Another uneventful August 21 has passed once again proving that the Ninoy Aquino magic has not only faded, it’s been utterly crushed. The dawn of the death anniversary this year of the late former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr saw the hashtag #NinoyIsNotAHero “trend” on Twitter. Margaret Claire Layug reported via GMA News Online that “[as] of 9 a.m. Friday, the hashtag was third on Philippine trends with more than 13,000 tweets talking about it.”
Layug quotes the “expert” De La Salle University professor Jason Cabañes who had this to say…
“I think it speaks to one shared narrative about the Philippines that has gained some traction in recent years: the failure of EDSA and its resultant oligarchic democracy,” Cabañes told GMA News Online.
“More worrisomely, it speaks to a broader shared narrative about how maybe democracy isn’t working and that maybe we should be like our neighbouring countries. They may be more authoritarian, but they seem to be doing better than us,” he added.
“I think this is something that we should challenge by offering new shared narratives about the value of democracy for our society. But [it] needs to be something that resonates with people. We can’t keep coming back to previous stories that people seem to have rejected,” he continued.
Evidently the Philippine Opposition still don’t get this and continue to latch on to the obsolete narrative and fail to evolve.
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Pathetic turnouts punctuate protest rallies meant to commemorate Aquino’s death anniversary.
(Source: GMA News Online)
How do the Philippines’ Opposition camps expect to return to power legally if they continue to hang on to a political cliché that no longer resonates with the Filipino people? This is the challenge the Opposition need to step up to: to reshape themselves under a winnable brand — a task made doubly difficult by an Old Guard of “thought leaders” who stubbornly continue to believe the Aquino brand is still the old political Midas Touch of yore.
Herein is the current reality the Philippines’ opposition camps need to face. Nobody is “afraid” of Ninoy Aquino. No politician who is serious about running in the next election will touch the narrative with a ten-foot-pole. Indeed, even the bloc within the Opposition rabidly loyal to the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clan — a.k.a. the Yellowtards — no longer even sport the Aquinos’ political colours.
Indeed, the biggest casualty of this baffling devotion to a failed ideology is none other than former Secretary Mar Roxas whose failure to bag the presidency for the Yellowtards back in 2016 contributed to paving the way for the ascent to power of current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
(Source: Rappler)
Something’s gotta give. Actually, it already has. Ninoy Aquino is no longer the winnable symbol of the Philippines’ chi chi political camps. It’s time the Opposition come up with a new narrative that looks to the future and lets go of a history they dishonestly wrote for themselves.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
But Duterte issued a statement today encouraging Filipinos to emulate “Ninoy’s courage and patriotism etc.” He’s been doing that since 2016 remembering Ninoy Aquino day with a warmth message.
Seems like Duterte is always acknowledging Ninoy Aquino’s heroic acts consistently. If he doesn’t like Ninoy, he will tell that straight to the media. I mean, that’s what he’s been doing always if he doesn’t like someone or disagrees into something.
The fact that Duterte commemorates Ninoy’s day every year makes you think he agrees with the history book and the opposition’s narratives.
While I saw in the news before, Duterte boldly declared that martial law of Marcos never helped the Philippine economy to succeed. He also assured Leni Robredo that her vice presidency will not be taken away from her. Seems true since Robredo is still the vice president today.
What’s your take on these issues benign0?
That’s Duterte’s personal right to “agree with the history book and the opposition’s narratives”.
For my part, on the other hand, I’ve held this position about Aquino and the Yellowtard narrative his family and minions turned him into long before the presidency was even just a twinkle in Duterte’s eye.
No matter , how we destroy the Truth…the Truth will come out in due season…Truth will be Truth, and it will never be destroyed. Falsehood, on the other hand…no matter , how you sanitize it; it will never become the Truth…
No way that you become a hero, if in truth, you do not deserve it…the same way you become a saint, if in truth, you did not live as a saint. Time will bring out the truth about your life.
This happens to Ninoy Aquino, and Cory Aquino…as time went by; the “cans of worms” on their private lives, were opened… And, the bad smells came out; as well as the crawling maggots came out…no way , they can sanitize their lives…it is the way they are…monuments; EDSA shrines; Ninoy Aquino Heroes Day; EDSA DAY; naming the international airports; naming other public structure on their name; putting their nasty faces on our currency.
The Aquinos were commie supporters, and commie collaborators…they were puppets of the oligarchs, and were oligarchs themselves; they were , “big time scammers” and “big time fraudsters”…and were political opportunists.
Same as Lugaw Robredo; she is a fake Vice President. She won the VP position, thru COMELEC HOCUS PCOS and SMARTSWITIK…The 2016 election cheating, was done by former COMELEC Chief Andres Bautista, who received a multi million pesos, multiple bank accounts, from the oligarchs. Bautista is now a “tago ng tago” (TNT ) in the U.S.; enjoying his bribes…
No matter, how you Right a Wrong…it will never be Right !
This is why education needs to be more than “shoving down” narratives to people-because words can become meaningless.
I also wonder what a Marcos would say if he was in such a position. Probably the same. Because ideals should be placed above politics.