PNoy on Ninoy: He made the ‘impossible’ come true

Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino Jr., whose assassination in 1983 sparked a peaceful revolution that changed the destiny of a nation, would have turned 80 today.

Denied the gift of years, Ninoy, however, was bestowed the golden opportunity to make a difference in the lives of millions. And he seized that opportunity, claimed it as his cause and offered his life for it. He never got to celebrate his 51st birthday.

Thus, for his only son and namesake President Benigno “Noynoy” S. Aquino III, Ninoy’s most priceless gift is being “the exemplar of making the seemingly impossible, possible.”

Ninoy vanquished a dictatorship with the supreme sacrifice of his life, and paved the way for the restoration of democracy in the Philippines. For many who had lived through the dictatorship and witnessed its iron grip on power, that seemed like an impossible dream.

Noynoy’s mother, the late former President Corazon “Cory” Aquino, who took up the torch for the restoration of democracy from Ninoy after his assassination, once said: “When Ninoy said the Filipino is worth dying for, there was nothing to show it. Many oppositionists gave up the fight because of that. But Ninoy gave his life.”

She often would recall to friends that after Ninoy was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983, she comforted her children by saying, “It was always Dad’s dream to die for his country.”

The year before she died of colon cancer, the country’s first woman President told me: “I hope our fellow Filipinos, especially the young, will continue to appreciate how much Ninoy suffered for our country. I hope they will ask themselves what they can offer, too, to help this country move forward. Ninoy showed the way. I hope they will be inspired by him.”

***

“His name.”

This was Ballsy Cruz’s reply when I asked her yesterday her father’s greatest gift to her, aside from the gift of life. The Aquinos’ eldest child was fondly called “Ate” by her father.

Her younger sister Pinky Abellada echoed her. “Dad left us a name we will forever be proud of. It stands for deep love for country and honest, competent public service.”

“Of course Mom and PNoy reinforce this,” she added.

The Aquinos’ youngest child Kris said yesterday that her father’s greatest gift to her is “my love for reading.”

“He would read with me and to me every Sunday, I remember we finished the whole Children’s Bible. In the US, every month, we’d have bonding, just the two of us, going to Barnes and Noble to buy books,” Kris recalled in a text message to this writer.

I couldn’t reach the third Aquino sister Viel Dee yesterday, but she shared with me her most poignant memory of her dad in an interview for Father’s Day 2010.

 “My fondest memory of Dad happened way back in 1975, my graduation from Grade School. He was in jail then but he surprised everyone when he suddenly appeared in the school chapel. He secretly worked on requesting for a pass to attend my graduation since I was receiving high honors. I think that was the first time he was allowed to go out for a happy occasion since his arrest in 1972,” Viel, who was fondly called “Princess Genius” by Ninoy, recalled.

Asked by The STAR that same year about his fondest memory of his late father, the then President-elect Noynoy said, “I remember most his tendency to be a doting father.”

For instance, he would make it a point to add to Noynoy’s allowance, saying what he received was just from his mother Cory and “Eto naman sa akin (And this is from me).”

When his victory at the polls was evident in June 2010, I asked Noynoy what his message to his dad, who once sought the presidency and died in the quest for the return of democracy to the Philippines, was.

“Just thank you, thank you. For how he and Mom guided us,” was his reply. 

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Ninoy, who was to become the youngest mayor of Concepcion, Tarlac, at age 22, youngest vice governor at age 27, governor of Tarlac at age 29, and the youngest elected senator at age 34, was born a week early.

“I was expecting a delivery in the first week of December and I was very glad because it would coincide with the fiesta of our town of Concepcion, Dec. 8. But I was just as glad over Nov. 27 because it was the feast of the Miraculous Medal,” Doña Aurora Aquino was quoted as saying by STAR founding publisher Max V. Soliven in an article in 2003.

According to Soliven, who shared a jail cell with Ninoy after the declaration of martial law, “Ninoy’s father, Don Benigno — a senator — was in the United States and learned of his son’s ‘arrival’ by a cablegram sent by no less than the American governor-general himself.”

“Ninoy was Doña Aurora’s second child. The eldest, in what was to become a family of seven kids, was Maur (Now Mrs. Ernesto Lichauco) — there were 14 months between Ninoy and her. Their mother recalls that, from the very start, Ninoy enjoyed being around people. ‘Filipino children tend to be shy,’ she says, ‘but Ninoy was certainly not. At three, his father would display him to all our visitors and he loved to ask and answer questions. When he was in the shower, his dad would send Ninoy out ahead and he would entertain our visitors. When he was four, we sometimes would miss him — and guess where we would find him. In the driveway or at the curb, among the drivers of our guests, talking with them. He was even giving speeches to them’.”

Many years later, Maur would often tell us in gatherings that as far as their mother Doña Aurora was concerned, “Ninoy was an only child. He was her sun, moon and stars.”

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