at the very top secretly he may have admired noinoi for Marco's respected men of courage of vision of tenacity Napoleon was an idol of Marcos and Marcos reveled in Napoleon's famous qu a great man comes from the encounter between a great mind and a great opportunity so the days and the weeks fell like autumn leaves for the man in prison if he was to languish forever in jail so be it but F again had a calendar that neither Marcos nor noinoi anticipated on March 19 1980 while jogging outside his cell Nino had a heart attack well they allowed me to run and they made a little coral for me they brought me out between 11: and 12:00 every day they brought me out to exercise on that particular day of March as I was walking around my little Coral all of a sudden I developed a chest pain and then the pain was so terrible that I sat down and I asked my guard to massage my chest and asked him to bring me back I called for the Army doctors they checked me and they said musle that's nothing just take a rest and so I rested but after 40 days I was so weak I could not even take a bath I was shaking and I told my doctor I said look doctor I don't know I said your diagnosis or its accuracy but but I am very very weak please bring me to the Philippine Hearts Center and get me an examination that doctor fortunately on that morning after 40 days on April 10 28 his name is Colonel bayani Garcia came to my office and said yes Senator Sab I will now recommend that they bring you to the Heart Center because apparently you're not getting well Mr Marcos has just arrived from Honolulu I will make my recommendation and I wrote a letter and I told them if you do not bring me to the Heart Center I will will be constrained to appeal to the Supreme Court and so he said no sir I will talk to the Commanding General at 1:00 that day a knock at my door came and I was given a letter from the Commanding General I thought it was the approval of my request when I opened the letter it was handwritten note and he said my dear Senator aino it is with deep regret that I inform you your doctor colonel bayani s Garcia died of a massive heart ATT St an hour ago if you were in my place here is your doctor telling you to how would you feel finally on May 5 1980 almost midnight they took me from my cell and they brought me to the Heart Center that was a Monday the doctors in the Heart Center met me took preliminary test and they told me senator they said said tomorrow we will begin the battery of tests and so I slept but I could not sleep that was the first time I was brought out of my cell in almost 7 years and 7 months and there were beautiful nurses and the first time I was seeing women in 7 years and 7 months and naturally I was watching my heart as it was palpitating but as I sat down after that x-ray I was just about to sip my coffee all of a sudden I get I got hit again by a terrible chest pain that was almost choking me and my arm was getting paralyzed so I told the nurse I said Miss please bring me to bed so they brought me to bed and they put all of those gadgets and all of a sudden the needles were squiggling and they called the doctor the doctor looked at the tracings and then after 1 hour they came back to me and said Mr Senator we are canceling all all tests I said why because we already know what's wrong with you I said what's wrong with me you have block art arteries and you must undergo an emergency triple bypass otherwise you may die in 6 days to 6 months I told them where can I have my operation Heart Center and that's the Heart Center of emela Marcos and I asked who can do the operation for me the director said there are two other assistants if you want but I'm the only one performing in the center he was director he was the director of the Heart Center handpicked also bya I said doctor thank you na I said if they cannot operate on me in America please bring me to my cell the truth is I did not want them to touch me in Manila and so there was a crisis the SEC Deputy Minister of Defense came to my room he tried to talk me out of my decision I said no and so finally he said are you willing to write a letter to Marcos requesting to be brought to America I said yes and so I wrote my letter to Mr Marcos and made two covenants that if I leave I shall return and two that while in America I shall not speak out against this regime and I also said I will only bring three of my children with me that's also true but of course the other two were already abroad and then my friends that was a Wednesday when I wrote that letter all of a sudden on Thursday morning May 8 my wife visited me early in the morning and she told me the hospital is crawling with metr cars guards all over the place then all of a sudden my guards started jumping putting their talog hiding all of their guns I said VIP and then lo and behold the beautiful one ascended into my Suite she came and she was really beautiful she has not aged and she sat down and said I'm sorry to see you like that at any rate I had my bathrob and I was like this and she talked to me and we talked to her and she was very nice about it and then all of a sudden after 1 hour she said would you like to go to America there's a plane living at 6:00 you can be in that plane after a 3 and a half hour triple heart bypass noinoi was a new man Dr Rolando soles one of the heart specialists in attend at Baylor would later Marvel at Nino's Heart during a bypass it is necessary to pour ice water on the heart to stop it from beating while the heart was being attached to a heart lung machine despite the first Deluge of ice water Nino's heart continued to beat another Deluge was necessary before it would stop I have been asked by many people what is the actual situation in the Philippines I think this Japanese explained the situation in the Philippines very well as you very well know the Japanese have a difficulty pronouncing their ARS Manila becomes manira and so this Japanese gentleman stood up and said my dear Filipino people you are very Rocky and I consider he said the Filipino people the most Rocky people in Asia and the people were of course surprised and they wanted to know why were why they were lucky he said you know why you are lucky you have a president who rubs you and you have a first lady who rubs you more the three years in Boston were the best 3 years the ainos ever experienced as a family noinoi did his level best to make up for the 7 years and 7 months that he was in Fort bonasio while it's true Mr Marcos I said that after my 8 years in prison I have lost appetite for office I am no longer seeking the presidency of this land I'm not seeking anymore any office in this country but believe me I said when I tell you that while I have vowed never to enter the political Arena again I shall dedicate dedicate the last drop of my blood to the restoration of freedom and the dismantlement of your Martial law he went with the kids queued for 2 hours so he could escort Chris to a movie two years as a fellow in Harvard University Center for international Affairs and one year as a fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did more wonders for Nino already prodigious mind in Fort bonasio Nino must have read anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 books and other reading materials this was the most encyclopedic political mind the Philippines had ever known at Harvard Nino refined his philosophy of nonviolence of Christ being present in other men among others he read G Stark dri Von Hofer Reinhold nibur thorough Tolstoy Gandhi Martin Luther King all of these authors exalted nonviolence like Nino a number of them had been in prison where they were divested of all Earthly pleasures and passions but once out of prison they did not seek revenge against their tormentors the Vil and athetic Gandhi pushed serenely forward even as night sticks rifle butts and machine gun bullets failed his followers nonviolence was to consume Nino even more passionately I've always said that Mr Marcos is the original terrorist he is right now employing State violence but if we use violence against him he will only justify the use of more violence against us and since he's more he's a more violent man he has more forces of repression we will be the loser in other words as Gandhi said said if he uses violence against you do not give him a reason to justify his violence because if you're not violent then before the bar of public opinion and before God he's the only sinner gradually he began to feel in his bones that one day he would return to the Philippines and resume his duel with Marcos on ground level wherever he went in Boston and in the US noinoi was a big hit and a charmer very simply Christian socialism means to me an equal opportunity for advancement and the full development of the human being this means that the poorest person in the land must be given the equal opportunity for Education number two the Christian socialist believes that the great legitimize of government is the ballot not the bullet and therefore because we believe in the ballot we believe in a majority rule so that if the majority should op and should win in a contest then the minority should accept the majority mandate but we put a catillia that the majority even if it wins must respect minority rights number three we do not believe in the exploitation of Man by man meaning we do not believe in unbridled capitalism where the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer in a developed country in America you may have capitalism but in a country like the Philippines with very Meer resources and a developing economy we must harness our Meer economy and maximize their benefit and therefore there should be centralized economic planning and the government must actually give the direction as to prevent any overlap finally I do not believe in the Monopoly of basic Industries Why should one family monopolize one electric company in the Philippines or why should one family monopolize the ownership of one airline company in the Philippines or why should one company monopolize the telephone company in the Philippines since the government is funding all of this to begin with these families are borrowing from government institutions and must depend on government guarantees then I say let the government own them and let the people share in the profit Christian socialism therefore is nothing more than democracy Dr Ben brown head of Harvard's Fellowship studies was amazed at the scope of neno's mind so were doctors Stanley Hoffman Lucien Pi David Steinberg many of whose writings noinoi had already read in Fort bonasio the Philippine basis in the Philippines in the Philippines be maintained however that rentals must be collected along the Spanish model but let me divide the question firstly I believe that when it comes to foreign policy both the majority and the opposition should not wash their dirty Linen in public and therefore I suggest a bipartisan approach to foreign policy in other words we should not talking outside where our negotiating opponent will be using both ends against the middle I think that is against Philippino interests so that we should have a working agreement among ourselves before we go out I am therefore in agreement with the Philippine government's position that we should assert our sovereignty on this basis that we should collect rentals now why do I say this it is true that the United States government has been giving us military aid for the last 30 years under the mutual defense assistance pack but it's also true that the Philippine Army has been the most neglected armies in Asia by the United States for the simple reason that we're not a Frontline Army and so I said rather than continue a situation of this nature may we therefore ask the United States government that they pay us rentals for this basis so that with these rentals we can now update the position of our Armed Forces we can have our own missile batteries we can have our own missile frigs we can have our own modern Weaponry rather than and go out with our hands out so that this would be a quid proo basis Dr Brown would relate after Nino's death that no conversation no subject or important event ever escaped Nino's multifaceted mind even as we would discuss American History Dr Brown said Nino would chime in with his incisive grasp of the subject Cory would also recount that at one time Nino and she were invited to dinner by a group of American Business men they were just so amazed said Cory that nino knew more about American history than they noinoi also related to journalists in Boston how Marcos envied him his erudition I envy you Nino quoted Marcos a saying because you have all the time in the world at your fingertips you have the greatest Symphonies available to you the greatest books which are not available to me because all my working hours are spent with people here you are with the greatest luxury of the greatest Minds in the world and so I told Mr Marcos negotiate now when you are still in a position to dictate terms in other words it is always good to negotiate when you are still strong do not wait when you're ready to wait because by then they'll be asking for your blood and because it's brilliant I anchored my thesis on that point but then most probably I'm going against the tide of History because no dictator has ever yielded power voluntarily and so I put the kicker Mr Marcos be unique be the first Tyrant and set the record to you three meetings with Elda Marcos in New York failed to alter Nino's course Elda offered him Prestige money if only he would recant even some State Department officials at the time felt that Nino's return to Manila which is rock the boat of us Philippine relations maros was their Ally and noinoi was an interloper Nino told the aan FR pres in an interview I don't think the Americans trust me they're not sure about me what I would do what would be my actuation If Ever I should become president and so they cannot be sure I am their boy the United States has given Mr Marcos four times more military aid since martial law today it is giving Mr Marcos six times more Aid and if you look at the record Mr Marcos was able to borrow almost 8 billion and most of this came from American assisted organizations like the World Bank and the IMF and therefore you cannot blame my countrymen when they feel that the Americans have tilted in favor of Mr Marcos our plea is very simple we are all your friends America is not our enemy but please do not help our dictator because it will make our job harder all we want you to do is stay out if you cannot help those who are oppressed in as much as or in spite of the fact that you claim you're the home of the free or the land of the free and the home of the brave if you cannot even help us then at least do not hurt us finally it became clear that nino was coming home the earlier muffled roll of Distant Drums that he was returning now hit Malak kanyang like a Thunderclap noinoi had to be stopped at all costs the orders were out all International Airlines were warned against airlifting Nino to Manila or else Imelda warned against possible assassination so the def def Minister Juan Pon enri in an urgent cable he counseled noinoi to come home only when the danger had passed Cory and the children bowed to Nino's decision but the other members of the huge Akino Clan particularly his mother Dona Aurora were a cast and against by this time the spiritual strength of noinoi had reached the Mountaintop the spectral voices of danger assassination and ption bounced off the man who surveyed the valley below this time he and Marcos would go to the edge of the cliff and there the future of the Philippines would be decided the reasons for Nino's return were Simplicity itself after 20 years of Marcos the Philippines had dug itself into a huge foreign debt the economy was in rags n said that whoever would succeed Marcos needed 10 years to enable the Philippines to recover from the economic Hol cost I am going back to the Philippines and if I have to go back to jail so be it but even more forbidding was the Communist Insurgency Nino dreaded the day that the plags of Marxism leninism the hammer and the sickle would ever fly over the country wherever the Communists were in power he said the traffic of refugees was always from east to west Nino saw the NBA just down the road ready to blow up the Philippines and bring in Civil War while there was still time the Communists had to be stopped Nino also surmised that the health of Marcos was about to take a tail spin that before long he would no longer be his own man that the generals would take over and bump off Imelda so Nino had to return to be in on the ground floor to help diffuse the political Time Bomb to Pedal hope for Hope had gone and the smell of drift and Decay was everywhere Nino also had to return for that one hour oneon-one with Marcos for that one hour he said I am laying my life on the line to many who argued that Filipinos were not worth saving because precious few the courage to fight the dictatorship Nino replied I have weighed carefully the virtues and faults of the Philipino and I have come to the conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation's greatest untapped resource to his younger sisters Lita and Desi who told him even their close friends suffered instant diarrhea at the mere mention of Nino's name he replied even if only 10 Filipinos would rise and join me my return would be worth it but there was another element in Eno's decision to return He correctly diagnosed that in any inventory of traits Filipinos admire most courage would go up the flag pole more than any other he was right in a pre- return interview 3 weeks before he diedo said Filipinos respect and admire courage best of all I'm going home I'm going back home to prove to maros that I am not afraid of him and I want to prove to our countrymen that I am going to Stand My Ground even at the risk of my life and so Nino realized his Moment of Truth had come since he was denied his passport by ilda he used another one with a striking appellation martial bonasio it was a play of names to denote marshal law and Fort bonasio Nino's return was a countdown that the Philippine government easily spotted and plotted with our toour Precision I suppose there's a physical danger because uh you know assassination part of Public Service look at po President Reagan he got shot because hinley fell in love with jod for so that's uh part of the haard of the game it's possible Nino knew that Marcos knew his every movement since he left Boston August 13 1983 my feeling is we all have to die sometime it's my fate to die by an Assassin's bullet so be it but I cannot be petrified by an action or fear of assassination and therefore stay a corner but flood tide had come and Julius Caesar it was who said decisions were made at flood tide before the waters we seed I think the very [ __ ] alone that we can land is Victory enough hesitate and All Is Lost I promised to return I have returned against all August sunlight was streaming down Manila when Nino's China Airlines plane landed at the Mia before noon we have to be very ready with your hand camera because this action can become very fast in a matter of 3 four minutes it could be all over you know and I may not be able to talk to you again after this as he descended with Burley military escorts 25 shots ran out only one of them the first it seemed killed lenoi the killing was awesome it was also obscene it did not square with the culture of the Filipino it was like a a hand crawling out of a slimy rock it had an animal scream to it a primal scream of somebody gun completely mad it was unchristian and because it was unchristian it roused a Christian Nation first to shock then to shame then to quiet indignation then to Street outrage The Killing opened a huge wound across the Nations conscience a fitful Marcos disowned the assassination predictably he said the Communists did it the killing might have been might have received the blessings of the NPA or the Communist hierarchy because they would shoot two birds with one stone uh they would eliminate aino who was responsible for some of the liquidation or killings according to them ironically Nino got more than he bargained for not just the Philippines but the whole world sat bolt upright and took notice of his unbelievable heroism what happened on that airport tarmac that High Noon fitted perfectly into a favorite quotation of lenoi from a Chinese Sage there is a Sublime thieving in all giving a man gives us all and we are his forever for h oh l

e August 21 1983 a day forever etched in the memory of Filipinos the Noonday Sun beats down on a prostrate blood spattered figure in Safari white the name benno Akino Jr Nino for short his age 50 clutched in his right hand a broken Rosary his mission reconcile the Philipino people and restore democracy his assassin or assassins still legally unknown the government in power at the time the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos earlier on Mr Marcus had proclaimed martial law then locked him up 7 years and 7 months in Fort bonasio the name on Nino's passport martial bonasio Nino no name in Philippine history has ever held the nation in such a grip except that of Jose there was another riveting similarity the fusel that brought Ral down at the lunetta triggered the Philippine Revolution against Spain the bullet that snuffed out Nino's life spawned the bloodless EDSA Revolution on February 22 to 25 1986 each man dying almost a century apart brought out the best in the Filipino each had the same attributes a superbly gifted mind a bottomless passion for Liberty but most of all courage courage to look the enemy in the eye courage to Brave every Battlefield courage to die for one's convictions but while ral's life had been minutely and thoroughly researched by historians what was Ninoy really like who was he what made him tick behind the boyish beatific smile the Assassin's bullet could not a face what forces drove noinoi everybody marveled at his courage his heart where did he get it what spiritual Wells nourished his soul what was his magic why did 2 million mourners attend this funeral the bigger such turnout in contemporary history tens of thousands even hundreds of thousands poured out into the streets in post funeral rallies and demonstrations almost everything he touched was instant drum why there are many answers like cross Karen's in a raging River for Nino was not a simple person but the first solid clue to his extraordinary courage his burning desire to excel in everything he did was the death of his father Don Beno aino on December 20 1947 the young noinoi idolized his father eyes twinkling with pride at every step as he carried his Papa's portfolio as a boy after the second world war the Japanese Occupation they accused Bondo of being a collaborator a traitor the charges seared like hot iron Nino himself was taunted in the streets in public plazas in school what really hurt was when an atano high school teacher branded him the son of a traitor the young noinoi held his tears but he swore silently he swore his day would come then he would show the world what a aino really was courage is not for the asking Nino once said the heart lifts and the body throbs only when somebody else has the courage to die for his principles and convictions death was still far away when Nino did two things not long after his father's death but they were to chart his Destiny Nino became a journalist and covered the Korean War age 17 to 18 then he married coric kwano age 21 journalism for noinoi was like nectar from the gods of Fate as a reporter for the Manila Times he learned how to write how to capture the essence of life life in print as he later did in jail that was another similarity between him and Rizal both were prodigious letter writers each paragraph an exciting pulse beat in the historic drama each played out to the very end coverage of the war in Korea brought the teenage Nino to the charnal house of what was outrageous in Civilization war war among ations death was an everyday occurrence as lenoi covered the exploits of the 10th BCT as guns stacked artillery roed bombs exploded Nino of comrades disembodied limbs Fly Away heads blown off he was too young to be transfixed with horror but the smell the sight and the experience of death would stand Nino well in the years ahead marriage to Cory kwano was a godsend Highly Educated herself Cory had the intellect patience and understanding noinoi needed Cory and the five children were his Haven his Sanctuary from countless battles he fought outside and it came as no surprise that when the Thunder broke into a tempest after Nino's death Cori picked up Nino's torch and strowed forth to battle there was just one more step to take after the marriage to Cory enter politics there was this burning desire in noinoi to compensate compensate for what they did to his father a politician himself compensate for every insult every taunt to the aino name when the issue of Japanese collaboration was raised after the second World War Nino was also out to prove that public service was a public trust that the name Benigno aino would be synonymous with achievement with Sterling public performance and integrity in politics nenoi would Dazzle everybody he was Primus interpares first among equals here was Nino going faster higher stronger than everybody else on his level youngest mayor at 23 youngest provincial Vice Governor at 27 youngest provincial Governor at 28 youngest senator of the rim at 35 only the presidency remained looming over Ninoy was the formidable figure of President Ferdinand Marcos Marcos was the politician par excelon Marcos was cunning a Ute clever power political power was Marcus's Fort and he wielded it with a virtuos skill of a master magician and a tartar Overlord 15 years older than Ninoy Marcos spotted his political Quarry early on when noinoi was the political Kingpin of talak as fate with haveit tlak became the first dueling round between the two what what was it about talak talak was hook or communist territory talak was where Lis taruk commanders alibas Bas and sumulong cast their spell on the large slice of the peasantry Nino needed provincial peace and to get it he struck some sort of a truce with a hook leadership there was something about Nino inlock that caught the eye of Marcos n nooi fascinated him lenoi was a young political kugar who Moved with almost effortless ease in the jungle of politics in that jungle Marcos was King but he probably saw noinoi as a terrific Comer at this early stage noinoi had to be won over but or stopped and thus began the political duel that would eventually convulse the Philippines lead to to martial law and Nino's arrest and PVE the way for the eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the man in the palace and the man in prison in the first stages noinoi loved it from a relative unknown nationally he stroe into the Limelight as Marcos branded him a communist if not a card carrying communist a communist cuddler as Nino himself said much later on he had never been a communist was not a communist and never would be but he relished those communist lightning bolts from Marcos why not here was the president the great one taking notice of him and when the massacre at Plaza Miranda occurred on August 21 1971 the minions of Marcos snidle suggested that Nino and the Communists could have been behind it Ford Marcos it was uncanny instead of weakening noinoi with charges that he was a communist Nino's star continued to soar Nino added insult to injury when he was the Lone LP senatorial candidate to win the 1967 senatorial elections the awards came the honors Nino was a virtuosa performance for a political Benjamin such as the Philippines had never seen for four consecutive years 1968 to 1971 he was voted outstanding Senator by the Senate Press Club for three consecutive years he was voted outstanding Senator by the Philippines Free Press in 1971 he was chosen Man of the Year by the Philippines Free Press Nino reaped headlines with the greatest of ease often at marcos's and imelda's Pense the young Senator drew blood with the jaida Expos brought down the house with Revelations that maros own a cluster of luxurious manions the hoing man with his Wy s on the cultural center got back to maros by claiming the president had itchy Vagabond fingers that juggled items in the National budget obviously Nino had his eye set on the presidency as the leading aspirant of the liberal party not very obviously maros set about to foil Nino's bid by preparing secretly to declare martial law since the Constitution forbat him from running for a third term Marcos must have realized he could feel nobody not even his glamorous wife to square off successfully against n if the 1973 presidential elections were held nobody doubted Nino win and so on September 21 1972 Marcos proclaimed martial law and another battle was joined between maros and Ninoy to all intents and purposes noinoi looked like the loser Marcos the winner as the political wings of maros and his generals spread eagle the country noinoi was shunted into a 4x5 meter prison cell in the Grim Fortress that was bonifas the fates then appeared to have willed that nino be consigned to the Book of Job the triumphant maros to the book of Jupiter the greatest punishment fate could inflict on linoy was to subject him to solitary confinement in this tiny prison cell outside the whole wide world was Nino's stage for nooi was larger than life and his every move every word his every gesture held everyone inth I have been in solitary for 5 and a half years and you don't know Mr nabal what is to be alone 24 hours a day it is not true what secretary and really said that I am free to roam around you that's not true I am brought out 1 hour a day to exercise and I am brought back to my room and I'm locked up for the last 5 and A2 years I've been locked up alone in my room alone in his cramped cell unable in 7 years and 7 months to see the moon and the stars Nino gradually realized he was in for keeps his close prison mates were gradually released munching Mitra Gino roses so Rodrigo theodoro loin maxen pepeo Na and myself only Pepe dioko remained to eventually share with noinoi the ter terrible torment of Laur but dnou was subsequently freed after 2 years in Fort bonasio what has uh imprisonment taught me well I think it has tested the limits of my capacity which is uh to me a uh a tremendous uh benefit before being in prison I did not know the limits of my capacity I either overestimated myself or underestimated myself in many instances I think after 7 years now I have a better measure of myself I know the limits of my patience the limits of my tolerance the limits of my endurance the limits of my intelligence of my comprehension of my analysis this is the thing that has given me here that's why so there's really no sense in getting sore I can look at uh at problems more objectively I I could be free when I saw maros brother yeah I'll release you tomorrow Mr President I want to tell you that uh if you're doing good and the people say you're okay so unless you're ready to leave martial law I want to be with my children my family and so the prison Vis grew Tighter and Tighter the man in the palace presumably felt power would eventually break the man in prison Nino was made to understand that all he needed to be free was to do one thing scribble a message to Marcos that he was ready for a deal a deal to cooperate with to serve if he wished under the Marcos dictatorship noinoi refused and thus Laur up on Hills in Fort magai in an even tinier cell awaited Nino La was psychological torture of the worst kind not a hand was laid on him in physical Punishment No pistol was thrust against his Temple no electrode was stra on his nipples or testicles to make him scream for Mercy La was else Laur was complete isolation from the world not even Cory or any member of the family nor Senators Lorenzo Tanada or hito Salonga Nino's top two Boyers knew of Laur for that matter neither Nino nor beo knew they were in Laur except afterwards in La they stripped noinoi of his eyeglasses is watch his wedding ring his belt his cone his shoes each day he had to ask for water toothpaste toothbrush permission to go to the toilet from his guards Laur was the agony of a man in the darkness not knowing whether the morrow would mean death before a firing squad Laur was a Perpetual blindfold on what the next moment would bring Laur was the fear that every putrid meal was poisoned Laur was noinoi subsisting on soda crackers or biscuits Laur was where Nino cursed the Filipino people the leaders of the country and even God Laur was where noinoi had no pencil pen or paper where he could write his thought that spread like jungle fever in his tortured mind he was later to write all these in a post Laur diary what terrible crimes have I committed to deserve this fate the maganos are living it up and I who tried to walk the narrow path of public service with Integrity am now about to meet an uncertain fate is this justice but when I was placed in deep solitary confinement nobody to talk to I became desperate and here I started to question the fundamentals of my belief firstly is there really a god La was where noinoi himself said he cried like a baby where he was sitting in a corner on the floor telling himself now I'm going to die without talking to Corey I won't see my children anymore Laur was Nino losing so much weight he had to hold up his beltless pants lest they slip to the ground and yes Laur was where noinoi fought with all his might against going insane they brought me to a mountain hideout in the sherad and plac me in a box I had only my brief and my t-shirt I refused to eat because I thought they were poisoning me there was nothing in the room barely nothing and I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumb and for the first time in my life I heard the ticking of every second and I was counting every second into minutes and as the minutes March into hours and the hours into days and days into weeks I knew what loneliness meant in a later letter Nino wrote that to fight off the shadows of madness he would walk daily around his cot Barefoot and he would go back in memory as far as he could back to his childhood days and the remembrances would come in little Ripples and finally the remembrances rolled into a big wave over to the present on Nino alone Forsaken and forgotten in Laur Nino came close to the point of breaking but he did not break when I was brought to Laur where I had my real great uh spiritual crisis in I started from the beginning and I disown God the terror that was Laur finally met its match on the 14th day he was then squatting on the floor when he saw or thought he saw the image of the virgin mother on the blank wall he was later to tell a journalist in Boston Arnold zetlin I don't know whether the Virgin Mary was trying to tell me now look you're just going through the faces of my son Jesus first you were joyful you were born you became a senator you had pump and Glory why are you complaining you already had pump and Glory now it's the sorrowful who knows if you survive the sorrowful thing there's the glory again just go on with it and so NE o returned to the rosary for 9 days he said the rosary almost all day long and he prayed as he had never prayed before dear Lord I just want to see my wife and children for 30 minutes after that I can die on the ninth day Cory and the five aino children came and the captain of the Guard said sir you have 30 minutes by some freak accident of fight the young lieutenant in charge of Laur was Vol gazmin now Colonel voler gazmin had a president kono's Elite presidential security group noinoi was his Godfather in marriage the ninth day was April 8 1973 43 days after Cory saw noinoi last in Fort bonasio Cory related to Nino how Senator Tada wept publicly for the first time in his appearance before The Supreme Court this was after noinoi and pepe diokno disappeared from Fort bonifasi T begged to know where Nino and pepe were were they still alive was noinoi already dead if he was still alive somewhere could Cory and the children visit him the April 8 randevu in Laur was a page torn from Gulag archipelago noinoi could not contain his tears he later wrote in his diary I felt a shame that Cory was the stronger one and she kept telling me you can do it Cory recalls that Ninoy looked awful his hair dis heaved his pants baggy his T-shirt grimy Nino told gy that he felt death was just around the corner he gave Cory instructions that almost amounted to his last will and destinate what to do with their properties it was a strange and Eerie spectacle two rolls of chicken chicken Coupe stood between Nino and Cory and the kids Behind noinoi was an Army photographer also clicking away Cory gritted her teeth and Fred up her resolve baly Akino the eldest child told Ninoy dad our luck will change so did nooi so did VL and Pinky it was a family cheering Squad da lose and unafraid telling Nino not to lose hope that despite all the sad things befalling the family there was hope Chris then only 2 years old would recall she saw her dad like an animal in a cage the key word was hope and with hope also faith and prayer as military cameras continued to click away as military personnel close by glared at the proceedings Nino and Cory agreed that no matter how often they braid the Rosary every evening at 800 they would clutch the rosary beads in communion with each other but Nino had no watch how was he to know it was 8:00 p.m. this did not present the problem all day in Laur he was praying the rosary at 8:00 p.m. he was sure to be praying the rosary I now agree that man's reason has a limit that's why he's man that's why he's finite and if he's man then how can he comprehend which is not man which is infinite so that if you are finite and limited you cannot possibly Encompass what is unlimited man will have to go as far as reason will bring him but at that point at that abys you take a leap in the dark in a it's a matter of faith in other words where reason ends Faith begins in prayer and in faith Nino's tremendous vitality and energy turned inward in Laur where before he was a Ling political dervish with the world as is strage in Laur the Turning inward swept nooi into another world the world of the spirit the world of God Laur was meant to break noinoi bring him to his knees bring him with head bowed to the portals of malagan the opposite happened but in the depths of my desolation I discovered my faith in my God and it was only then that I realized I'm nothing I realized that all the pump the glory of the Senate were Emeral that wealth that clothing keeping up with the Joneses was not of this world really and having discovered that I have lost my appetite for power after Laur Nino no longer relished political power as the end game of his life the man in the palace would still shoot his last bolt with the forthcoming court trial of noinoi but by this time the man in prison had crossed his Rubicon nothing terrestrial held any Terror for him anymore for 7 years I was not allowed to see the moon and the stars there were days where they left me all alone by myself I had no reading material I had nothing I was twiddling my thumb I Would Walk and Walk and walk across my room just a room of about 4 M by 5 m hoping that I I'll get tired and then when I get tired I will fall asleep knowing that tomorrow will be the same and I often ask myself in 73 a high official of the government asked meet when I refused they aded me ask for his forgiveness my friends I cannot understand the tarity in the gull of these people I would like to tell you that I was tempted in my 7,000 almost 7,285 days in prison to do just that I am only human when my wife and children would visit me and they would leave me at desk after 1 hour I also would like to enjoy the Embrace of my children and the Peace of my home but if I gave faith in that conviction if I refuse to accept the jurisdiction of a military court and because I refuse to defend myself they will give me the death sentence I I vowed to myself that because you have elected me to the Senate and I gloried in its pump therefore it is now time that that's my I that I must suffer the consequences of my act and because I knew I knew early on and I discovered that there is a God who is just it is because of that faith in my Divine creator that sustain me all these years 4 months after La the martial law government of Ferdinand Marcos filed formal charges of subversion murder and illegal possession of firearms against noinoi if Nino could not be br broken in Laur and had to be brought back to Fort bonasio then the trial and the eventual sentence of death would finish him off the trial was what Nino and his legal council predicted it would be a kangaroo court a mockery of Justice a travesty of due process where noinoi was depicted as a killer communist many witnesses was were paraded before me I never saw them in my life and yet they were pointing fingers at me accusing me of crimes I never committed they admitted to crimes they said they were communist they said they were number three in the Communist hierarchy and yet the government set them free and I was in jail lenoi was no more a communist than Ferdinand Marcos was but communism was a dirty word a swear word like gbls the government repeated the charge of Communism against noinoi until it grew like a genie billowing out of the bottle lies repeated a million times became truth according to Devils but I knew that somehow I will regain my freedom maybe not in this world but elsewhere and I knew that sometime somewhere Mr Marcos and I will meet and in that meeting I will have my satisfaction in his opening statement before military commission number two Nino announced he would boycott the trial he said my Act of nonparticipation is therefore an act of protest against the structures of Injustice that brought is here it is also an Act of Faith in the ultimate victory of right over wrong of good over evil in all humility I say it is a rare privilege to share with motherland her bondage her anguish and every pain and suffering and as the barrel chested General Jose cuko and his commission members glowed at the defendant noinoi said s I know you to be Honorable Men but the one undesirable fact is that you are subordinates of the president you may decide to preserve my life but he can choose to send me to death some people suggest that I beg for mercy but this I cannot in conscience do I would rather die on my feet in honor than Live On Bended Knees in shame it was during the trial that nino stage a hunger strike nobody could stop noinoi it was Nino's way of protesting the unfairness of it all Nino was told that hunger strikes could only attract attention if the Press was free if there was no dictatorship if the weakening throb of his heart and the ravages rot on his one's robust body could be communicated to the world outside Mahatma Gandhi fast succeeded in arousing India and the world the World Press was right there at his bedside for Nino there was no press or hardly any what existed was the noinoi of Laur a shaft of spiritual steel determined to look at death in the eye in his April 6 1975 letter to Sock Rodrigo Nino wrote I have decided to challenge death I do not believe I am sinning against my Creator because in the end I'm not really my own executioner by my example I hope I can Inspire others like The Dominoes want us to fall to create the Chain Reaction unfortunately it is my sad fate to depart before the Deluge and to Cory his mother and his family he wrote on April 14 1975 there Comes A Time in a man's life when he must prefer a meaningful death to a meaningless life let Mr Marcos realize there are still Filipinos who are prepared to suffer and lay down their lives for a cause bigger than their own physical survival during Nino's hunger strike Cory failed the role of PETA she had to be Fearless as Nino was Fearless persevering as Nino was persevering Resolute as Nino was Resolute no tears rolled from her eyes as she nurse Nino day after day until his weight fell from 160 to 123 lb getting Nino to the bathroom was an ordeal Cory placed three folding chairs between Bed and bathroom like Way St at each folding chair noinoi would sit down to rest crank up enough strength from his already frail and faltering body then he would lean on Cory again go through the same process like two desert stranglers holding on to each other for dear life lest separately they fall and be devoured by the swirling Sands at night Cory would wake up could check if noinoi was still alive the situation was already hellish as it was but the tormentors of Ninoy had something more up their sleeve they would barbecue chicken or pork near his cell the aroma wafted into his room but Nino could no longer be broken the body had shrunk to a pitiful shell but the heart was there big as ever cast into a spiritual Iron by Laur and Nino's Soul was absolutely immune to the smell of chicken and pork barbecue on the 30th day Hae cardinal sin came to administer the final rights on the 32nd day the military rushed noinoi to the Veterans Memorial Hospital at the hospital they force fed him with dextr as his blood pressure dangerously dipped to 60 over 40 on the 40th Day realizing that he had been force-fed noinoi broke his fast the question is uh I am in good physical health and when I went to hunger strike what made me cause to stop after 40 days was it because I was afraid to die I would like to be very candid this afternoon I went to the hunger strike as a protest to what they did to me in the military commission but more than a symbolic protest I must admit I had a death wish I wanted to die and so I went on until I lost about 40 lbs from 163 I dropped to about 127 and then I was rushed to the hospital my mother cried and my wife naturally and my children but I was determined I felt that uh I've served the full life and it was time to go but somehow on the 40th Day I was struck by that letter of Father De La Costa to me and he said do you think by trying to die you are being courageous he said you're not being courageous you're recovered it is more courageous to go on living you're opting out you're escaping and it's an act of cardless to continue living and to continue fighting he said it's more courageous and ultimately he said if you believe in the Divine will do not interfere with his will let his will be done n by then had received information that Malak kanyang would stop his fast at the point when he was already a vegetable to keep him alive to renew the fast would have been very dangerous after 7 years I've lost my dogmatism away I was so sure you know of things but after 7 years you know of contemplation uh there is really nothing sure in this world except death after Laur after the hunger strike death and nenoi had looked each other squarely in the face neither blinked on the contrary they parted like comrades in arms and agreed to another wandu this time for always Beno s aino JR this Commission in close session and upon secret written ballot five of the members present at the time the vote was taken conquering sentences each one of you to suffer the penalty of death by firing squad on November 25 1977 the military commission sentenced Ninoy to death by musketry Marcos musab finally decided death was the most convenient way to settle the simmering yearslong duel with Ninoy why not by this time who cared for Nino anyway many of his friends and followers had deserted him other rare parties to which the ainos were still invited Cory and her in-laws found themselves alone at the table the men and the women who prior to martial law had high praises for nooi had long joined the queue to malakyan Crest Fallen Cori and the rest of the ainos visited noinoi at Fort bonasio after the death verdict to their surprise Nino was in High Spirits he assured them that Marcos would not make a Marty out of him not yet if he was going to die at the hands of his enemies noinoi said it would be done in another way true enough Marco suspended the execution and called for a reinvestigation of the case in the Philippines there was little reaction but abroad particularly in the US and the West the outrage against Nino's death sentence sped out like Angry lava noinoi had become an excruciating dilemma for the dictatorship alive Nino was still a problem dead Nino would also pose a problem all right then let Nino rot here in Fort bonasio the stay of Nino's execution by firing squad was to be perceived as an act of presidential magnanimity What mattered was power and the marcoses were then firmly and solidly in power across two oceans the US government generously gave its blessings to the Marcos dictatorship Richard Nixon Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan successfully backed him up so nooi again lapsed into Oblivion but not long afterwards fate quickened the 1978 Bas bansa elections against an earlier decision of the political opposition to boycott Nino decided to participate thus was born Laban a ragtag group of 21 opposition candidates with nothing but patriotism in their minds audacity in their hearts and fire in their bellies th was born the Laban sign of extended forefinger and thumb it looked like El ludicrous futile effort with lenoi campaigning from jail in the beginning very few attended Laban rallies the people were still scared stiff that's something happened Marcos instructed then defense minister Juan Bon enri to Smite Ninoy on Nationwide TV as a CIA agent the charge was shocking considering that noinoi had earlier been convicted as a communist subversive Nino asked for equal opportunity for rebuttal also on TV surprisingly Marcos granted the request if you will recall secretary en was the one who linked me to the CIA but how can secretary link me when he already has in his possession a letter saying that I've never been with the CIA now that is the contradiction in his part not on my part he claimed that there were monitored conversations here while in my room I was talking to a colonel and I claimed now these were bug conversations on the basis of that he now went to the press and says Akino claimed he's a CIA agent but if he already has a document saying that I have never been a CIA agent by the CIA itself why did he ever bring it out to embarrass me to say that I'm a liar in other words I will no longer go into the hassle of all of the CIA business I stand by the record of that CIA clearing me that I have never been a CIA agent or never been trained by them so let it be noo on TV was a revelation traffic in almost all of Metro Manila came to a dead stop as the citizenry stormed their TV sets to watch Nino you are a candidate of the yes and according to Senator former Senator roas uh you're not supposed to run and they might uh well not impeach you but uh take you out of the party I am very glad that you finally brought the needed commercial because I was afraid you know I will miss this chance oh you got 1 hour and 30 minutes no uh I would like to say that I was the one who originally proposed the national boycott In fairness to secretary to Senator roas and and Salonga that Friday morning at the batas and Bayan when they were meeting and Governor s Lis of Laguna proposed black voting I was so stunned that when Joy visited me at noon I said Joy please issue a joint statement in our name asking and urging our people for a national boycott because this is just too much the government already has all the forces in its command they have the entire Machinery of politics which we do not have so this was the situation JY took my word for it and he reported to Jerry about my reaction and they issued subsequently the Press statement later on I had to rethink the intellect was there right Nim luminous the W was there and they wereing ricking and pungent why do you refuse to present evidence in the Beautiful you know Mr Marcos is the commander-in Chief of the Armed Force of the Philippines all of these generals are Military Officers Mr Marcos said I'm guilty by overwhelming evidence he ordered me to jail for 5 years if this officers will say I am innocent it's just like saying Mr Marcos is a liar and they will never do that all I ask Mr Marcos is send me before an impartial tribunal not a military officer but uh you're prejudging all this milit if you attend that Doon Mission we stand up for but sir would you wouldn't you think that by making a statement such as that you're really questioning the Integrity of all these men no it is the circumstance most of all the heart was there as a result the lman rally started to pick up like swollen water breaking the dkes the ever bulging laan Crow fored into the April 6 noise barrage it was a sight to see a sound to hear that noise barrage it was one huge electrifying di of church bells ringing kettles pounding cars honking pans tossing and empty gasoline cans rattling tens of thousands wasted all over the city shouting the name of nemoi Flash in the Laban side the Jubilation was shortlived on Election Day April 7 Marcos pulled out all the stops the Communists he said orchestrated the noise barrage the nation had to be saved and so it was Marcos fashion not one Lan candidate made it in the counting despite several surveys that showed Nino as a top notcher Marco pulled out the most potent weapon from his political Arsenal fear fear and the Communist bogy fear of arrest fear of harassment intimidation persecution Laban campaign manager Lorenzo Tanada led a death of democracy March from kazon City to the Manila Cathedral April 9 1978 the March expected to pull in thousands of supporters along the way this time nobody dared to join the Marchers who numbered about 500 fear gripped Manila an new when Tanada and the Marchers were arrested along espa and shunted into buses hardly anybody bothered to look their way the man in the palace had won his bet whoever said the Philippines was a nation of cowards must have been right so Nino was forgotten again but not before he demonstrated that Filipinos could be roused that their hearts could be touched if only for an instant there was something else about noinoi somewhere in his psyche he had a soft spot for Ferdinand Marcos Nino believed that whatever Marcos had done to him and to his family Marcos had a sense of history that Marcos cared for whatever history and posterity would say about him that Marcos could be talked to that presumably Marcos could link hands with him and together they could restore democracy this struggle can only mean victory for all of us it will mean Victory because we are different from those that we oppose those that we oppose are happy with the material wealth but for how long I have written Mr Marcos letters upon letters and I told him read your history my friend I have no hatred for you I only have pity because if you do not see and you do not remove the calluses from your eyes if you do not remove your blinders you will meet the same fate of all the dictators of History what happened to ma chetong his wife is now in jail what happened to piron is ailita is now in jail what happened to Franco he's now forgotten what happened to the Sha for all of the things that he did The Monuments to his greatness have already been torn down there has never been a single dictator in history that has lived forever and so I tell Mr Marcos Mr Marcos study the lessons of History before it is too late and so when the dictator allowed me out on a Furlow October 11 1979 for his and Cory's 25th wedding anniversary Nino developed his rendevu with history formula as visitors once again streamed to his keson City residents Nino openly advocated the formation of the Council of Elders the council would overhang the Marcos government as a supreme advisory body a coalition government including the opposition would follow national elections would be held so noinoi waited for Marcus's call they were to Rendevous at a neutral sight two political Giants joining hands the historic rendevu never materialized it was an Impossible Dream Nino returned to Fort bonasia an important man came to call General Fabian ver ver told Nino he was wrong about the president having lupus ver said the president was as strong as ever ver gently told noinoi that Marcos was not buying his historic Revo idea and so the cobwebs of Oblivion gathered a new around Lino's Fort bonifas yourell there were talks even negotiations about a possible exile to the US but they petered out some close advisers of Marcos feared that nino in America would be a political bullet on the loose a Mischief maker who would use the CIA to Stage Bop pigs assault on the Philippines that was the tragedy of the Marcos philosophy the man in the palace could never believe that nino had changed that noinoi really wanted to help him the tragedy of Nino's spiritual philosophy was his insistence that Christ existed in every man that given a chance he noinoi could bring out the son of Nazarene in Ferdinand Marcos Mr Marcos is a human being and Mr Marcos has a conscience I may even ConEd that in his own fashion he thinks he's doing right it is therefore our duty and Our obligation to Enlighten him it is our duty and Our obligation to tell Mr Marcos that maybe he is wrong but definitely Mr Marcos is a human being and I have not lost hope that we can still reach him in the recesses of his conscience the truth was that for Marcos power was the ultimate fix power at the very top secretly he may have admired noinoi for Marco's respected men of courage of vision of tenacity Napoleon was an idol of Marcos and Marcos reveled in Napoleon's famous qu a great man comes from the encounter between a great mind and a great opportunity so the days and the weeks fell like autumn leaves for the man in prison if he was to languish forever in jail so be it but F again had a calendar that neither Marcos nor noinoi anticipated on March 19 1980 while jogging outside his cell Nino had a heart attack well they allowed me to run and they made a little coral for me they brought me out between 11: and 12:00 every day they brought me out to exercise on that particular day of March as I was walking around my little Coral all of a sudden I developed a chest pain and then the pain was so terrible that I sat down and I asked my guard to massage my chest and asked him to bring me back I called for the Army doctors they checked me and they said musle that's nothing just take a rest and so I rested but after 40 days I was so weak I could not even take a bath I was shaking and I told my doctor I said look doctor I don't know I said your diagnosis or its accuracy but but I am very very weak please bring me to the Philippine Hearts Center and get me an examination that doctor fortunately on that morning after 40 days on April 10 28 his name is Colonel bayani Garcia came to my office and said yes Senator Sab I will now recommend that they bring you to the Heart Center because apparently you're not getting well Mr Marcos has just arrived from Honolulu I will make my recommendation and I wrote a letter and I told them if you do not bring me to the Heart Center I will will be constrained to appeal to the Supreme Court and so he said no sir I will talk to the Commanding General at 1:00 that day a knock at my door came and I was given a letter from the Commanding General I thought it was the approval of my request when I opened the letter it was handwritten note and he said my dear Senator aino it is with deep regret that I inform you your doctor colonel bayani s Garcia died of a massive heart ATT St an hour ago if you were in my place here is your doctor telling you to how would you feel finally on May 5 1980 almost midnight they took me from my cell and they brought me to the Heart Center that was a Monday the doctors in the Heart Center met me took preliminary test and they told me senator they said said tomorrow we will begin the battery of tests and so I slept but I could not sleep that was the first time I was brought out of my cell in almost 7 years and 7 months and there were beautiful nurses and the first time I was seeing women in 7 years and 7 months and naturally I was watching my heart as it was palpitating but as I sat down after that x-ray I was just about to sip my coffee all of a sudden I get I got hit again by a terrible chest pain that was almost choking me and my arm was getting paralyzed so I told the nurse I said Miss please bring me to bed so they brought me to bed and they put all of those gadgets and all of a sudden the needles were squiggling and they called the doctor the doctor looked at the tracings and then after 1 hour they came back to me and said Mr Senator we are canceling all all tests I said why because we already know what's wrong with you I said what's wrong with me you have block art arteries and you must undergo an emergency triple bypass otherwise you may die in 6 days to 6 months I told them where can I have my operation Heart Center and that's the Heart Center of emela Marcos and I asked who can do the operation for me the director said there are two other assistants if you want but I'm the only one performing in the center he was director he was the director of the Heart Center handpicked also bya I said doctor thank you na I said if they cannot operate on me in America please bring me to my cell the truth is I did not want them to touch me in Manila and so there was a crisis the SEC Deputy Minister of Defense came to my room he tried to talk me out of my decision I said no and so finally he said are you willing to write a letter to Marcos requesting to be brought to America I said yes and so I wrote my letter to Mr Marcos and made two covenants that if I leave I shall return and two that while in America I shall not speak out against this regime and I also said I will only bring three of my children with me that's also true but of course the other two were already abroad and then my friends that was a Wednesday when I wrote that letter all of a sudden on Thursday morning May 8 my wife visited me early in the morning and she told me the hospital is crawling with metr cars guards all over the place then all of a sudden my guards started jumping putting their talog hiding all of their guns I said VIP and then lo and behold the beautiful one ascended into my Suite she came and she was really beautiful she has not aged and she sat down and said I'm sorry to see you like that at any rate I had my bathrob and I was like this and she talked to me and we talked to her and she was very nice about it and then all of a sudden after 1 hour she said would you like to go to America there's a plane living at 6:00 you can be in that plane after a 3 and a half hour triple heart bypass noinoi was a new man Dr Rolando soles one of the heart specialists in attend at Baylor would later Marvel at Nino's Heart during a bypass it is necessary to pour ice water on the heart to stop it from beating while the heart was being attached to a heart lung machine despite the first Deluge of ice water Nino's heart continued to beat another Deluge was necessary before it would stop I have been asked by many people what is the actual situation in the Philippines I think this Japanese explained the situation in the Philippines very well as you very well know the Japanese have a difficulty pronouncing their ARS Manila becomes manira and so this Japanese gentleman stood up and said my dear Filipino people you are very Rocky and I consider he said the Filipino people the most Rocky people in Asia and the people were of course surprised and they wanted to know why were why they were lucky he said you know why you are lucky you have a president who rubs you and you have a first lady who rubs you more the three years in Boston were the best 3 years the ainos ever experienced as a family noinoi did his level best to make up for the 7 years and 7 months that he was in Fort bonasio while it's true Mr Marcos I said that after my 8 years in prison I have lost appetite for office I am no longer seeking the presidency of this land I'm not seeking anymore any office in this country but believe me I said when I tell you that while I have vowed never to enter the political Arena again I shall dedicate dedicate the last drop of my blood to the restoration of freedom and the dismantlement of your Martial law he went with the kids queued for 2 hours so he could escort Chris to a movie two years as a fellow in Harvard University Center for international Affairs and one year as a fellow in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology did more wonders for Nino already prodigious mind in Fort bonasio Nino must have read anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 books and other reading materials this was the most encyclopedic political mind the Philippines had ever known at Harvard Nino refined his philosophy of nonviolence of Christ being present in other men among others he read G Stark dri Von Hofer Reinhold nibur thorough Tolstoy Gandhi Martin Luther King all of these authors exalted nonviolence like Nino a number of them had been in prison where they were divested of all Earthly pleasures and passions but once out of prison they did not seek revenge against their tormentors the Vil and athetic Gandhi pushed serenely forward even as night sticks rifle butts and machine gun bullets failed his followers nonviolence was to consume Nino even more passionately I've always said that Mr Marcos is the original terrorist he is right now employing State violence but if we use violence against him he will only justify the use of more violence against us and since he's more he's a more violent man he has more forces of repression we will be the loser in other words as Gandhi said said if he uses violence against you do not give him a reason to justify his violence because if you're not violent then before the bar of public opinion and before God he's the only sinner gradually he began to feel in his bones that one day he would return to the Philippines and resume his duel with Marcos on ground level wherever he went in Boston and in the US noinoi was a big hit and a charmer very simply Christian socialism means to me an equal opportunity for advancement and the full development of the human being this means that the poorest person in the land must be given the equal opportunity for Education number two the Christian socialist believes that the great legitimize of government is the ballot not the bullet and therefore because we believe in the ballot we believe in a majority rule so that if the majority should op and should win in a contest then the minority should accept the majority mandate but we put a catillia that the majority even if it wins must respect minority rights number three we do not believe in the exploitation of Man by man meaning we do not believe in unbridled capitalism where the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer in a developed country in America you may have capitalism but in a country like the Philippines with very Meer resources and a developing economy we must harness our Meer economy and maximize their benefit and therefore there should be centralized economic planning and the government must actually give the direction as to prevent any overlap finally I do not believe in the Monopoly of basic Industries Why should one family monopolize one electric company in the Philippines or why should one family monopolize the ownership of one airline company in the Philippines or why should one company monopolize the telephone company in the Philippines since the government is funding all of this to begin with these families are borrowing from government institutions and must depend on government guarantees then I say let the government own them and let the people share in the profit Christian socialism therefore is nothing more than democracy Dr Ben brown head of Harvard's Fellowship studies was amazed at the scope of neno's mind so were doctors Stanley Hoffman Lucien Pi David Steinberg many of whose writings noinoi had already read in Fort bonasio the Philippine basis in the Philippines in the Philippines be maintained however that rentals must be collected along the Spanish model but let me divide the question firstly I believe that when it comes to foreign policy both the majority and the opposition should not wash their dirty Linen in public and therefore I suggest a bipartisan approach to foreign policy in other words we should not talking outside where our negotiating opponent will be using both ends against the middle I think that is against Philippino interests so that we should have a working agreement among ourselves before we go out I am therefore in agreement with the Philippine government's position that we should assert our sovereignty on this basis that we should collect rentals now why do I say this it is true that the United States government has been giving us military aid for the last 30 years under the mutual defense assistance pack but it's also true that the Philippine Army has been the most neglected armies in Asia by the United States for the simple reason that we're not a Frontline Army and so I said rather than continue a situation of this nature may we therefore ask the United States government that they pay us rentals for this basis so that with these rentals we can now update the position of our Armed Forces we can have our own missile batteries we can have our own missile frigs we can have our own modern Weaponry rather than and go out with our hands out so that this would be a quid proo basis Dr Brown would relate after Nino's death that no conversation no subject or important event ever escaped Nino's multifaceted mind even as we would discuss American History Dr Brown said Nino would chime in with his incisive grasp of the subject Cory would also recount that at one time Nino and she were invited to dinner by a group of American Business men they were just so amazed said Cory that nino knew more about American history than they noinoi also related to journalists in Boston how Marcos envied him his erudition I envy you Nino quoted Marcos a saying because you have all the time in the world at your fingertips you have the greatest Symphonies available to you the greatest books which are not available to me because all my working hours are spent with people here you are with the greatest luxury of the greatest Minds in the world and so I told Mr Marcos negotiate now when you are still in a position to dictate terms in other words it is always good to negotiate when you are still strong do not wait when you're ready to wait because by then they'll be asking for your blood and because it's brilliant I anchored my thesis on that point but then most probably I'm going against the tide of History because no dictator has ever yielded power voluntarily and so I put the kicker Mr Marcos be unique be the first Tyrant and set the record to you three meetings with Elda Marcos in New York failed to alter Nino's course Elda offered him Prestige money if only he would recant even some State Department officials at the time felt that Nino's return to Manila which is rock the boat of us Philippine relations maros was their Ally and noinoi was an interloper Nino told the aan FR pres in an interview I don't think the Americans trust me they're not sure about me what I would do what would be my actuation If Ever I should become president and so they cannot be sure I am their boy the United States has given Mr Marcos four times more military aid since martial law today it is giving Mr Marcos six times more Aid and if you look at the record Mr Marcos was able to borrow almost 8 billion and most of this came from American assisted organizations like the World Bank and the IMF and therefore you cannot blame my countrymen when they feel that the Americans have tilted in favor of Mr Marcos our plea is very simple we are all your friends America is not our enemy but please do not help our dictator because it will make our job harder all we want you to do is stay out if you cannot help those who are oppressed in as much as or in spite of the fact that you claim you're the home of the free or the land of the free and the home of the brave if you cannot even help us then at least do not hurt us finally it became clear that nino was coming home the earlier muffled roll of Distant Drums that he was returning now hit Malak kanyang like a Thunderclap noinoi had to be stopped at all costs the orders were out all International Airlines were warned against airlifting Nino to Manila or else Imelda warned against possible assassination so the def def Minister Juan Pon enri in an urgent cable he counseled noinoi to come home only when the danger had passed Cory and the children bowed to Nino's decision but the other members of the huge Akino Clan particularly his mother Dona Aurora were a cast and against by this time the spiritual strength of noinoi had reached the Mountaintop the spectral voices of danger assassination and ption bounced off the man who surveyed the valley below this time he and Marcos would go to the edge of the cliff and there the future of the Philippines would be decided the reasons for Nino's return were Simplicity itself after 20 years of Marcos the Philippines had dug itself into a huge foreign debt the economy was in rags n said that whoever would succeed Marcos needed 10 years to enable the Philippines to recover from the economic Hol cost I am going back to the Philippines and if I have to go back to jail so be it but even more forbidding was the Communist Insurgency Nino dreaded the day that the plags of Marxism leninism the hammer and the sickle would ever fly over the country wherever the Communists were in power he said the traffic of refugees was always from east to west Nino saw the NBA just down the road ready to blow up the Philippines and bring in Civil War while there was still time the Communists had to be stopped Nino also surmised that the health of Marcos was about to take a tail spin that before long he would no longer be his own man that the generals would take over and bump off Imelda so Nino had to return to be in on the ground floor to help diffuse the political Time Bomb to Pedal hope for Hope had gone and the smell of drift and Decay was everywhere Nino also had to return for that one hour oneon-one with Marcos for that one hour he said I am laying my life on the line to many who argued that Filipinos were not worth saving because precious few the courage to fight the dictatorship Nino replied I have weighed carefully the virtues and faults of the Philipino and I have come to the conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation's greatest untapped resource to his younger sisters Lita and Desi who told him even their close friends suffered instant diarrhea at the mere mention of Nino's name he replied even if only 10 Filipinos would rise and join me my return would be worth it but there was another element in Eno's decision to return He correctly diagnosed that in any inventory of traits Filipinos admire most courage would go up the flag pole more than any other he was right in a pre- return interview 3 weeks before he diedo said Filipinos respect and admire courage best of all I'm going home I'm going back home to prove to maros that I am not afraid of him and I want to prove to our countrymen that I am going to Stand My Ground even at the risk of my life and so Nino realized his Moment of Truth had come since he was denied his passport by ilda he used another one with a striking appellation martial bonasio it was a play of names to denote marshal law and Fort bonasio Nino's return was a countdown that the Philippine government easily spotted and plotted with our toour Precision I suppose there's a physical danger because uh you know assassination part of Public Service look at po President Reagan he got shot because hinley fell in love with jod for so that's uh part of the haard of the game it's possible Nino knew that Marcos knew his every movement since he left Boston August 13 1983 my feeling is we all have to die sometime it's my fate to die by an Assassin's bullet so be it but I cannot be petrified by an action or fear of assassination and therefore stay a corner but flood tide had come and Julius Caesar it was who said decisions were made at flood tide before the waters we seed I think the very [ __ ] alone that we can land is Victory enough hesitate and All Is Lost I promised to return I have returned against all August sunlight was streaming down Manila when Nino's China Airlines plane landed at the Mia before noon we have to be very ready with your hand camera because this action can become very fast in a matter of 3 four minutes it could be all over you know and I may not be able to talk to you again after this as he descended with Burley military escorts 25 shots ran out only one of them the first it seemed killed lenoi the killing was awesome it was also obscene it did not square with the culture of the Filipino it was like a a hand crawling out of a slimy rock it had an animal scream to it a primal scream of somebody gun completely mad it was unchristian and because it was unchristian it roused a Christian Nation first to shock then to shame then to quiet indignation then to Street outrage The Killing opened a huge wound across the Nations conscience a fitful Marcos disowned the assassination predictably he said the Communists did it the killing might have been might have received the blessings of the NPA or the Communist hierarchy because they would shoot two birds with one stone uh they would eliminate aino who was responsible for some of the liquidation or killings according to them ironically Nino got more than he bargained for not just the Philippines but the whole world sat bolt upright and took notice of his unbelievable heroism what happened on that airport tarmac that High Noon fitted perfectly into a favorite quotation of lenoi from a Chinese Sage there is a Sublime thieving in all giving a man gives us all and we are his forever for h oh l

Transcript for:The Legacy of Ninoy Aquino Jr.

Transcript for:
The Legacy of Ninoy Aquino Jr.