Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Cabaero: Ninoy and the virtue of non-violence By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
WHO can show me a photo of Ninoy Aquino?
This question was posed by a flight attendant in one of the contests that an airline holds regularly for its passengers while airborne. I won a kiddie pack for being the first to whip out a P500 bill bearing the face of our hero.
This is how Ninoy Aquino is remembered on a day-to-day kind of a situation. Other than on a P500 bill, I doubt if anyone would carry in his wallet a photo of Aquino whose death anniversary we mark today, Aug. 21.
It was 24 years ago when Aquino, a high-profile opposition leader to the rule of Ferdinand Marcos, was assassinated on his return to Manila from exile in the United States. He had said before returning home, “If it’s my fate to die by an assassin’s bullet, so be it.” That was exactly what happened.
Ninoy Aquino was known for his declaration that “the Filipino is worth dying for.”
Fast forward to the present and we have Filipinos dying in the war in parts of Mindanao. The count continues to rise on the number of soldiers and suspected militants killed in offensives against the Abu Sayyaf group in Basilan and Sulu.
The count last Sunday alone was 15 soldiers and 40 militants killed in the latest offensive. These numbers do not include the many more killed, even beheaded, in past encounters. These record-breaking numbers of deaths are not exactly what Aquino meant in his political fight against a person known for his despotic ways.
The recent deaths are related to the fight to protect the Filipino’s way of life against a group known for its banditry. That is a simple way of looking at it, but the conflict in Mindanao is far from simple. It is a web of complications that demand more than a singular approach, military action in this case, to address the tangle of inequity suffered by generations.
The current military offensive is making it more urgent for other approaches, non-violent alternatives to be used in this process of putting an end to the bloodshed.
Government’s latest mantra is for a “humanitarian offensive” as ordered by President Arroyo yesterday. She meant that the Department of Energy and the Department of Education should put up “solar-powered science laboratories” in the hinterlands of Basilan and Sulu “to enable students to continue their studies despite the fighting,” a Malacañang statement said.
A “humanitarian offensive” may be the approach that is needed in Mindanao’s two southernmost provinces, except that “humanitarian” should go beyond science laboratories for students. “Humanitarian” encompasses compassion, saving lives and implementing social reforms.
The fighting in these two provinces is making “heroes” of those who gave up their lives in answer to a military order. Many young lives are being lost and their pictures can be found in the wallets of their fathers, mothers, wives and children.
The legacy of Ninoy Aquino should remind the government that there are other means of attaining change. The saying “the Filipino worth dying for” connotes the virtue of non-violence. It does not call for bloodshed.
