Ninoy Aquino and his non-violent principles

Commentary

By Jaime Salvador Corpuz

(Most of the ideas reflected on this article came from former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino’s selected speeches)

Non-violent action is an application of a very simple truth, people do not always do what they are told to do, and sometimes they do that which has been forbidden. Non-violent action may involve the acts of omission and acts of commission. Acts of omission per se is that, people may refuse to perform acts which they usually perform, are expected by custom to perform, or required by law to perform. Acts of commission is that, people may perform acts which they do not usually perform, are not expected by custom to perform, or are forbidden to perform.

Non-violence is not the only force that can collect the power of the people and bring it near the overwhelmingly to an object. Religious fanaticism, class hatred, and military patriotism can serve as well. But only non-violence can achieve a moral purpose without compromising peace which is its very purpose. Ninoy had spent seven years and seven months in prison. Each day an eternity to a man of his restless energy. It was there in his lonely suffering that he found himself. And it was partly what he read about Gandhi, Martin Luther King and others that helped him more, it was a personal revelation that came to him as a result of struggle and prayer. Ninoy returned from exile for the reason that he wanted to present to the Filipino people the non-violent formula which caused our victory. From Ninoy's undelivered arrival statement, he said: “I return from exile, and to an uncertain future, with only determination and faith to offer, faith in our people and faith in God”.

When Coretta King, widow of American martyr hero Martin Luther King, visited the country sometime in 1986, she joined then President Corazon Aquino to share to the Filipino people and with the rest of the world their visions about the true and faithful heroism of these two great prominent leaders. Coretta King said: “Both of these men shared a passionate commitment to the philosophy and strategy of non-violence. And both men knew they would pay the highest price for their commitment to freedom. They proved that the forces of repression and brutality can slay the dreamer but not the dream”, similar to Ninoy's favorite song “Impossible Dream”.

Ninoy was the chief challenger to Mr. Marcos’ ambition. He seemed the logical choice for next president. He became, at any rate, Mr. Marcos’ logical choice to be the first in jail. For it was during those seven years in a military stockade in Fort Bonifacio, most of them spent in a solitary confinement, that Ninoy grew to his full measure as a man. It was that empty, windowless cell, that Ninoy saw the things that had eluded him, the vanity of ambition, the true meaning of freedom, the limitless endurance of the human spirit, and the real purpose for his life. By shutting one door on Ninoy, Mr. Marcos opened the other one to his destiny.

From the teachings of the Bible, which he fondly read and reread, Ninoy formed a new strategy for political change. It was a strategy of mercy, peace and gentleness, of the Christian virtues of forgiveness and self-sacrifice. The pragmatic politician in Ninoy remained to work out the means, but it was his Christian conscience that shaped those means for their noble and gentle purpose: The return of freedom through reconciliation. Ninoy’s martyrdom is an assurance of the abundance and prosperity that might someday be restored to our land.

Ninoy emphasized his struggle for justice through nonviolent means. Ninoy in his life and death so well exemplified this kind of struggle, and its continuation from his assassination on through the events of February, and up to now has show extraordinarily close to the spirit of the struggle. Ninoy wrote about his non-violent crusade to restore democracy to the nation and Ninoy was completely dedicated to the use of peaceful means to bring about justice and had renounced even the possibility of a resort to arms in his drive for national change.

Ninoy’s religiosity was evidently the principal reason for the phenomenon which is all too patent to ignore. Ninoy praying the rosary moments before his plane landed at the Manila International Airport, the funeral mass at Santo Domingo and the day long procession to the grave. The subsequent commemorative masses on his death anniversary, the religious celebrations following Cory’s election victory, the spiritual quality of the four-day vigil at EDSA in February. All these show conclusively the great part religion played in the unfolding of Ninoy’s phenomenon. The one big reason for the happy outcome of the long struggle for justice for his exemplary character in non-violent actions.

Ninoy was considered as the most encyclopedic political mind the Philippines has ever known. Ninoy refined his philosophy of non-violence that of Christ being present in other men. Among others, he read Gene Starke, Dietrich von Hoffer, Reinhold Neibuhr, Thoreau, Tolstoy, M.K. Gandhi, Martin Luther King. All of them, exalted proponents of non-violence. Like Ninoy, a number of them had been in prison where they were divested of all earthly pleasures and passions. Non-violence was to consume Ninoy even more passionately. According to Gandhi: “The willing sacrifice of the innocent is the most powerful answer to insolent tyranny that has yet been conceived by God and man”.

Ninoy is the wonder boy of Philippine politics, the young man in a hurry, aching to become the country’s youngest president. It was a Ninoy who, despite the charisma, the record-breaking feats, the consummate skill as campaign strategist and tactician, remains essentially a conventional politician. Ninoy’s greatest asset as a politician was his flexibility and open-mindedness. He was willing to listen to all shades of opinion, to take them into account in the formulation of his own thoughts and programs of action. And despite his ultimate decision to take the Gandhian road, he apparently remained open to all options, as evidenced by his favorite quotation from the poet Archibald Macleish: “How freedom shall be defended? By arms when it is attacked by arms, by truth when it is attacked by lies, by democratic faith when it is attacked by authoritarian dogma. Always, and in the final act, by determination and faith”.

Even Ninoy’s choice of a pseudonym to travel by Marcial Bonifacio, it seems to reflect this sort of flexibility and openness to various options. Yet the official explanation is that the first name stands for martial law and the second name for the military camp in which he was imprisoned. It should not be forgotten that Martial was derived from Mars, the god of war, and also means “brave and warlike”, while Bonifacio was the Filipino hero who chose the road of armed struggle against Spain. Flexibility on the otherhand, is a quality that may be used either for good or for ill, and it is useless to speculate on whether Ninoy, the conventional politician might have ended up as nothing more than a Magsaysay, with only his charisma to distinguish him or as a result of his martial law experience he would have developed into a political free-thinker like Claro M. Recto or even a reluctant revolutionist like Prince Norodom Sihanouk. The finality of an assassin’s bullet has stopped all further developments and let to Ninoy’s current apotheosis as a national hero, martyr, and modern day hero.

According to Senator Edward Kennedy, he called Ninoy as the “greatest Philippine patriot of his generation”. Ninoy was killed in the cause of freedom because he cared to stand in the best tradition of Philippine democracy. He went back because he was a man of courage, man of passion and compassion, who rejected an unworthy deal which offered him safety and even in comfort at the price of the Filipino people.

May we have truly learned from this tragedy. May we have received in our hearts that this man who has suffered and offered so much for his people did indeed not die in vain for we, in our own non-violent ways will seek to find peace, justice and freedom as what this man had sought to bring.

Ninoy Aquino has taught us at least two lessons we should always remember: (1) Our lives are meaningless unless we consecrate ourselves to a cause bigger than life itself. And what cause can be nobler and higher than freedom and the fullness of life of God’s own people? (2) Freedom will not come to us by special delivery. Freedom comes from within us and from the efforts and resources of our own people. We do not and can not deserve freedom unless we are prepared and willing to work for it, fight for it, and if necessary, die for it.

Ninoy gave his life to save the Filipino people from such tragedy. The Filipino people must achieve the restoration of democratic institutions and the full enjoyment of civil liberties without interference from any foreign powers.

Ninoy was fond of quoting Mahatma Gandhi and Peru’s President Garcia who advised their fellow Asians to “…..reduce your wants and supply your needs. Your needs make you vulnerable enough, without the added weight of unneeded wants”.

Ninoy’s dream is something that cannot be reversed, we must give importance to it, meaning to it, so that the sacrifice will not go to waste.