Ninoy is best remembered as offering the ultimate sacrifice and declaring that the “Filipino is worth dying for.” Indeed, he died for the Filipino, and became a National Hero.
Personally, I remember him both in words: orally, and in writing. Orally – let me paraphrase what he said in a convention of the Movement for a Free Philippines in Detroit, Michigan during our years of exile; “We will win this battle against Marcos I promise you. Not only because we are fighting with all our hearts and our minds for the cause of freedom but also because we are fighting it with the heart of a lion.”
In writing, I am proud to say that he and I both affixed our signatures as witnesses to the testimonies of Colonel Romulo Manriquez and Captain Vicente Rivera, who were the Commanding Officers of the 14th Infantry where Marcos supposedly served during the Second World War. Both testified that Marcos was a fake hero and that what Marcos received were fake medals.
The fake heroism of Marcos and the genuine martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino convinced America and the world that Filipinos deserved to enjoy the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as demanded by the EDSA Revolution.
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