Remembering Ninoy Aquino today 💛🇵🇭 remembrance is defiance! #ninoyaquinoday
21 August 1983 -- Having boarded China Airlines Flight 811 in Taipei, Taiwan, Philippine opposition leader Ninoy Aquino was on his way home. After three years of self-imposed exile in the United States with his family, Ninoy was determined to return to his homeland to face the trumped-up charges against him, rebuild the fractured opposition in preparation for the upcoming 1984 elections, prepare a new generation of opposition leaders, and attempt to convince the dictatorship to finally commence a transition to democracy.
This was his final interview with a group of reporters that had come along with him on that ill-fated flight. In the interview, he is asked about a possible attempt to kill him upon arrival. But, fatalistic as he was, Ninoy readily accepts that assassination is part of the many risks that a public servant like him would face. Nothing would stop him from coming home to fight for democracy with the Filipino people. Democracy's enemies would not even let him set foot on Philippine soil. As he was escorted down the tarmac stairs, he was brutally murdered by agents of the dictatorship. But all was not lost. It was his death that would awaken the Filipino people from their slumber and trigger the chain of events over the following three years that would lead to the restoration of democracy and liberty in the Philippines.
In these difficult times, may we always remember and cherish Ninoy's memory, and the memories of all those who fought for the liberation of the Philippines from tyranny. Their devotion to the nation was absolute. All is not lost -- democracy is always worth fighting for.
13 сен 2024
