What did you say? You favor the renaming of NAIA back to MIA?

Let me give you a lesson.

That airport is named after a guy named Ninoy Aquino. You know him? Of course, you see him in your P500 bill. You
knew him, because his name beckons on you when you enter and leave Manila. You knew him, because his son is the President
you hated so much.

You say: "what the hell did he accomplished to be honored with this? Did he built buildings like Marcos?"

Hell, it's more than buildings. It's more than edifices.

When Marcos made himself a dictator, everybody crumbled. The legal opposition died. He's the first one arrested among others.
He's the Goliath in the other side of the fence that Marcos scared of streaking past to seize his laurel crown of glory. But he didn't
flinched. There came Laur. Then the kangaroo trial. Then the death sentence. Then he suffered a heart attack, then the dictator
had no choice but let him seek medication in the US of A. He lived a comfortable life there, eating apple pies, enjoying the
American life.

But you know what?

He listened more to the pleas of the people more than the horns of taxi cabs in Boston. While he is miles away from his
Motherland, what he heard were the qualms, complaints, and democratic aspirations of the people. He listened to their stories.
And, against all odds, against the advice of his family and closest friends, he decided to return, to ask the dictator to give up
power and restore democracy.

He believed in the Impossible Dream.

And he was gunned down, there in the blood-soaked tarmac. The lethargic people was suddenly awake after his blood soaked on
them. They were suddenly awoke from their timidity, seized the streets, took advantage of the People Power and, after 3 years,
turfed out the dictator and his family and subalterns ignominiously.

It's more than creating highways. He deserved that honor because he did the ultimate sacrifice - dying a hero's death. Along with
other martial law heroes and martyrs, they are now in the pantheon of heroes who sprang up in the dark, challenged the
juggernaut, stared to him eyeball-to-eyeball without blinking, daring him to do his worst.

He knew, as our other heroes knew, that freedom is not free. Your freedom to criticize his son, mock him, is not free. But he paid
the price with his blood anyway, mingling it with the blood of the thousands who also trekked this rough path to tear down apart
a dictator.

I know you are mad at his son's administration and to the oligarchs who hijacked his legacy for their benefit. But it is not a
sufficient reason to diminish his martyrdom. It is not about the Aquino-Marcos rivalry. It is about a martyr who, like the heroes
and martyrs before him, gave up a comfortable life to help avert bloodshed and liberate the people.

It is the ultimate act of heroism.

So if you think he does not deserve that honor, look at this picture - the afraid yet courageous face of the man you believed is a
fake hero.

This guy who would rather die in his Motherland than be killed by a Boston taxi cab.

This guy who once believed that you, that we, that our freedoms are worth dying for.