West Visayas State

University
Lambunao Campus
College of Education
Lambunao, Iloilo

Who is Benigno Ninoy Aquino, Jr.?

Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. was born on November 27, 1932. His father, Benigno S. Aquino,
Sr. was a prominent member of the World War II Japanese collaborationist government of
Jos P. Laurel, as Vice-President. His mother was Doa Aurora Aquino-Aquino who was also
his fathers third cousin. His brothers and sisters include: Mila Aquino Albert, Linda Aquino
Martinez, Maur Aquino Lichauco, Ditas Aquino Valdez, Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, Agapito
(Butz) Aquino, Paul Aquino, Tessie Aquino Oreta. He married Corazon Cojuanco on October
11, 1954
Education. Aquino was educated in private schools St. Josephs College, Ateneo de
Manila, National University, and De La Salle College. He finished high school at San Beda
College. Aquino took his tertiary education at the Ateneo de Manila to obtain a Bachelor of
Arts degree, but he interrupted his studies. According to one of his biographies, he
considered himself to be an average student; his grade was not in the line of 90s nor did it
fall into the 70s.
Ninoy took up law at the University of the Philippines, where he became a member of the
Upsilon Sigma Phi, the same fraternity of Ferdinand Marcos. He interrupted his studies again
however to pursue a career in journalism.
According to Mximo V. Soliven, Aquino later explained that he had decided to go to
as many schools as possible, so that he could make as many new friends as possible. In
early 1954, he was appointed by President Ramon Magsaysay, his wedding sponsor to his
1953 wedding at the Our Lady of Sorrows church in Pasay with Corazon Cojuangco, to act as
personal emissary to Luis Taruc, leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group. After four months of
negotiations, he was credited for Tarucs unconditional surrender.

Political Career. Beningo Aquino was no stranger to Philippine politics. He came from a
family that had been involved with some of the countrys political heavyweights. His
grandfather served under President Aguinaldo, while his father held office under Presidents
Quezon and Laurel.

1954. Special Assistant to President Ramon Magsaysay. He negotiated the surrender

of HUK Supremo Luis Taruc (May 16, 1954).

1955. Elected as youngest mayor of his hometown, Concepcion, Tarlac at the age of
22.
1956. Press Officer, Philippine-American Military Bases Agreement negotiations.
1957. Special Assistant to President Carlos P. Garcia.
1959. Elected as the youngest Vice-Governor of Tarlac Province at 26 years old. He
was elected Secretary General of the League of Provincial Governors and City Mayors.
1961. Became Governor in 1961 after the Governors resignation.
1963. Elected Governor of Tarlac Province at age 31. He won in all 17 towns of the
province, posting the highest majority ever garnered by a gubernatorial candidate in the
province.
1964. Philippine Delegate, Eastern Regional Organization for Public Administration
(EROPA) Conference held in Korea.
1965. Special Assistant to President Diosdado Macapagal. He accompanied President
Macapagal in State visits to Cambodia and Indonesia. Spokesperson of Philippine
Delegation Afro-Asian conference in Algiers, Africa.
1966. Project Director of Tarlac Project Spread. A joint understanding of the National
Economic Council (Philippine Government) and the U.S.A.I.D., which was designed to
increase rural income.
1967. Elected as the youngest Senator of the Philippines at 35 years old as the lone
opposition (Liberal Party) candidate to survive the election sweep made by President
Marcos Nacionalista Party. He was also elected as Secretary-General of the Liberal Party.
1968. Author of several speeches, and many articles while serving as a public
servant. These are contained in the book A Garrison State in the Make and other
Speeches by Senator Benigno Ninoy S. Aquino, Jr. (BSAF Publication). Senator
Aquilino also authored / co-authored several bills filed in approved congress to benefit
the masses. He also authored several privilege speeches printed in the Ninoy Aquino
Speech Series, 1968 1970s.
1970. Resource person for the Philippines in the International Institute of Strategic
Studies, London.
1971. Member of the Philippine Delegation of the Asian Conference on the Cambodian
Question, Jakarta, Indonesia.
1972. Philippine Delegate to the International Conference on Japan and the Evolving
world, sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies of London, at Mount
Fuji, Japan. He was also the July 4th guest speaker of Filipino communities in Honolulu,
Los Angeles and San Francisco U.S.A.

Early Journalism Years. Journalism remained his particular vocation in spite of his entry
into politics and from time to time he wrote perspective articles for such publications as
Foreign Affairs Quarterly and the Pacific Community.

1950. Manila Times Newspaper reported at age 17; Manila Times War correspondent
in Korea.

1952. Manila Times Foreign Correspondent in Southeast Asia (assigned to Indo-China,

covered the last moment of French colonialism in Asia, at Dien Bien Phu. He was later
posted to Malaya to cover the British counter-insurgency efforts under General Templar.

1952. He agreed (while already a Senator and in the name of Journalism) to conduct a
weekly television news analysis, entitled Insight for Channel 5, upon the urging of his
former publisher of the Manila Times, Mr. Chino Roces. He kept this up until his arrest in
1972 by the people responsible for the Martial Law regime.

Major Awards. His achievements at such a young age earned him the moniker Wonder
Boy of Philippine politics. Other awards of Ninoy Aquino are the following:

1950. Philippine Legion of Honor, Officer Degree, awarded by President Elpidio Quirino
for Meritorious Service to the Philippines for his coverage of the Philippine
Expeditionary Force to the Korean War.

1954. Philippine Legion of Honor, Commander degree, awarded by President Ramon

Magsaysay for exemplary meritorious service to the Filipino people negotiating the
coverage of HUK Supremo Luis Taruc.

1957. First Bronze Anahaw Leaf, Philippine Legion of Honor, conferred by President
Ramon Magsaysay, for services in the peace and order campaign.
1960. Voted one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines (TOYM) in the
field of public service.
1968-1971. Outstanding Senator, voted yearly by the Philippine Free Press, the
Philippine leading political weekly magazine.
1971. Man of the Year, voted by the Philippine Free Press, citing him for the leadership
he showed when his partys leadership was bombed in Plaza Miranda, the Philippines
equivalent to Hyde Park. He led his partys campaign with courage, with distinction
despite threats to arrest him, made by then President Marcos. He led the Liberal Party to
a 6-2 victory in the Philippine Senate elections, which catapulted him to become the No.
1 presidential contender in the 1973 elections.

Martial Law Years. The declaration of martial law on September 21, 1972 ushered in the
defining phase in Ninoys evolution as a leader. Before then, it was generally assumed that
he would ascend to the nations highest office as the Liberal Partys standard bearer in the
1973 presidential elections. Instead, he wound up the most high-profile political prisoner as
Ferdinand Marcos suspended the Constitution, abolished Congress, silenced the opposition
and the media, and ruled by decree on the pretext that he needed emergency powers to
quell a communist insurgency and a Muslim secessionist rebellion.

September 22, 1972. Ninoy was arrested, detained and imprisoned at Fort Bonifacio
and in Laur, Nueva Ecija for 7 years and 7 months, mostly in solitary confinement.

April 4, 1975 May 13, 1975. He went on a protest hunger strike while in prison.

May 8, 1980. Released from Fort Bonifacio to undergo a triple heart bypass at Baylor
Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.

May 13, 1980. Operated and successfully given a triple bypass in Dallas, Texas.

1980-1982. Fellow at Harvard Universitys Center for International Affairs.

1982-1983. Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Center for International

Studies.

August 21, 1983. Assassinated at the airport seconds after disembarking in China
Airlines jet from Taipei.

August 31, 1983. Ninoys funeral march from Sto. Domingo Church, Quezon City to
ManilaMemorial Park, Paranaque, was the longest funeral march in worlds history.
Around two million people joined the funeral.
What Ninoy Has Done?
Although Ninoy Aquino was recognized as the most prominent and most dynamic opposition
leader of his generation, in the years prior to martial law he was regarded by many as being
a representative of the entrenched familial elite which to this day dominates Philippine
politics. While atypically telegenic and uncommonly articulate, he had his share of detractors
and was not known to be immune to ambitions and excesses of the ruling political class.
However, during his seven years and seven months imprisoned as a political prisoner of
Marcos, Aquino read the book Born Again by convicted Watergate conspirator Charles Colson
and it inspired him to a religious awakening.

Ninoy: A Hero of Filipino People or Not?

Was it his sheer audacity to come back to the Philippines after more than three years of exile
knowing the dangers that awaited him that makes him a hero? No. This audacity had
been there long before the exile. How he fought for freedom and justice didnt happen just
like that.
His life in politics started early. Very, very early. He was the youngest mayor at 22, the
countrys youngest vice-governor at 27, then governor of Tarlac 2 years later. He became the
youngest senator in Philippine history at 34. His popularity was greatly due to his daring
criticism of the Marcos regime. Ninoy frequently challenged the dictatorship. Ninoy once
referred to the Cultural Center of the Philippines, an extravagant P50-million project of the
Former First Lady, as a monument to shame in his speech, A Pantheon for Imelda.

Consequently, he was called a congenital liar by an outraged President Marcos, while the
Philippine Free Press hailed him as one of the countrys most outstanding senators.
As a result, the remainder of his personal and political life had a distinct spiritual sheen. He
emerged as a contemporary counterpart of the great Jos Rizal, who was among the worlds
earliest proponents of the use of non-violence to combat a repressive regime. Some
remained skeptical of Aquinos redirected spiritual focus, but it ultimately had an effect on
his wifes political career.
While some may question the prominence given Aquino in Philippine history, it was his
assassination that was pivotal to the downfall of a despotic ruler and the eventual restoration
of democracy in the Philippines.
Ninoy Aquino: In My Personal View
There is no argument about what he did; how he stood up against the Marcos
dictatorship, how he fearlessly campaigned for the return of democratic values and ideals to
the Filipino people, and how he bravely went home to the Philippines on that fatal August
day in 1983 despite repeated warnings that his life was in danger.
We only have to echo Ninoy Aquinos hauntingly patriotic statement to remember his
heroism and love of country: I have weighed all the virtues and faults of the Filipinos, and I
have come to the conclusion that the Filipino is worth dying for..
Truly, Ninoy is a freedom lover and I am grateful that through his peaceful advocacies,
freedom in the Philippines was restored resulting to a unified nation with one vision and one
spirit. This freedom paved the way to identify the thesis and anti-thesis of the Filipino people
which resulted to the resolution or the synthesis towards a better nation. And I hope what
Ninoy has done will be embodied to every Filipino for us to be able to embrace the truest
meaning of freedom, solidarity and progress for our beloved country.
Perhaps if Ninoy would have been elected as president of the Philippines, we will be
able to have an ideal society where no poor shall live, equality, rule of law and democracy
prevails, no graft and corruption and crime occurrences can be counted by the fingers. But
then, I believe that there is still hope and every Filipino can be a living Ninoy by our own little
way.
To end I would like to reiterate what Ninoy Aquino once said and I quote, we should
not depend on one man, we should depend on all of us. All of us is expandable in the cause
for freedom and therefore I say stand up now and be a leader, and when all of us are leaders,
we will expedite the cause of freedom.