The war on Ninoy Aquino's legacy is a fight the political opposition should welcome, and win. The first of a three-part opinion series, published in Rappler on August 30, 2022.
It wasn't a surprise, but for many who recognize Ninoy Aquino's heroism, the orchestrated attacks on his legacy on the anniversary of his assassination, subverting the very meaning of his martyrdom, still came as a shock. Maybe it was the brazenness of the deceitful counterclaims, or maybe it was the sheer scale of the networked campaign, or maybe it was the sinking sense that a new nightmare in disinformation and historical denialism had begun—but the blow that shocked many into a defensive crouch was visceral, real.
Can all of that history really be denied? The fact that he was killed by Marcos's soldiers, the fact that millions of people turned out for his funeral, the fact that his sacrifice galvanized the opposition, the fact that his death in 1983 led to the end of the Marcos regime in 1986: Can all of that be deliberately forgotten, or reinterpreted, or hashtagged away?
Marcos and Duterte allies are certainly trying.
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