Kiko Aquino Dee the grandson also rises

As far as Francis “Kiko” Aquino Dee, grandson of the late President Cory Aquino and martyred opposition leader former Sen. Ninoy Aquino is concerned, the fight continues. But he’s not going to slug it out in the political arena in the battle for the ballot. He prefers the arena of discourse, where protests are voiced and thumbs, not fists, speak volumes.

“I’m trying to say no (about running for public office) in the clearest possible terms,” Kiko told me in a Zoom interview last Aug. 21, the 42nd death anniversary of his Lolo Ninoy and the first death anniversary of his paternal grandfather Ambassador Howard Dee.

No conditions, not even a million signatures?

“No, it’s my red line. It’s really something I don’t want to get into. And the more I think about it, it’s something I’m thankful for. I think I can speak more freely and frankly when I’m not worried about the opinion of the random person on the Internet who is a voter and who can influence other voters. If I don’t have to worry about their opinion, then I can just keep saying what I want,” says Kiko, eldest child of Richard Dee and his wife Viel Aquino, the fourth child of Ninoy and Cory.

Kiko is co-convener of the Buhay ang People Power Campaign Network and deputy executive director of the Ninoy and Cory Foundation. He drew attention last Aug. 6 when he made a thumbs-down gesture at the Senate plenary during the voting on the motion to archive the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte. The Senate voted to archive the impeachment complaint against Duterte, citing the Supreme Court’s decision that it is unconstitutional. That thumbs-down made the news, a definite thumbs-up in terms of newsworthiness.

Christmas 2007, Times Street

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Two weeks later, Kiko spoke at the gravesite of his Lolo Ninoy. Kiko is now, whether official or not, the spokesman of the family in matters of politics, justice and public accountability.

Kiko also leads another civic movement called “Justice for All,” which was launched on Aug. 17, the day after the eighth death anniversary of drug war victim Kian delos Santos.

“I’m part of this group called the Buhay Ang People Power Campaign Network, where we’ve been working on the commemorations of the different people power-related dates since last year. So the Feb. 25 is the biggest one, but Aug. 21 and Sept. 21 are here. So for this year, we packaged it all together as ‘Justice for All.’ We launched the campaign the day after the death anniversary of Kian Delos Santos.”

“Wrapping it all together, the thing that really came to mind was Aug. 21, 2017. I remember being in Manila Memorial Park. That was just a few days after the death of Kian and the video was circulated to everyone. It drove home the idea that the fight of Lolo Ninoy and the fight of the victims and survivors of martial law is the same as what Kian and the loved ones of Kian and the loved ones of the other victims of EJKs (extra-judicial killings) are fighting for now. We’re asking for justice for all.”

Kiko, who used to commute by jeep to and from UP to the Dee home in Quezon City during his first year of college, believes the Aquinos and the family of Kian are equally both victims of injustice.

“Definitely. The parallels are striking. It was caught on video that Lolo Ninoy was killed very dramatically in the tarmac. And then same with Kian. It was caught on video and he really became, I think, the most known victim of the Duterte administration. They’re both victims, but also that they represent something greater. It wasn’t just a one-off killing for Lolo or Kian. They’re one of thousands…”

Kiko, a political science lecturer at the UP, acknowledges his family feels that more than justice at the courts, they have received justice from the verdict of the people.

With his Lola Cory in 1991

“I think if you were to ask most members of my family, definitely it’s hard to ask for more from the Filipino people than what we have received. Lola was elected sweepingly to power. And then Tito Noy (Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, his uncle) was also elected by a large margin by the people. So it’s hard to say that we’re asking for more. But at the same time, the more I think about it, it is a bit sad that we weren’t able to seek justice for Lolo Ninoy through the justice system that was just liberated from martial law after 1986.”

He understands why his grandmother didn’t use all the power of her presidency to bring the brains behind her husband’s assassination to light.

“I never spoke with Lola Cory about this, but I wonder if at the time we had a way to also demonstrate that even our justice system, aside from elections, the politics, the social aspect, but the legal aspect also, we could have shown that justice is something that is available to every Filipino, yes, but especially to Lolo Ninoy, who was, I guess it’s fair to say, the most iconic victim of the martial law atrocities. So I think in that sense, I wonder if things would have been different, or at least the way we see our justice system would be a bit different, if we had been able to point to an ultimate sort of guilty party for Lolo Ninoy’s assassination,” says Kiko.

His professional opinion as a political science teacher is that Cory Aquino was the best president the Philippines ever had.

“We can make arguments about it, right? But if you think about who is, like, the best heads of state in all of these different countries, like you think of Abraham Lincoln in the US, you think of Winston Churchill in the UK, Mandela in South Africa — are all leaders who guided their country through a crisis. They weren’t perfect, (yet) they steered the ship through the hardest storms. Lola finished her six years in power despite the threats to her life, but she made that commitment that no one’s going to get power in this country unless they pass through the ballot. And time and time again, she put her life on the line to make sure that happened. My professional opinion is we have a democracy because of that effort. And as much as bringing us back to democracy was a collective effort, at any point, Lola could have chosen to save her life during the coups, then we might not have ended up democratic.”

You may e-mail me at [email protected]. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.