EDITORIAL - Remembering

In 35 years, a generation has reached adulthood. Events before the birth of members of this generation are relegated to their history lessons. Each year that passes makes remembering more difficult.

And yet this country cannot afford to forget former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and what he was fighting for, which drove him to return home from exile on that fateful afternoon, 35 years ago today.

Who ordered Aquino’s assassination together with alleged communist hit man Rolando Galman remains a mystery. The truth eluded the country even after Aquino’s widow and their only son became president.

What has always been certain was Ninoy Aquino’s cause: to free his country from the yoke of dictatorship. The cause still resonates as certain public officials in this country even in remote municipalities continue to behave like dictators, trample on human rights and treat public coffers like their personal piggybank.

Younger generations did not experience those days when the state controlled people’s movements, the flow of information and even men’s hairstyles and women’s hemlines. But the youth – and the older generations – can still be reminded about those days, when plunder was committed on such a large scale that a new word had to be coined for it.

The “kleptocracy” and authoritarian rule held back economic development. By the time democracy was restored in 1986, with Ninoy Aquino’s widow Corazon taking the helm of government, the country – which was second only to Japan in the level of development when Ferdinand Marcos became president – had fallen behind several of its neighbors in many human development indicators. Today the country is still trying to catch up and recover its place in the region.

Ninoy Aquino risked his life to return to the country and lead the movement against the abuses of the Marcos dictatorship. Aquino did not make it past the airport that now bears his name. But his death awakened a nation from apathy and galvanized a movement to end an oppressive regime.

It’s a story worth retelling, and remembering, decades after Aquino’s murder. The admonition often given in those dark days of oppression remains relevant to this day: freedom is like air – you take it for granted, until it is taken away.