Honoring a hero

Tomorrow, Aug. 26, is National Heroes Day. This holiday traces its roots to a momentous day marking the beginning of the Philippine Revolution which was thought to have started with the Cry of Pugad Lawin in Balintawak. Until 1963, the date and the location of this Cry has been disputed.

In 1963, by recommendation of the historian Teodoro Agoncillo, the date was changed to Aug. 23 and the location was changed to Pugad Lawin in Caloocan.

Today, it is observed on the same day as Bonifacio Day, which is the last Sunday of August. Whatever the date, we must find a way to honor the many heroes of the Philippine Revolution and other heroic events in our history.

I would like to share how my wife, Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, celebrated Ninoy’s martyrdom:

Who needs a presidential proclamation to honor the martyred hero, Ninoy Aquino on Aug. 21, the 41st year of his assassination? (Yes, all of four decades have passed, yet we still have many unanswered questions about it.) I was alternately sad and angered to see how lightly the government views the day that it thought nothing of simply moving it in the name of holiday economics. Thus, the memes that said: how about moving Christmas Day and New Year’s Day too, both also falling on a Wednesday, to the nearest Friday?

The midmorning mass at the Manila Memorial Park was well-attended after earlier motorcades and a wreath laying ceremony on the tarmac. It was heartening to see old Ninoy followers, including groups in yellow t-shirts bearing “People Power Movement” and “Hindi Ka Nag-iisa,” a younger generation membership roster of August Twenty-One Movement (ATOM) members who were scheduled to gather at the Bantayog ng Mga Bayani in Quezon City to honor journalists who covered those dark days during martial law.

Among the up-and-coming breed of young warriors to be counted that morning was Karl Patrick Suyat of Project Gunita, who has taken up the massive task of digitizing all martial law newspapers, books and other documents. Also heartwarming to see a dyed in the wool Aquino loyalist from his student days, historian and now university professor Xiao Chua.

Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, who celebrated the mass, recalled that he was still a Voltes V fan when Ninoy was shot. He was more engrossed in the television show rather than the country’s grief then. But it was his father who impressed on him that that day, the day of Ninoy’s funeral that drew massive crowds in support and in anger at the tragic welcome given Ninoy at the airport now bearing his name, was a historic one because it was to honor a truly heroic individual.

Fr. Flavie never forgot that. And today, aside from being a religious, he himself heroically serves the country by helping the families of victims of the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) give their departed ones a fitting final resting place.

Bam Aquino spoke in behalf of the family and shared his own Aug. 21 memory. He remembers that he had to stay home and was not brought to the airport because his mother Melanie said he was too heavy for her to carry the plump Bam in case there was an emergency. Bam remembers the painfully glum look of his mother upon her return from the airport with news of the tragic homecoming.

Also reassuring was hearing from Ging Deles of Tindig Pilipinas that we will continue to fight for all that we have cherished. And that the Feb. 25 date will continue to be commemorated the way it ought to be.

Certainly, the high point of the gathering was the singing of “Bayan Ko” with clenched fists and the old familiar “To Dream the Impossible Dream.” Truly, “Ituloy ang laban” was palpable.

Such a gathering inspires hope and courage.

Still fired with the “Ituloy ang laban” spirit, I had to catch Ramona S. Diaz’s documentary on Leni Robredo’s presidential campaign, “And so it begins.” It was not lost on me that it was announced that it would be launched on Aug. 21. It had to be viewed if only because it was an official selection for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.

But things got curiouser and curiouser, leaving me so intrigued. With all that publicity, it was challenging to find out which theaters would show it. Why, the film was even harder to track down than the Cinemalaya films, which are by themselves difficult enough to catch.

My determination paid off and the only theater in Makati showing it was the Power Plant. How well it captured the joy and exuberance of the campaign and the disappointment and the tears as the 31M votes clinched it for the sitting President. After all the promising turnout at the rallies, how could the results be so? The scenes of the conversations between journalist Manolo Quezon Jr. and political activist Leah Navarro attempt to answer our questions. No, there was no hint of the suspicions and questions we carry in our minds.

The film left one with hope as Leni herself proclaimed at the Thanksgiving rally at the Ateneo campus. But I was saddened, because bereft of a Leni who has not been very vocal and has chosen to be in Naga, or a leader in her mold, how can this unprecedented movement of the citizenry be sustained?

This is a country truly hard to love, yet one cannot just throw up one’s hands and abandon it.