“A man must not only be brilliant but must also have a heart.”
These were the parting words of a leaner former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr, to his former Senate staff shortly when they visited him at Times St. before he left for the United States for a self-exile and medical treatment . He excused himself from an interview with Teddy Benigno of Agence France Press to briefly have a tete-a-tete with them after being detained for nearly a decade as a political prisoner.
That in was 1980, eight years that seemed eternity for the wonder boy of Philippine politics, after he was arrested in 1972 while attending a Senate session at a nearby hotel in Ermita, Manila. Everybody knew he was eyeing the presidency at the time and President Ferdinand Marcos felt threatened as everybody felt he would be defeated by a younger, louder and brave dreamer.
When he said those words, it was probably in the context that the “heart” was missing in Philippine governance. It was martial law and violations of human rights were more rampant than rare with many politicians and activists who were either jailed or disappeared mysteriously.
I sensed he had two specifics in mind. One of them was Marcos himself who declared martial law purportedly to save the nation and build a new society. Marcos saw himself as the savior and re-creator of the Filipino nation. The other was a staffer who, he was told, was taking up an MBA at Ateneo after taking him as a gofer in his Senate staff prior to the declaration of martial law.
“You’ve come a long way, baby,” he said with a big pat on his staffer’s shoulder. Ninoy loved to do things big and memorable, always. Big talk, big ambition, big heart, big death, too. He’s fondly remembered by his allies and friends as”sarsa” or gravy. Or metaphorically, big mouth.
He was prescient, if not wholly prophetic. One night weeks before martial law was declared, he gathered his staff at the low-ceiling reception part of his office and predicted without hesitation that the iron -fist rule would be handed down.. He then jokingly asked if anyone in the room would be willing to join him if he went to the hills. His photographer, a Kapampangan from Apalit, raised his hand and nervously signified his intention with a guttural voice..
“No,” Ninoy said as he waved him off, “ you’re not brave”.
Ninoy was probably the original political and social “Marites”. He was the first to publicly warned that martial law was imminent when he delivered his privileged speech titled “Oplan Sagittarious. By his speech, Marcos was able to identify who his mole was in the military. Whether that expose’ delayed or pushed the dictatorship ahead of schedule, history will say.
When he was told that his Senate gofer was working with a new boss, Ninoy said, fine but you don’t allow yourself to become her boyfriend. His gossipy warning was confirmed later on when the boss affair with a military man became the talk of the town. Even in prison, Ninoy’s intelligence network was working perfectly.
Ninoy s emphasis on the heart came at the time when Machiavelli’s advice to political leaders was zeitgist on the intellectual debate on leadership. Machiavelli, in his popular book “The :Prince”, argued that a leader must be feared more than respected. Apparently, the first Marcos president heeded Machiavelli’s proposition in implementing martial law.
Ninoy was probably taking a dig at the Marcos’ Cabinet members who you could consider
among the best and the brightest in country at the time, namely Juan Ponce Enrile and Estelito Mendoza. There was also the cold-blooded looking Alejandro Melchor, who served as Marcos’ executive secretary.
At one time, so the legend goes, Melchor met with then officials of a then state college in
Pampanga for the carving of a resettlement area near Mt. Arayat. The school was the mecca for thousands of poor students because of low tuition. The project involved taking a big chunk of real estate from the state college and, as result, greatly reduce its land area. The officials told that the project would not be good for the state college. Melchor reportedly curtly replied:: then move the college some place else. End of discussion.
After his heart bypass in the US,Ninoy decided to come home to the Philippines to lead the . continuing opposition to the Marcos regime and the slippery slope democracy had fallen into. His allies discouraged him. He knew it would be costly to do so, but came home he did. In his famous quote “ the Filipino is worth dying for “ was the essence of the “heart” part of his message when he bid his Senate staff goodbye.
As the cliche goes, the rest is history. Ninoy was shot at back of the neck while going down the stairs of a commerical plane as he was being escorted by soldiers.His death sparked a massive peaceful protest in what is now known as the EDSa Revolution, Guns were met with flowers, tanks with civilians headed by nuns. The Marcos dictatorship was ended in four days or so and eventually Ninoy’s widow, Cory ( which means heart”) ascended to the presidency.
Ninoy was officially declared a national hero and his death a national holiday ,both by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who, ironically, is instrumental in the return of the Marcoses to power and, in supporting former President Duterte, may have indirectly, helped too in the burial of the first Marcos president to the Libingan ng Mga Bayani.
Meanwhile, there are partisan political voices that want the Ninoy Aquino International Airport renamed, the memory of his late wife revised, the nation’s history rewritten, and many Filipinos, who Ninoy thought were worth dying for, don’t seem to mind.
From tragedy to farce, from hero to heel, is that how Ninoy Aquino’s legacy going to be?
