The Philippines yesterday commemorated the assassination of former senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, whose death 22 years ago galvanized the opposition against his archrival, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Former president Corazon Aquino led a Catholic Mass for her late husband, which was attended by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, top legislators, government officials and political and community personalities.
A foundation named after Ninoy Aquino also gave out recognition awards to non-government organizations that honor the late senator's martyrdom through their work.
PHOTO: EPA
Ninoy Aquino was killed upon arrival in Manila after years of exile in the US on Aug. 21, 1983. He was gunned down as he disembarked from a commercial flight, despite being escorted by dozens of soldiers.
Sixteen soldiers were convicted for the assassination, but the mastermind has never been unmasked. However, many Filipinos believe that Marcos and his men were behind the killing.
Arroyo, who suffered a falling out with former president Aquino amid a political crisis triggered by vote-rigging allegations against her, extolled the late senator as "a martyr for national unity."
"More than to advance the struggle for freedom, Ninoy came home to bring all Filipinos together behind one nation and one destiny," she said in a statement. "He had a vision that galvanized ordinary people to do great things at a time when they lived in fear and want."
Three years after Ninoy Aquino's assassination, millions of Filipinos joined a "people power" revolution that ousted Marcos in February 1986. The dictator and his family fled in exile to Hawaii.
During Sunday's Mass, Arroyo was surrounded by former allies who have withdrawn support for her and asked her to resign due to allegations she connived with an election official to fix the results of the May 2004 presidential vote.
Aside from former president Aquino, the other estranged allies in the crowd were Senate President Franklin Drilon and former social welfare and development secretary Corazon Soliman.
Arroyo, who kissed and shook hands with her former allies, urged Filipinos to emulate Ninoy Aquino and pursue his vision for the Philippines "that cast down dictatorship and plunder, and elevated democracy and social justice to a high pedestal."
"Today, we yearn for the same spiritual and moral upliftment, the same strength and courage he brought home to the land," she said. "We must never forget his profound sacrifice. Let us revere his memory and live by his ideals."
Le Tuan Binh keeps his Moroccan soldier father’s tombstone at his village home north of Hanoi, a treasured reminder of a man whose community in Vietnam has been largely forgotten. Mzid Ben Ali, or “Mohammed” as Binh calls him, was one of tens of thousands of North Africans who served in the French army as it battled to maintain its colonial rule of Indochina. He fought for France against the Viet Minh independence movement in the 1950s, before leaving the military — as either a defector or a captive — and making a life for himself in Vietnam. “It’s very emotional for me,”
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Central Committee is to gather in July for a key meeting known as a plenum, the third since the body of elite decisionmakers was elected in 2022, focusing on reforms amid “challenges” at home and complexities broad. Plenums are important events on China’s political calendar that require the attendance of all of the Central Committee, comprising 205 members and 171 alternate members with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at the helm. The Central Committee typically holds seven plenums between party congresses, which are held once every five years. The current central committee members were elected at the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed his pledge to replace India’s religion-based marriage and inheritance laws with a uniform civil code if he returns to office for a third term, a move that some minority groups have opposed. In an interview with the Times of India listing his agenda, Modi said his government would push for making the code a reality. “It is clear that separate laws for communities are detrimental to the health of society,” he said in the interview published yesterday. “We cannot be a nation where one community is progressing with the support of the Constitution while the other
CODIFYING DISCRIMINATION: Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in prison, while same-sex relations could land a person in jail for more than a decade Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers. A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the