Aug 21, 2024 - 07:54
By manilatimes.net

'Changing holiday date does not diminish Aquino's patriotism'

CHANGING the commemoration date of the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. from August 21 to August 23 would not diminish the value of his sacrifice and patriotism, said former Manila mayor and Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza.

Atienza said that Filipinos should not forget the significance of August 21, the day Aquino was assassinated in 1983.

Aquino's death and the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971 occurred on the same date.

Former Manila mayor and Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza

«We as Filipinos should not forget August 21, which was a day of infamy. Let us remember the importance of both these events in our history as a nation,» Atienza said in a statement on Tuesday.

The 1971 bombing occurred during a Liberal Party rally at Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila, killing nine people and injuring 95 others, including many prominent politicians.

Atienza said evidence pointed at the New People's Army (NPA) as the perpetrator of the crime.

«As mayor of Manila, we dug at the truth and now have full knowledge that it was the NPA who was responsible for the cowardly attack on the Liberal Party rally, where I was a young candidate for the City Council,» said Atienza, one of the living survivors of the attack.

He urged Filipinos to remember with gratitude the heroism and selflessness of Aquino.

«Those who orchestrated Ninoy's murder may have thought that they had eliminated him from the political scene, not knowing that this would serve to embolden each and every citizen to rise up in a bloodless revolution to regain our freedom,» Atienza said.

«We should always remember it with fondness. It will always live on in our hearts and minds. Let us not forget. As the saying goes, 'those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,'» he added.

Citing holiday economics, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., through Proclamation 665, moved the date of Ninoy Aquino Day to August 23 to give the public a four-day weekend, as National Heroes' Day falls on August 26, Monday.