P-Noy honors heroes of Phl democracy

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino conferred yesterday the Order of Lakandula with the rank of Supremo on the late Alejandro “Chino” Roces and five Legion of Honor Awards with the rank of Chief Commander to the late STAR columnist Teodoro Benigno and the late United States Rep. Stephen Solarz as well as Fr. James Reuter, Grand Commander to Napoleon Rama and Commander to STAR columnist William Esposo.

The President said the six were the ones who fought during martial law and could attest that the Philippines would not possibly take off under the then dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, whose son-senator, Ferdinand Jr. claimed the country would have become a Singapore if his father was not kicked out of power in 1986.

“You don’t even have to take my word for it. Just ask the people who were there: We can ask Fr. James Reuter, who was tried for 12 days in Camp Aguinaldo for editing and publishing The Communicator, a four-page paper on martial law, and who subsequently was put under house arrest for two years,” Aquino said.

The President also cited the case of Rama, Manila Bulletin publisher and then vice president of the Constitutional Convention. Rama shared a prison cell with his father, former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. for sponsoring the “Ban Marcos” resolution, which would have prevented the Marcoses from running for the top post under a new Constitution.

“Ask our favorite, (William) Billy Esposo, who also put up a Cory (former President Corazon Aquino) media bureau that battled against media monopoly,” he said.

The President said Roces, his father’s mentor in journalism, was also detained at Fort Bonifacio during martial law for bravely publishing the unsanitized truth about the Marcos regime.

He said Benigno found it necessary, along with other foreign journalists, to establish the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines so that they could help balance the Marcos-controlled media.

“And of course, Stephen Solarz, who helped change US policy towards the Marcos regime from collaboration to eventually ‘cut, and cut clean,’” he said.

“Why don’t we ask these people if it would have been better?  These heroes of ours knew better and, for the sake of the Filipino people, had to act. They, along with millions of Filipinos, acted in 1986 to take back and win back democracy,” the President said.

He thanked the awardees and their families for the sacrifices they undertook to restore democracy in the Philippines.

“It is those sacrifices that we honor today. The revolution did not end in 1986, nor will it end after this 25th anniversary,” the President said.