Here are some excerpts from the speech delivered by Sen. Benigno S. Aquino, Jr.

before the Asia Society

in New York, 4 August 1980.

I have asked myself many times: Is the Filipino worth suffering, or even dying, for? Is he not a coward
who would readily yield to any colonizer, be he foreign or home-grown? Is a Filipino more comfortable
under an authoritarian leader because he does not want to be burdened with the freedom of choice? Is
he unprepared or, worse, ill-suited for presidential or parliamentary democracy?

I have carefully weighed the virtues and the faults of the Filipino and I have come to the
conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation’s greatest untapped resource.”*

Ninoy Aquino once said that “Filipinos are worth dying for” because the Filipinos used to unite for the
common goal they want to achieve. This present day, I don’t think that the Filipinos are worth dying for.
Why? because there are a lot of Filipinos who doesn’t love their country. There are Filipinos who kill
other Filipinos for their own benefit. There are some Filipinos who doesn’t want to live in our country
anymore instead they want to live in other countries. I just wished that we Filipinos would work harder
for our country if we really love our country.

“The Filipino is worth dying for”

This simple yet powerful statement, attributed to Benigno “Ninoy” S. Aquino, Jr., is one of the
most popular quotes in Philippine society. It is quoted by great statesmen in their speeches, it is
reprinted on thousands of t-shirts – but in truth, Ninoy never said this, at least not verbatim.

The full text of this statement, which Ninoy delivered before the Asia Society on August 4, 1980
in New York City, goes deeper than the oft-quoted shortened version implies.

The following is the full statement:

“I have asked myself many times: Is the Filipino worth suffering, or even dying, for? Is he not a
coward who would readily yield to any colonizer, be he foreign or homegrown? Is a Filipino
more comfortable under an authoritarian leader because he does not want to be burdened with
the freedom of choice? Is he unprepared, or worse, ill-suited for presidential or parliamentary
democracy?

I have carefully weighed the virtues and the faults of the Filipino and I have come to the
conclusion that he is worth dying for because he is the nation’s greatest untapped resource.”*

In its full form, Ninoy’s statement gains eloquence and a deeper meaning lacking from the six-
word truncated version – it is no longer a mere one-liner espousing blind nationalism and
sacrifice for heroism’s sake. In the full passage, Ninoy honestly considers the sobering doubts
and limitations of the Filipino people, yet despite this his resolve wavers not; For Ninoy, despite
all of the Filipino’s faults, the Filipino is worth dying for because he is the future of this nation.

Source:*Text of Ninoy’s August 4, 1980 speech sourced from the Asian Journal