Long weekend ahead

MANILA, Philippines - The country will commemorate on Friday the assassination of President Aquino’s father, former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., which triggered a peaceful people’s revolution in 1986 and restored Philippine democracy after more than 20 years of being under Marcos dictatorship.

“Ninoy Aquino Day” is a national non-working holiday in the country.

After Ninoy’s death on Aug. 21, 1983, Filipinos began to intensify their fight against the Marcos regime and installed his wife Corazon, or Cory, as president three years later in a bloodless uprising.

Cory succumbed to colon cancer on Aug. 1, 2009. The two are considered the country’s democracy icons.

The President has been saying he is continuing the fight of his parents and honoring their legacies through good and honest governance to achieve true freedom and progress after many years of challenges faced by the Philippines as a young democracy.