A generation has grown up with no personal knowledge of living in fear of the state and the impact of the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. After 29 years of living in democracy, it is easy to forget those who struggled for it, and the significance of the events that led to the restoration of freedom.
Today the nation marks the 32nd year since Ninoy Aquino was assassinated on the tarmac of what at the time was known as the Manila International Airport. There will be the usual reiterations of commitment to nurture democracy. Most of the commitments are likely to be heartfelt: Filipinos have suffered under authoritarian rule, and there will be no reverting to it.
Alongside the commitments, there should be a stronger resolve to stop political assassinations, especially with the approach of the next general elections. Already, murders linked to political rivalries have been reported in several areas of the country in the past months.
Ninoy Aquino flew back to the Philippines from US exile amid speculative reports that dictator Ferdinand Marcos was dying of lupus. With presidential succession uncertain, Aquino was seen as a strong contender for a new national leadership. Even if Marcos wasn’t dying, Ninoy Aquino believed it was time to end the “long night” of the conjugal dictatorship. His assassination was widely believed to be part of a conspiracy to keep a particular clique in power even if Marcos died or became incapacitated.
To this day, the identity of the person who ordered the assassination of Aquino and state-tagged hitman Rolando Galman has not been officially established. But only the elaborate machinery of a despotic regime could have engineered the twin killings.
Aquino’s death awakened Filipinos from apathy, galvanizing the public into a series of mass actions that culminated in the 1986 people power revolt and the collapse of the Marcos regime. But the restoration of democracy did not put an end to political assassinations and blatant human rights violations including enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. Murder is still wielded as the ultimate weapon against political rivals – as the 2009 massacre in Maguindanao showed.
Many perpetrators get away with political killings, like the mastermind in the assassination of Ninoy Aquino. If the nation wants to honor his memory, a good way to do it is by bringing down the level of political violence.