A tribute to Ninoy – Part 2

This was the privilege speech of Cong. Tony Cuenco, South District, Cebu City, November 27, 2007, in memory of Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

(Continued from previous article)

“Before he left the United States of America in that final journey, I was able to talk to him through long distance telephone for the benefit of Cebu’s local radio and television audience. A he spoke at a fast clip, it was clear he was still the same fighting Ninoy we had known all along- vibrant, forceful, defiant of the odds, eloquent, and fixated on what was happening to the country and what he can do to help. In other words, he wanted not only to observe but to serve.

“At the time of our telephone conversation, my father-in-law who was in Pampanga, was sick. Ever the thoughtful personal friend, Ninoy asked me how he was. I did know how he came to be aware that my father-in-law was in the hospital. But that was Ninoy the politician, who was more informed than anyone we ever knew.

“In our telephone talk, he said he was determined to return. He saw it as his duty to his people, which he intended to carry out regardless of the personal consequences. While some of his friends doubted the wisdom of his move, not a single one of us questioned his courage. He was the bravest man we ever met and his bravery was founded not only impulse or an ulterior motive or plain indifference to fate but on a positive advancing will to discharge the task that genuine patriots owed to their country.

“He also noted that some of the Anti-Marcos oppositionists were being harassed and oppressed by the dictatorship and his homecoming would take much of the heat off them. In other words, he was coming home not as a matter of personal convenience but to carry on his peaceful struggle to restore the rights and liberties of the people.

“Today, 24 years after his diabolic murder, there are those who wish to denigrate his heroism or derogate the splendor of his ideals. But they will fail to remove him from his place in the eternal and universal shrine of honor for he had successfully validated his greatness and patriotism to the jubilation of his friends and the consternation of his enemies. There is nothing now that they can do or say to detract from his extraordinary glory.

“And we who had been his friends, we who mourned his loss beyond tears, and at the same time celebrated with his victory beyond words will always feel that deep and abiding admiration for him, his heroism, his epic struggle and his stirring words, and the ineffable memory of his watchful concern for his land which he truly loved and our people whom he truly died for.

“It is true that Ninoy Aquino suffered. It is true that he underwent moments of great anguish. And finally it is true that they succeeded in taking his life itself. But it is no less true that ultimately, he was the victor rather than the vanquished and for a long time to come, this nation will regularly celebrate that triumph. For as Hemmingway put it, “Man is not made for defeat. Man can be destroyed but not defeated.”” (To be continued)