Does the Filipino youth still know who Ninoy Aquino is? Or is he just a face that they see on the P500 peso bill? With all the problems that we face these days as well as the great digital divide between generations, it’s not hard to imagine young men and women more consumed by the drive to survive and going through the daily grind than to actually give a damn about the country. Let’s face it… I myself am only 26 years old and I come from a political family yet I’m not fully aware of what Ninoy was all about. All I know is that he “died” for the country. What more for the younger generations?

While writing this post, I made it a point to do more research on Ninoy. In my journey of getting to know him more, I stumbled upon this uploaded video on Youtube which really made an impact. It’s his last interview before he boarded the plane to Manila and eventually got shot when his feet finally touched the Philippines once again.

This is such a powerful interview. You can really feel the passion and love he had for the country and for the Filipino people. I remember watching this when I was still in Grade School but I really didn’t appreciate it back then. But now I fully understand what Ninoy was about.

He is something that we actually need now more than ever. Ninoy’s memory offers a solution to all the conflict happening in Mindanao, the blatant corruption in government, the constant killing of journalists, and the declining economy. It begins with all of us – by personally acknowledging that we are Filipinos and that this is indeed a country that we can be proud of. Bottom line is this: we need to teach the youth to give a damn about this country and not to teach them that the future to a good life is outside the Philippines.

In this day and age, we don’t need one hero to lead our nation into greatness. We all have to find that Ninoy in our own hearts and and we need to start believing. Ninoy Aquino believed that the Filipino was worth dying for. Do we feel the same way?

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• Contributing Writer for Filipino Voices

Tags: Filipino Voices, Ninoy Aquino

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Archive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.