Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr: We remember, celebrate and believe

What do Filipinos need to know and remember?

These genuine historical facts: On Sunday, August 21, 1983, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. was assassinated on the tarmac of Manila International Airport (which was later named Ninoy Aquino International Airport in his honor).

Thousands of Filipinos viewed “Aquino’s body, dressed in the same bloodied clothes he wore on the fateful day.”

From Santo Domingo in Quezon City to Manila Memorial Park, his funeral procession on August 31, 1983 lasted for more than 10 hours, with “more than a million people” reported to have braved the heat and thunderstorms to pay their respects to a Filipino who gave up his life because he believed “Filipinos are worth dying for.”

Until now, the mastermind/s of his assassination are unidentified, still at large.

What do we need to celebrate about Ninoy Aquino Jr.?

His strong faith in God, his love and life offered for our country and our people, his indomitable spirit to reach his impossible dream.

In Ninoy’s words: “What can one man do if the Filipino people love their slavery, if the Filipino people have lost their voice and would not say no to a tyrant, what can one man do. I have not army, I have no following, I have no money, I only have my indomitable spirit…”

In his unread last statement, Ninoy wrote: “I return from exile and to an uncertain future with only determination and faith to offer- faith in our people and faith in God.”

Noynoy, Ninoy’s son who would later be elected President, shared: “When my dad came home for the last time, he wrote in his last statement that authentic service required two things: “Faith in our people and faith in God.” My dad built his relationship with God in the loneliness of his prison cell.”

Ninoy who believed that “a minute of heroism is better than decades of useless life” made the ultimate sacrifice, by offering his life for the Filipinos he said were worth dying for.

According to The 700 Club TV host, Pat Robertson, Ninoy Aquino’s last words during their interview were “Though God slay me, I will trust Him!”

During that interview, Ninoy shared: “But when I was put in solitary confinement, with nobody to talk to, I became desperate. I started to question the fundamentals of my faith. Is there really a God? As St Paul put it, when I was weakest, I was strongest. When I was down on the floor in solitary confinement, (that was) when He (God) came to me, then I felt strongest. Therefore, I have survived all my vicissitudes because I know there is a God.”

And what do we need to believe in?

Ninoy’s reminders, like these words from the poet Archibal 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."

Or these: “It takes little effort to stop a tyrant. I have no doubt in the ultimate victory of right over wrong, of evil over good, in the awakening of the Filipino.”

Or from his prison cell, his message: “There is no greater nation on earth than our Motherland. No greater people than our own. Serve them with all your heart, with all your might and with all your strength.”

And his famous quote and ultimate sacrifice: “I have asked myself many times: Is the Filipino worth suffering, or even dying, for? I have carefully weighed the virtues and the faults of the Filipino and I have come to the conclusion that he is worth dying for.”