During his electrifying 1981 speech in Los Angeles, the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. posed a simple rhetorical question: “What can one man do?”
By that time in his life, Ninoy had undergone a profound change. He was no longer the ambitious political prodigy that dreamt of taking the fast lane to Malacañang. Years of hardship had humbled him, taking away much of the personal political ambitions that had driven him to the precipice of great power.
“What can one man do?” Ninoy asked. “I have no army. I have no following. I have no money. I only have my indomitable spirit.”
Ninoy provided the answer to his own question two years after. In 1983, Ninoy returned to the Philippines to rejoin the struggle for freedom. For all of his courage, he was murdered on the tarmac of the airport that now bears his name.
However, that single act of sacrifice by one courageous man inspired the Filipino people to stand and become leaders in their own right, as he had once urged them to do. By the hundreds, by the thousands, and eventually by the millions, the Filipino people rose up together to finish Ninoy’s life work—the restoration of democracy in the Philippines.
Every Aug. 21, the Filipino nation commemorates Ninoy’s martyrdom. Ninoy’s death, however, is not his true legacy. If Ninoy has left an enduring lesson that should be remembered, then it is this: the power of one man to go beyond himself, to act with righteous passion and unwavering courage that inspires his fellow men to act the same way in the name of a daunting yet noble cause.
In that same 1981 speech, Ninoy said: “You can end a man. You can imprison his body, but you cannot imprison his soul, and as long as man will refuse to be defeated, you are never defeated.”
Nearly three decades later, as the Filipino people continue to draw strength and courage from his words and actions, it is clear that the indomitable spirit of Ninoy Aquino lives on.
—AURELI C. SINSUAT,
Upsilon Sigma Phi,
University of the Philippines Diliman