ninoy wasn’t perfect but he was one bright star.
and he was for real, nothing like the three “brightest stars” kuno … “shining” in the sky … that duterte claims himself, go, and cayetano to be. hello. not one of them, not all of them together — kahit isali pa natin si inday sara at ang buong konggreso — can hold a candle to ninoy.
were he still alive, ninoy would be 87, retired na siguro but still nakiki-alam malamang, still holding forth with his ten-centavos worth on every issue under sun and moon, leveling up popular discourse at the very least. what i’d give for some informed intelligent talk about nation, with wisdom that comes from age and experience, with credibility that comes from integrity and love of country.
one thing his political opponents couldn’t fault ninoy for, ever, was corruption. and so they hit him hard with the communist card, tagged him a godless enemy of the state, without evidence other than that he was friendly with certain anti-america anti-bases huks and communists, but then so was marcos, friendly with certain other anti-america anti-bases communists but secretly, of course, in the run-up to martial law. [read joseph paul scalice’s Crisis of Revolutionary Leadership: Martial Law and the Communist Parties of the Philippines, 1959–1974 (2017)]
which is not to say that ninoy couldn’t have played his cards better. i can understand. for instance, that he thought it a great idea to facilitate, hasten, a meeting (which would have happened anyway without his help, it is said) between the communist ideologue joma sison and the rogue huk bernabe buscayno, but did it have to happen in / around hacienda luisita? of course nakarating ang intel kay marcos, and of course marcos exploited it to the hilt. ninoy laid himself wide open for that.
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