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August 21 is the only day in the year when Filipinos are conscious that “they are worth dying for..”
Thank you Ninoy. I do not know much about you. But I heard that gunshot that echoed all over the world. That same gunshot that felled the hope of this country from the dictatorship of Marcos.
That bullet killed the person that could have lifted up the Philippines from the grip of corruption more than 20 years ago.
Your son is our president now. Your dream lives on in this generation. It has been 27 years and the younger ones need to learn the significance of this day, much more, your life and the principles you lived out.
We do not have the likes of you anymore. There is no one in our list of congressmen and politicians, senators and the like, who can lift the morale of the people and inspire us to be better than ourselves. We had been time and time again, disappointed, robbed and nonchalantly tossed aside by the greed and the succeeding corruption.
We voted your son because he represents for us – the best that this country has to offer. The son of Ninoy and Cory.
May your son lived up to the expectations of this country that is hungering for true and lasting generational change. A change to patriotism. To be freed from the tyranny of corruption. To be freed from the tyranny of our apathy.
Thank you Ninoy.
Thank you Cory.
We are praying for your son, PNOY.
The following is the statement that Ninoy prepared to give upon his arrival from the United States. I did not know about this speech until today. This was the speech that the world never heard delivered with eloquence that only a Ninoy can give.
In memory of Ninoy…
We remember the anniversary of your death.
We mourn still, the justice that has been denied….
I am prepared for the worst: Ninoy Aquino’s (undelivered) arrival statement August 21, 1983
Article posted August 21, 2010 – 10:25 AM
I have returned on my free will to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedoms through nonviolence.
I seek no confrontation. I only pray and will strive for a genuine national reconciliation founded on justice.
I am prepared for the worst, and have decided against the advice of my mother, my spiritual adviser, many of my tested friends and a few of my most valued political mentors.
A death sentence awaits me. Two more subversion charges, both calling for death penalties, have been filed since I left three years ago and are now pending with the courts.
I could have opted to seek political asylum in America, but I feel it is my duty, as it is the duty of every Filipino, to suffer with his people especially in time of crisis.
I never sought nor have I been given assurances or promise of leniency by the regime. I return voluntarily armed only with a clear conscience and fortified in the faith that in the end justice will emerge triumphant.
According to Gandhi, the WILLING sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man.
Three years ago when I left for an emergency heart bypass operation, I hoped and prayed that the rights and freedoms of our people would soon be restored, that living conditions would improve and that blood-letting would stop.
Rather than move forward, we have moved backward. The killings have increased, the economy has taken a turn for the worse and the human rights situation has deteriorated.
During the martial law period, the Supreme Court heard petitions for Habeas Corpus. It is most ironic, after martial law has allegedly been lifted, that the Supreme Court last April ruled it can no longer entertain petitions for Habeas Corpus for persons detained under a Presidential Commitment Order, which covers all so-called national security cases and which under present circumstances can cover almost anything.
The country is far advanced in her times of trouble. Economic, social and political problems bedevil the Filipino. These problems may be surmounted if we are united. But we can be united only if all the rights and freedoms enjoyed before September 21, 1972 are fully restored.
The Filipino asks for nothing more, but will surely accept nothing less, than all the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the 1935 Constitution — the most sacred legacies from the Founding Fathers.
Yes, the Filipino is patient, but there is a limit to his patience. Must we wait until that patience snaps?
The nation-wide rebellion is escalating and threatens to explode into a bloody revolution. There is a growing cadre of young Filipinos who have finally come to realize that freedom is never granted, it is taken. Must we relive the agonies and the blood-letting of the past that brought forth our Republic or can we sit down as brothers and sisters and discuss our differences with reason and goodwill?
I have often wondered how many disputes could have been settled easily had the disputants only dared to define their terms.
So as to leave no room for misunderstanding, I shall define my terms:
1. Six years ago, I was sentenced to die before a firing squad by a Military Tribunal whose jurisdiction I steadfastly refused to recognize. It is now time for the regime to decide. Order my IMMEDIATE EXECUTION OR SET ME FREE.
I was sentenced to die for allegedly being the leading communist leader. I am not a communist, never was and never will be.
2. National reconciliation and unity can be achieved but only with justice, including justice for our Muslim and Ifugao brothers. There can be no deal with a Dictator. No compromise with Dictatorship.
3. In a revolution there can really be no victors, only victims. We do not have to destroy in order to build.
4. Subversion stems from economic, social and political causes and will not be solved by purely military solutions; it can be curbed not with ever increasing repression but with a more equitable distribution of wealth, more democracy and more freedom, and
5. For the economy to get going once again, the workingman must be given his just and rightful share of his labor, and to the owners and managers must be restored the hope where there is so much uncertainty if not despair.
On one of the long corridors of Harvard University are carved in granite the words of Archibald Macleish:
“How shall freedom be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms; by truth when it is attacked by lies; by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith.”
I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer — faith in our people and faith in God. - GMANews.TV
(Ninoy Aquino was assassinated at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983 before he could deliver this statement.)
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