HEROISM

By Pura Santillan-Castrence

On August 21, 2003, was commemorated in the Philippines the 20th anniversary of the
death of the Filipino hero, Ninoy Aquino,1 who claimed that the ‘Filipinos, and the Philippines,
are worth dying for.’ Ninoy was cautioned not to return to the Philippines for death awaited
him there, because it had become known that he would run against the then President
Ferdinand Marcos for the presidency. Yet he came home.
IT will be remembered that President Marcos imprisoned his political enemies, among
them Benigno Aquino and Jose Diokno. As a matter of fact Ninoy suffered solitary
confinement, during which he dwelt on his thoughts, mostly spiritual.
Was his pronouncement that ‘the country and its people are as worth giving up life for’,
sincere? Well, he proved its sincerity by his death on the tarmac of the Manila International
Airport, now renamed Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
The Philippines’ foremost hero Jose Rizal2 died for his country too. In his poem My Last
Farewell, he was offering his sad and lonely life to his country, further adding that, were it
more brilliant, fresher and more flowering, he would give it just the same for his country’s
good. Andres Bonifacio led the Philippine revolution against Spain in 1896, and his
revolucionarios fought with bolos against the Spaniards’ guns, pistols and cannons. The young
General Gregorio del Pilar offered his life to his country and died defending Tirad Pass 3 against
American soldiers in the Filipino-American War. Even the Americans lauded the young general
for his valour.
The last person I can think of as giving up his life for an ideal is Justice Jose Abad Santos
who died at the hands of the Japanese whose sovereignty over his country he refused to
recognise.
The Philippines was then a Commonwealth under Manuel L. Quezon, and the next steep
was independence. Justice Abad Santos was reported as saying to his weeping son: ‘It is not
every man who is given the privilege of dying for his country.’ Justice Abad Santos died for a
future independent Philippines, rather than accept Japan’s rule.
Ninoy Aquino died a hero’s death. The question is: Is the Philippines proving worthy of
these heroes’ sacrifices?
September 2003

1A senator and the opposition leader during the Martial Law regime of President Ferdinand Edralin
Marcos. Aquino’s assassination in 1983 triggered the ‘People Power Revolution of 1986and brought his wife,
Corazon, to the presidency.
2National Hero of the Philippines
3The famous battle in the Filipino-American War where the youngest Filipino General Gregorio H. del

Pilar was killed in 1899.

Reference
Castrence, Pura Santillan. 2006. As I See It. Filipinos and the Philippines. The Manila Prints.
Sydney, Australia.